Dear Amy: I am writing in response to people who are wondering why telephone sales pitches are so aggressive.
I contract for a company that mandates that its agents read all offers to customers when they call and place an order over the telephone for a product on TV.
They listen to each and every recorded call and consistently write up and release agents who do not completely read the required additional offers at the end of a sale for the desired product. They will terminate your contract if you do not forcibly read to the customer regardless of their requests to stop.
The company will only allow you to stop if the customer states, “I will cancel.”
Please keep in mind that the agents are only trying to hang onto their jobs. They will get in enormous trouble for telling the customer that they must “upsell” and read the offers.
– Tired Agent
Dear Tired: If you’re tired, I’m sure you can imagine how customers feel, suspecting that they need to say a magic word to get the sales agent to stop “upselling” and that otherwise said agent will be “terminated.” This is no way to run a railroad. Everybody hates it. Customers shouldn’t have to threaten to “cancel” an order of something they’d like to purchase so that they can legitimately refuse something they didn’t even want in the first place.
Thank you for supplying the magic word, however. I’m sure I’ll be using it sometime in the near future.
…
Dear Amy: The letter from “Picasso’s Mom” struck a chord. My younger son decided to wear shorts to school every day his freshman year in high school. There were days it was well below zero, but I never told him what to do.
Similarly, he had “soft core” pinups in his room all through high school. And I don’t think the floor was visible the entire four years for the dirty clothes on it.
I believe that “the shorter the leash, the harder the dog pulls.” Giving maturing adolescents the maximum leeway to make decisions (even ones you don’t agree with) reduces the likelihood of major teenage rebellion against authority on things that really matter.
He’s now a sophomore at Yale. He wears long pants in cold weather and has moved onto real women from pictures. – Alan From Wilmette
Dear Alan: Well, it just goes to show you – here I was, advocating for kids to have all sorts of autonomy when it comes to their room décor, and you went and threw “soft core” into the mix.
I wish you had thought to draw the line at objectifying women, or at least talked to your son about it. I can only assume that one of the “real women” he has moved on to will set him straight.
Send questions via e-mail to askamy@tribune.com or by mail to Ask Amy, Chicago Tribune, TT500, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611.
