We received a cold call from Capital One yesterday. These are the people who have been playing on people’s fears of identity theft, when in fact, they know as well as I do that credit card fraud and identity theft are two different things. Still, don’t let a little matter like the truth get in the way of a sales pitch, eh? That alone guarantees that they will never be getting any of my business.
Now, apart from this cold call being in breach of the law – we are registered with the telephone preference service and therefore have expressed a specific decision not to receive such calls and this company is not one we have done business with in the past – there is a much more disturbing aspect to the call.
The sales advisor wanted to sell me a mortgage. Now, given that since my redundancy, I cannot – on paper at least – afford my current commitments, a new mortgage is out of the question. I told this chap that I cannot consider this as I would be unable to service the loan. Undeterred, he offered to get advisors to contact me who could help. Unless they could give me free money, this was highly unlikely. Again, I pointed out that I have no money. He tried again. I tried a different tack. I lied. I told him that I was not working. Was my wife working? he asked. Oh, yes, but it meant our joint income was particularly low. Never mind, he assured me, he had advisors who could help…
What part of “I don’t have any money” was it that he did not understand? And we wonder why debt is a problem in this country.
I sympathise with you, of course the guy on the other end of the phone will try all he can simply because he is on a commission, as well as his calls being recorded. If he is not seen to be trying his utmost to make the sale he is seen as not doing his job properly.
Whereas miss selling is doing the job properly… 😐