THE IRRITATION FACTOR

When our telephone rings and the call is from a family member or friend or neighbor, we’re delighted, no matter what we’re doing.  However, solicitation calls of any kind, from any source, really aggravate.  Particularly because those types of calls always seem to come at the worst possible time.

For instance, since Texas in the summertime is just about always too hot and too humid, after working outside in the garden or even inside upon occasion, what we want as a rule is a shower, something cold to drink, and as soon as possible, a nap.  So, suppose it’s one of those nap occasions, and we’ve just stretched out on a sofa in a cool dark room, or in a recliner.  Or we’re in the middle of a meal or a good book or a movie or it is 9:00pm at night.   And then the phone rings.  And it’s someone who wants us to give to a charity, or contribute to a political cause or have our roof looked at, or they want to put a new security system in, absolutely free!  The list goes on and on and so do the calls.

We are on the national do-not-call list, have been for years, ditto the state do-not-call list.  We have a personal policy of never, ever, ever doing business with or responding to telephone solicitations, not even if it is our favorite charity or our favorite political party.  There is seldom any way to find out who is actually on the other end of the line, plus it would be downright foolish to give out credit card information simply because of a phoned request, when there are infinite other ways to make charitable gifts or other kinds of contributions by going to the official website or even writing a check.

The main thing for us is that a soliciting phone call is obtrusive and almost always inconvenient, and we will not under any circumstances reward such an intrusion.  And whether it is a call by an actual individual or a ‘robo-call’ that gives a spiel and pretends to give an option to decline future calls (such options never seem to work), what the sources of these calls do not seem to comprehend is that not only do we not do business via phone solicitations, but our hearts become more and more turned against the announced purpose of the caller.  In other words they irritate us, something fierce.