Wailing And Failing The Mailing List
Let me quickly peel back a part of the customer service veil: If you have ever called a doctor’s office, a law office, mechanic, or any other type of office or small shop and had a person on the other end of the line cheerfully explain “our office is closed today, may I take a message for you?” Chances are, you spoke with someone working for an answering service. A company whose purpose is to supply personnel to… answer phones on behalf of a company that is not at their phones.
I worked at such a company.
Many of our customers are land investors. People who wish to buy property from people, then develop, flip, rent, or hold the real estate to make a profit. Many of them send out letters to people asking to buy property.
As such, I receive many calls from people who have gotten these letters but have no intention of selling. The conversation sometimes goes something like this:
Me: “Thank you for calling [Land Investor Company]! How can I help you today?”
Caller: “Take me off your mailing list.”
Me: “I can certainly do that. May I have your name, please?”
Caller: “You already have it, it’s on this letter from you.”
Me: “Alright, so what is the mailing address you would like removed from our database?”
Caller: “You have that too! How else would I have your letter!?”
Me: “I’m sure we have it somewhere, but I don’t know who you are, so unless I have something to search, our team can’t find you in the system.”
Caller: “You already did once! You sent a letter to my home with my name on it! Don’t send me any more!”
Me: “All I see is a phone number on caller ID.”
Caller: “So you have my information!”
Me: “Sir? You called me. You have my number; you called it. So what’s my name?”
Caller: “Why does that matter? Take me off the list!”
Me: “Just proving that you don’t know who I am or where I am with a phone number.”
Caller: “Sure, I do! You’re…” *Reads letter.* “[Company Owner] in… Texas!”
Me: “That’s my boss.”
Caller: “This is asinine! Just don’t send me any more letters!”
Me: “And if I can get any information about who you are, I can make that happen.”
Caller: “But you know who I am! I have a letter from you with my name on it!”
Me: “You have one of hundreds of letters that have been sent out recently, to houses. Houses that rarely have land lines associated with them anymore, and so the only thing I know about you for sure is the area code that you got this phone number activated. No name or address on caller ID, only your phone number.”
Caller: “You have my phone number?”
Me: “I do have a caller ID, yes.”
Caller: “YOU BETTER NOT START CALLING ME NOW!” *CLUNK!*
I wish this were a rare event, but sadly, I run this rigamarole at least once a week.
