Telemarketing – Charter Communication’s New Hook
I was minding my own business this morning, when I get the call. Using my normal trick, a very quiet, sharp ‘hello’ to detect predictive dialers from numbers I don’t recognize, I was expecting the normal lightning fast sales pitch. Instead …
REP: Good morning sir, is this Don Thorp?
ME: Yes. How may I help you. (Sometimes I do try to be polite)
REP: This is Charter Communications and we think we may have misconfigured your cable service. Please tune to channel 50 and let me know if you have clear reception.
Thinking to myself, “ok ‘maybe’ they’re being proactive”, I hunt for the remote (I’m in my office, if you could see my office, you would understand this is not undertaken lightly) and tune to channel 50.
ME: It’s static.
REP: Good, that tells me that you have our limited basic service. I can upgrade you today to our expanded basic cable for only $15.00 a month. Would …
ME: Ma’am, I don’t …
REP: You would get The Discover Channel, …
ME: Ma’am, I have DirectTV for that, I only want …
REP: Sir… (stopped listening)
ME: Have a nice day ma’am, thank you (click)
I have to hand it to them. By pretending that they’ve messed up my service, she was able to get me involved in the sales process. Sleezy, but effective in getting my attention.
