Saturday, January 31, 2015

Tricked by the Telemarketer

I heard the tell-tale click.  It was a telemarketing call.  

“Hello, this is Amanda and I’m calling to talk to you about the interest rate on your credit card.”


Oh, no.  A robo-call.  The worst kind of telemarketing call.  Being a marketing genius I am quite familiar with voice-activated auto-dialer technology.  I decided to play along.


“Hi Amanda.  Are you a robot?”

 
Amanda chuckled and said, “I’m a real person.”

 
I guess I was wrong.  I said, “Wow.  You sound like Siri.”  

 
Amanda said, “I’m calling to talk to you about the interest rate on your credit card.”


OMG.  She WAS a robot!  That is some script. She had me totally fooled.

“Amanda, you are a robot.”

 
Amanda said, “I don’t know why you think I’m a robot.  I’m a real person.”

 
OK, I guess maybe she was real. “Your voice sounds like a robot," I explained.


“I’m calling to talk to you about the interest rate on your credit card.”

 
I was getting so confused.  Really only one way to tell.  A trick question.


“Amanda, do you like to plant tomatoes?”

 
Let’s see if that stinkin’ voice activated auto-dialer anticipated THAT question!


“What are you talking about?  Do you want to talk to me about your credit card or not?”

 
She was real.  


I think.  


“No.  I have to go tend to my tomatoes.”  And I hung up.  Flustered.



Because I really didn't know for sure.  

But you know what?  She never really answered my question. If she was real, she would have said something like "I'm allergic to tomatoes" or "I really suck at farming."  


But instead she said, "What are you talking about.  Do you want to talk to me about your credit card or not?”
 
That response could have answered any number of trick questions.


I have been out-smarted by a robot.


I think.


Either that or I tricked her.

No comments:

Post a Comment