call centers

ok, this may be just me.. but i hate calling up call centers to rectify a problem! it's really wacky, cos i don't mind seeing someone face to face and sorting something out, but for some strange, unknown reason the phone gets me! so despite years of stage performances, drama and theater, hosting shows, singing in bands, public speaking, elocution and debates.. whenever i have to talk to a representative on the phone i become a bit of a weirdo.. i start stammering, talk too fast, become incoherent, lose track of what i was saying, and other similar ills, and if the representative is a smooth talker.. then i'm in real trouble cos he/she could sell me a car without me raising even a slight whimper!!

quite a few of my friends actually work at call centers, and i remember having asked them if they get taught any tricks of the trade during training on how to bait and tongue-twist people like me.. and they answered with a very enigmatic "we are not at liberty to divulge that kind of information".. like its some goddamned secret agent thing.. aargh!!

so whenever i have a problem with my credit cards, bank accounts, cellphone service provider, cable company, magazine subscriptions, umm.. who else.. well, anyways, i will go to great lengths to avoid talking on the phone.. i will email them, post them, wait for them to rectify it themselves.. anything.. but God no, please don't let those representatives loose on me!! some of the more pesky ones must have been telemarketeers in their previous lives!!

thank God for cellphones.. at least i don't get telemarketeers calling me on that.. in my three previous experiences with these folks, all on my office phone.. i remember having ended all three conversations with a panicked "NO.. NO.. thanks, i DON'T need this, or that, or whatever.. AARGH.." then i slammed the phone down. they probably marked me off in their Telemarketeers' Database as a serious loony!!