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The joys of being a silent partner?
We are still receiving tips for getting rid of salespeople. In a few weeks we will immortalise the best in one of our newsletters.
Robin Hall has a tip for female readers: “A friend discovered a useful technique when she answered the telephone one evening at the house of the man who is now her husband.
“On being informed that Mr Perkins was out, she was asked if she might be Mrs Perkins. The caller hung up immediately when she replied: ‘Goodness me no, I’m just his bit on the side’.”
Both Robin and her friend report that this is 100 per cent successful: “Clearly mistresses are considered to have no influence over the purchase of double-glazing, insurance or magazine subscriptions.”
Anita Curtis has another tip for avoiding unwanted sales calls. “When the salespeople ask for my elderly father by name, he puts on his most feeble old-person voice and says: ‘I’ll just go and get him for you.’
“He puts the receiver down and leaves it for about five minutes, by which time they have usually thought ‘the silly old fool’s forgotten’, and hung up,” she says, emphasising that she obviously has unconventional parents because her mother also used to keep a whistle by the phone. Do not try that one.
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