Oh Crap. Did I just get slammed?

Factual Questions
1

Someone just called our office asking for the office manager (that’s me), and said he was confirming my business name and address for the yellow pages. He then said that ‘the cost would be the same as before’ and ‘he would now be my account rep’ and ‘his quality assurance department’ would call me back to confirm in half an hour.

What just happened to me? I don’t remember having a yellow pages rep before.

jarbaby

2

Yes m,dear, you done got slammed.

Whose Yellow Pages? I get this all the time. They’re always “confirming” their information (which, I think, probably came from your real listing).

3

Any time anyone asks you about business (or other) listings, ALWAYS ask if it is free. You wouldn’t think there were so many whack Yellow Pages out there…

4

Pardon my ig butt what’s “getting slammed”?

Did he just sign you up for a service you didn’t request, a service you didn’t initiate?

5

The “quality assurance dept” just called me back and asked where to send the $400 invoice to.

I told them where they could PUT it.

jarbaby

6

Good girl, Jess…no wonder I love ya.

7

I was in charge of the copy machine where I used to work, and I got calls all the time about delivering the 5 cases of toner that I “ordered.” The caller hangup usually came after I asked for the for the company’s name or a p.o. number.

8

Yes. Happens a lot with phone companies (long-distance carriers especially. There were cases where unscrupulous companies would register “I don’t care” and other generally non-committal phrases as a long-distance company name, so when the operator asked which long-distance company to connect you to, your answer of “I don’t care” got you some out-of-state company with exhorbitant rates. (In several states, this was challenged by the Attorney General, but the verdict was overturned on appeal by the company - so they could continue using “I don’t care”.

As Knighted Vorpal Sword said, happens a lot with copier and other office equipment. We’ve had to caution all volunteers about giving out information when someone says “Hi, I’m from your copier company. We’ve had a computer crash and I need to recreate our records. I need your copier serial number again.” (Never actually NAMING the company we’ve done business with for years.)

Our accountant nearly paid $495.00 for a Haz-Mat manual. In the beginning of the conversation, the caller said it was “available for four ninety-five”. Continuing, just before giving out the company credit card number, the accountant asked "and just to reitierate, I’m being charged “four dollars and ninety-five cents?” “Your card will be charged four ninety-fiveandzerocents, including shipping.” She damned near had a conniption, told them where to go, and hung up.

Oh, more clues -

  1. they will not wait while you put them on hold (come back to them and they’ve hung up);
  2. they hang up in your ear if you challange them;
  3. they have no number for you to call them back (“I’m sorry, Ms. Owl, I can only call out on this line”), but they’ll be happoy to call you back ‘at a more convenient time’; and
  4. if you try to *69 (to get the last number that called you), “that number is not available”.

Tricky people, these slammers. They prey on that one moment you are not paying attention.