Same to You!!

I had forgotten how lovely it is to answer a business phone and have to wade through the boiler room scammers. I got a particuarly fun one this morning. A woman called and wanted to make sure she was sending me "the right copier catalog." I informed her that we owned our copier to which she replied, "Good for you!" in an uber sarcastic voice and then promptly hung up on me. Ha! My momma didn't raise no fool.

I was almost wishing for a more complicated call, the one where they ask for the owner. My dad has started a tradition, albeit messed up and amusing one, for getting rid of telemarketer scammers. Since my dad is listed as the owner of his company he gets a lot of people that call and want to talk to him. Once he gets on the phone and they start to spool out their crap, my dad informs them that he isn't really in charge, he is just a salesman. (Technically that is partially true as both my parents are equal partners and he does in fact do sales) When the telemarketer inquires about who makes the business decisions, he mentions that who they really want to talk to is Rastas Cloverleaf. When they ask when a good time to reach Rastas is, he states that Rastas only comes in occasionally for his mail. The person is therefore welcome to mail him something. Then comes the inevitable piece of mail addressed to Mr. Rastas Cloverleaf.

Since the charade has being going on for many a year, either my dad got bored or people were starting to not believe him so the story has been added upon. Rastas now has a brother named Rufus and they run the business together. A few years ago when I was answering phones and had a phone call like this I mentioned that Rastas was out of the country. The caller then inquired to where he had gone. I just couldn't help myself and proceeded to tell this guy that Rastas had gone back to Dubai to bring another one of his wives back to the states. He was of course astonished and asked me how many wives the guy had to which I replied that I wasn't really sure, but there were at least two that were already living here. That was the most fun I have ever had with a telemarketer. I feel slightly bad because I know they are just doing their job, but I thought it was pretty funny.

The fact that the woman this morning hung up on me does not offend me. In fact it kind of made my morning.