The phone rang. It was the friendly folks at my cellular service provider who had decided to give me a 2nd line with a free phone too.
Her voice was loud and instructional, and I could tell she was reading from the printed page.
voice: Hello this is a complimentary call from Sprint Nextel and we'd like to let you know that in addition to our free offer, this call will not count against any of your minutes.
me: Great
voice: I'd like to speak with Mr. Gardner
me: This is Mr. Gardner
voice: Because you've been such an outstanding customer blah blah blah we'd like to offer you a 2nd line and a free flip phone blah blah blah
me: Great
voice: Would you be interested in that?
me: I'm interested
voice: So are you saying yes, you'd like to accept our offer?
me: Let me ask you this: Can I take the extra line and make it my wife's phone number and give her the free phone?
voice: I'm not sure. Are you interested?
me: I'm interested
voice: Would you like to accept our offer?
me: Well, I can't really make a decision whether I'd like to accept or not until I have information as to whether I can make the extra line my wife's phone number and give her the free phone.
voice: (pause) Can I put you on hold for a minute to see if I can answer your question?
me: Sure
A minute goes by, and the voice returns
voice: Hello? Mr. Gardner?
me: Yes
voice: I'm not really sure if we can do that or not.
me: Hmmm
voice: So would you like to accept our offer?
me: Well, I can't really make a decision whether I'd like to accept or not until I have information as to whether I can make the extra line my wife's phone number and give her the free phone.
voice: So is that a yes or a no?
me: It's neither. I can't really make a decision based on the information I have.
voice: Well thank you for your time and thank you for choosing Sprint together with Nextel.
me: Okay, bye.
The next day the phone rings and it's the same voice and the same offer is offered as if the prior conversation never happened. I explained that we'd had this conversation before and I couldn't make a decision until she could tell me whether I could make the extra line my wife's phone number and give her the free phone.
voice: Can I put you on hold for a minute to see if I can answer your question?
A minute goes by, and the voice returns
voice: Hello? Mr. Gardner?
me: Yes
voice: I have my supervisor on the line, could you repeat your question?
me: Can I take the extra line and make it my wife's phone number and give her the free phone?
voice (not the supervisor's voice): Can I put you on hold for a minute to see if I can answer your question?
me: Sure.
A minute goes by, and the voice returns
voice: I'm not really sure if we can do that or not.
I tell the voice that I can't really spend any more time on this, and she says thanks for choosing Sprint together with Nextel. The next day the phone rings and it's a different voice offering the same plan. I give my same spiel and this time the voice tells me I need to call customer relations, and that he can't do it for me. That was easy.
