An Offer I Could Easily Refuse
So, here it is election night and I was taking a break from the election coverage and early speculation about who was going to win which state by tuning into AMC which is showing "The Godfather", which I consider one of the best movies ever made. Then the phone rang and it was definitely an offer worthy of refusal.
The caller had a very pleasant, perky voice and she was calling to let me know that I was going to be entered into a sweepstakes because I just happen to carry a Visa card. My internal scam alarm went from stand-by to red-alert immediately, but I continued to listen. Then she asked me some survey questions about my interests and hobbies.
When the survey was complete, she told me that I was going to be the lucky recipient of three free magazines "Computer Gaming World", "Playboy" and "Premiere" and all I had to do to get these free monthly magazines for the next 60 months was to pay for the subscription to U.S. News and World Report I was going to also receive as part of the package, and all for the low, low price of only $3.84 a week.
That seemed odd, so I went quickly to the website of U.S. News and World Report to check their subscription rates and found that for $20.00 you can get 53 issues (4 free and 49 paid). Assuming that you can renew for $20 per year over the four years that follow, you can get five years of U.S. News and World Report from their website for $100.00 instead of paying $199.68 a year for five years, or almost ten times the actual cost.
I was almost incredulous that someone had the nerve to make this kind of offer to me and try to make it sound as though this was a great offer that I shouldn't turn down, but not wanting to sound impolite, I said "Thanks, but I think I'll pass." Ms Perky replied "Well, what part of the offer are you uncomfortable with? Tell me and maybe I can help you work through the problem."
When I told her that my problem with the offer was that I refused to pay almost ten times the actual cost of something, just because someone with a cute voice happened to dial my phone number, she thanked me for my time, wished me well in the upcoming sweepstakes and then said "good night".
It was indeed a good night. Good, because I said, "No thanks".
The caller had a very pleasant, perky voice and she was calling to let me know that I was going to be entered into a sweepstakes because I just happen to carry a Visa card. My internal scam alarm went from stand-by to red-alert immediately, but I continued to listen. Then she asked me some survey questions about my interests and hobbies.
When the survey was complete, she told me that I was going to be the lucky recipient of three free magazines "Computer Gaming World", "Playboy" and "Premiere" and all I had to do to get these free monthly magazines for the next 60 months was to pay for the subscription to U.S. News and World Report I was going to also receive as part of the package, and all for the low, low price of only $3.84 a week.
That seemed odd, so I went quickly to the website of U.S. News and World Report to check their subscription rates and found that for $20.00 you can get 53 issues (4 free and 49 paid). Assuming that you can renew for $20 per year over the four years that follow, you can get five years of U.S. News and World Report from their website for $100.00 instead of paying $199.68 a year for five years, or almost ten times the actual cost.
I was almost incredulous that someone had the nerve to make this kind of offer to me and try to make it sound as though this was a great offer that I shouldn't turn down, but not wanting to sound impolite, I said "Thanks, but I think I'll pass." Ms Perky replied "Well, what part of the offer are you uncomfortable with? Tell me and maybe I can help you work through the problem."
When I told her that my problem with the offer was that I refused to pay almost ten times the actual cost of something, just because someone with a cute voice happened to dial my phone number, she thanked me for my time, wished me well in the upcoming sweepstakes and then said "good night".
It was indeed a good night. Good, because I said, "No thanks".
posted by me at 8:50 PM
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