Stupid Phone

Why I hate telemarketers...

It's because I'm too polite and I've done too many crappy jobs. I just got off the phone with someone 'from' MBNA Canada, which is where I got one of my Mastercards. They were trying to sell me some insurance or something. It wasn't even a bad product, but just how things are at the moment, I can't afford the extra payment, so I'm not going to go with it. I listened to the lady give her pitch, and the second she paused for a response from me I said that I wasn't interested and hung up without waiting for a reply. And then I felt bad for hanging up on her. And that happens every time I do that. If I'm not interested I politely say "Thanks, but I'm not interested at the moment," and then hang up. I don't want to hang up on them or be rude because they are just doing their job. I've known people who do that type of job, and it's never anything personal; they're not trying to invade your privacy or harass you, they're just trying to make a buck, like everyone else.
The problem is, they aren't allowed to take no as an answer, at least not at first. So that means if you say no, they act surprised (and it "doesn't" sound scripted "at all") and press on, trying to convince you that you are wrong. I hate that. When I say no, I mean no. At that point I start to feel badgered. I had one guy who kept pushing it at me after I had said no at least four times. I think that's when I started hanging up on them. I just got fed up. I don't want to have things pushed on me like that.
That being said, I don't want to hang up on them either. I wish they would accept the first no, say 'thank you for listening and have a nice evening' and then hang up. That would be fine. Then they could do their job and I wouldn't feel so bad about cutting them off.
Interesting note: My mom has had a worse telemarketer experience than me. She said no and hung up, much like I did, and the guy called her back! "I'm sorry," he said, "I think we got cut off. Now let me tell about the other great features..." Mom told him that they hadn't been disconnected accidentally because she had hung up on him, and then she hung up again. That story amuses me.
Interesting (to me) note 2: The lady who called me today was of Middle Eastern/East Indian descent judging from her accent and she stumbled over my name (which has nothing to do with her ethnicity - pretty much everyone stumbles on my last name first try)(and it ain't even that hard, at least I don't think so), and later she called me 'Mr. Daniel'. That's interesting for a couple reasons. First, my name is Darrell, which is obviously what she was going for. Secondly, that's my first name. I'm wondering if her ethnic/cultural background was coming in to play there. I know that in some cultures the family name comes first, before the given name. I don't know if that had anything to do with anything, or if she just made a mistake, but I found it interesting.