Tweet
I started to post this in Sightings, but when I looked it over, I felt there was just too much Fratching potential and moved it over here.
Gah!
I'm getting a bit frustrated, and am wondering if I am being sucky?
I'm up here at my Mom's for Thanksgiving, arrived early this evening. Ever since I got here, the phone has been ringing off the flipping hook.
Mom has Alzheimer's and is now in a memory care unit. My brother and I are her POA.
Most of the callers were charities calling to "thank" Mom for her recent donation and hit her up for another one. For most, I explain I'm her POA and tell them Mom is no longer making donations and put her on their do not call list. She was giving money to a LOT of charities (usually in the $25-30 range, but it adds up), and we knew that from looking over her bank statements from the past year.
As the evening has worn on, however, the calls have gotten to be incessant. I've had probably 10 calls from between 7pm EST and now (10:15 EST). The last two were in the past 30 minutes.
The first lady was from a charity, and when I complained that she was calling rather late, she got a bit snotty with me, "Well, I wish I was home cooking Thanksgiving dinner but here I am working on Thanksgiving Eve, well we all got to do what we got to do."
That irritated me. These calls are supposed to stop at 9PM. It was 9:50PM. I didn't get overtly nasty, but there was definately an edge in my voice when I told the lady I was Mom's POA and that she would no longer be donating to that charity.
Then her phone/Internet provider (a major national provider that rhymes with Horizen) calls and asks for Mom.
Me: This is Panacea, I'm her POA.
Caller: Then you're authorized to make changes on the account?
Me: *thinking it might be a billing issue, since Mom stopped paying her bills a couple of months ago* Yes. How can I help you?
Caller: Well, ma'am just so you know for quality control purposes we record calls, may I record this call? *note: In Maryland you have to ask permission, or it's illegal to record a call*
Me: Sure, I'm fine with that.
The caller then goes off into a standard sales pitch script about bundling phone, cell, Internet, and TV services. They've been trying to get one on Mom for quite awhile now; she complained frequently about sales calls when her neighborhood went FIOS and she refused to get the added services or change from her cable provider (Bombast . . . actually, Horizen would have been an improvement, but I digress).
So I interrupt him midstream:
Me: OK, let me stop you there so I can tell you two things. First of all, you're calling me after 10PM, and I'm not happy about that at all. Secondly, we're not interested in making any changes to our service at this time, so I'm going to end the conversation here. Good night *click*.
So, was I sucky? I'm beginning to see how elderly folks get sucked into scams. The calls get so non-stop, they tell them what they want to hear just to get them to go away and stop calling.
Which of course, is not what happens.
Gah!
I'm getting a bit frustrated, and am wondering if I am being sucky?I'm up here at my Mom's for Thanksgiving, arrived early this evening. Ever since I got here, the phone has been ringing off the flipping hook.
Mom has Alzheimer's and is now in a memory care unit. My brother and I are her POA.
Most of the callers were charities calling to "thank" Mom for her recent donation and hit her up for another one. For most, I explain I'm her POA and tell them Mom is no longer making donations and put her on their do not call list. She was giving money to a LOT of charities (usually in the $25-30 range, but it adds up), and we knew that from looking over her bank statements from the past year.
As the evening has worn on, however, the calls have gotten to be incessant. I've had probably 10 calls from between 7pm EST and now (10:15 EST). The last two were in the past 30 minutes.
The first lady was from a charity, and when I complained that she was calling rather late, she got a bit snotty with me, "Well, I wish I was home cooking Thanksgiving dinner but here I am working on Thanksgiving Eve, well we all got to do what we got to do."
That irritated me. These calls are supposed to stop at 9PM. It was 9:50PM. I didn't get overtly nasty, but there was definately an edge in my voice when I told the lady I was Mom's POA and that she would no longer be donating to that charity.
Then her phone/Internet provider (a major national provider that rhymes with Horizen) calls and asks for Mom.
Me: This is Panacea, I'm her POA.
Caller: Then you're authorized to make changes on the account?
Me: *thinking it might be a billing issue, since Mom stopped paying her bills a couple of months ago* Yes. How can I help you?
Caller: Well, ma'am just so you know for quality control purposes we record calls, may I record this call? *note: In Maryland you have to ask permission, or it's illegal to record a call*
Me: Sure, I'm fine with that.
The caller then goes off into a standard sales pitch script about bundling phone, cell, Internet, and TV services. They've been trying to get one on Mom for quite awhile now; she complained frequently about sales calls when her neighborhood went FIOS and she refused to get the added services or change from her cable provider (Bombast . . . actually, Horizen would have been an improvement, but I digress).
So I interrupt him midstream:
Me: OK, let me stop you there so I can tell you two things. First of all, you're calling me after 10PM, and I'm not happy about that at all. Secondly, we're not interested in making any changes to our service at this time, so I'm going to end the conversation here. Good night *click*.
So, was I sucky? I'm beginning to see how elderly folks get sucked into scams. The calls get so non-stop, they tell them what they want to hear just to get them to go away and stop calling.
Which of course, is not what happens.
Comment