What kind of idiot are you?
Last year my new year’s resolution was to be nicer to telemarketers. I know, it sounds strange but trust me I can be a real monster when you invade my privacy by calling me to take your dumb surveys and give thirteen cents to the Pigeon Survival Cause.
I digress. . . so I got a piece of junk mail from a company called Arbitron and inside was a crisp one dollar bill. Now that’s the kind of telemarketer I want to be nicer to. I ignored the letter and stashed George Washington in my wallet to use on CTA rides. Then came the second letter. . . with another dollar.
That letter I read. They want me to take a radio survey for a week and then I’ll get ten bucks. Now listen, the second reason I hate telemarketers is because they think every American household adult is an idiot (Seinfeld quote: For I’m George Kostanza King of the Idiots!). Sign up for this or that cause, take this survey and we’ll send you a coupon for $.75 cents off a car wash, when really you get put on some ridiculous list of “Idiot’s to Call”.
Bonita sees right through that kind of thing.
But when I got a call last Saturday morning at 9am from Arbitron saying that I’d be receiving more cash in the mail soon my vision got a little foggy. Then I got $2.00 more bucks in the mail bringing my total up to $4.00. You have no idea how excited I’ve been for free money!! My friend Jamie told me this summer that she signed up for some dinner surveys and gets coupons in the mail for free dinners and I thought she was on the “Idiot’s to Mail” list. . . I was wrong. She is my inspiration!
Early this week after my cash and phone call I got the survey in the mail from Arbitron. I have to write down my radio listening habits for a full seven days, log the details, send it in, and then I get more cash-o-la. This all means that I’m letting Big Brother pay me to invade my privacy. . . who’s the idiot now?? Eh????
posted by Stephanie Willis, LCPC, CADC @ 08:45
4 Comments:
they prob make $20 for your survey from some other company who uses the info to make hundreds off of you in the long run - therefore you lose $90 after 3 years time.
i would do it too.
i did it at chili's the other day and got a $10 gift certificate.
when telemarketers call me, I act crazy, and my established goal is to make THEM hang up on ME. sometimes it takes a full half-hour, but I'm committed.
I scream words at random points in my sentences, I ask them painfully private and personal questions, I tell them painfully private and personal things about myself, I ask them how the weather is, I tell them that not only will I buy one, I'll buy one for every living creature in the universe.
I go insane, and sometimes I convince myself that I actually am insane.
It was Seinfeld. I just saw that episode. The telemarketer said he didn't want Jerry calling him at home, and Jerry says, "Now you know how I feel." Or something to that extent. What a great show.
Bonita, fellow idiot here! Last week I went to talk to a recruiter at a technical school as a "mystery shopper" and this week I get $50! I may be getting in over my head, but money is money...and not "working" for it is nice :)
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