Ok, so I graduated from college 3 years ago. I did give them my updated address and phone number when I moved out on my own into the Real World, so that part of it is my fault. I started getting 1-2 phone calls a month from them, annoying the hell out of me since I really don’t plan on contributing any money to their fund any time soon (I had a few issues with certain power-tripping administrators during my senior year). Eventually, I got a new cell phone and dropped the landline altogether since it was essentially a wasted expense.
I had hoped that, among other things, dropping the landline and not giving the college my new number would end the incessant calls. And it did for almost 2.5 years. Until tonight.
“Hi, this is blah, calling from College X, would you like to give us money?”
No. Go away. Leave me alone.
Does the new Do-not-call list work on these people?
I don’t know the answer to your question, but I can sympathize. In the nine years since I graduated, I have moved eight times, and my alma mater still manages to get their mailings to me somehow. I’m thinking of notifying them of my death.
I hear ya, jweb. Since graduating I have legally changed both my first and last names (when I got married I went from First-Middle-Maiden to Middle-Maiden-Husband’s Name), but they still track me down. Last week I got a call from a woman–who was very obviously a work-study student–asking me to contribute $150 to my alma mater. When I told her I was financially strapped, she chirpily asked, “How about $100, then?”
You’d think these people would know it’s useless to call former history majors. Management, yes. Computer science, yes. Pre-med, yes. But history? That’s almost as bad as expecting classics grads to have money. Perhaps they’ve never heard the phrase “blood from a stone.”
There is only one thing worse than selling your soul to the Devil: becoming a college alumnus/alumna. I pitied all of those future alumnae as they toured the campus during their senior year in high school.
A friend of mine did just this. The alumni mag published his untimely “demise” and shortly thereafter, the “widow” got a tearful call from another classmate.
Other classmate: “I’m so sorry to hear about [dead classmate]”
“Widow”: “Huh? What? Do you want to talk to him?”
I managed to evade them by getting married, so they never had my new name, and my folks moved just before I graduated, so they couldn’t track me through their old address. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of posting on Classmates, and they tracked me down again. Fortunately, I have caller ID and I just ignore any calls from that area code.
In a few months, we’ll be out of this house and living on our boat. PO Box and cell phone should make us pretty much unreachable. Yay.
I was hounded for a number of years by a Mennonite college I attended for a summer session and fall semester as a transient student. Constantly hitting me up for money, and sending my name to congregations in my area so I could join and be back in the fold. The facts that I’m a life-long Lutheran and as far from a pacifist as you can get without starting random street brawls were irrelevant. I was an alum, and I needed to contribute my fair share. I ended up sending the Alumni Relations Office the following (paraphrased, it was several years ago, and I can’t find it on my systems) letter:
*Dear Madam or Sir:
Thank you for your latest solicitation, but you might as well stop wasting your postage on me, because I am neither an alum, nor will I contribute to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
I attended summer and fall of 1981, for a total of 12 hours taken, as a transient student. I left voluntarily to attend another institution before you guys kicked me out for skipping chapel. I contribute to that school today.
I also distinguished myself by challenging the socialist utopia that you try to brain wash into your students.
Also, I am not a Mennonite, nor will I ever be. I work for the Defense Department, am a student of the martial arts, and I enjoy firearms. Under no circumstances could I ever be considered a pacifist.
Please stop sending me solicitations, and stop sending my name to the closest congregation to my address. You’re wasting time and money.
VunderBob*
They sent a note back saying that they would purge my name immediately, and the college solicitations stopped almost as fast. It took Shalom Mennonite Church in Indianapolis another 6 months to get a clue, however.
The lesson is that if you send a letter to the alumni relations office, they should honor your wishes to not be contacted.
Thank you, I’m here all week. Don’t forgot to tip your waitress!
Okay, on the OP - I must have the most inept alumni association in existence. They suckered me out of 50.00 for a alumni directory. I figured it’d be great to look up former classmates and for use as a networking tool. Yea… there were perhaps 20 members of my class and apparently they all were people who paid the 50.00 to buy the directory. Not one of my classmates listed had not purchased the directory.
Isn’t there some kind of law against unsolicited calls to cell phones (since, unlike with a land line, you’re paying for the call)? If so, then if they try this on you again, tell 'em they’ll be hearing from your lawyer, and any donations they might have thought to get from you will end up going towards legal fees!
Dunno about your cell phone provider, but a lot of them do charge for incoming calls, at least in that they’re counted towards your prepaid usage minutes. (I have a 500-minute-per-month plan, for example, and both incoming and outgoing calls are counted towards that figure; after that, any calls - again, incoming or outgoing - are charged at a per-minute rate.)
But anyway, it looks like theR has disposed of my theory.
AngelicGemma, I think that this is peculiar to America (at least the United States), and particularly annoying. It’s also commonplace here to pre-purchase a set amount of minutes per month, and then have some free times. I like the way the rest of the world does cellphone charges much better.
I’m not overly concerned about paying for the call. In all the time I’ve had my cell phone, I’ve only gone over my alloted amount of minutes once (by 4 minutes, not a huge deal. Cost me about $1 extra).
I didn’t want to get overly rude to the caller, for two reasons. 1) I know she’s just a poor student making minimum wage at a work-study job, and 2) The Girlfriend™ works in the alumni office, she makes these kinds of calls herself. (for the record, I talked to her last night, and she said she hadn’t given them my phone number, and didn’t realize I was on the evening’s call list). Luckily, she graduates this spring, and then I’ll be free to get upset at the calls.
[hijack] Does Osama Bin Laden have a college degree? If he does, I’m sure his college’s alumni office could find him in about a week. [/hijack]
