Why does this bother me so much?

Got a call from a telemarketer earlier. Asked for DH by first name. 'Out of area' on CID. (That sometimes means Europe so I answer.) I say to caller, 'I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name and company...' (We have a very staticky phone.) He sneers back, 'That's because I didn't TELL you my company name.' So, I wade in again, 'May I tell him the name of the company?'
Sneer again, 'It's a business call...and, no, I'm not telling YOU the name of the business, just put the owner on.'
'Ah,' I reply, 'then there's no one here by that name.' And I hang up.
Why do these people with their condescending attitudes wind me up so much? I don't usually talk to them but because I thought he said where he was calling from and we had JUST gotten a call from the accountant that started off the same way, I didn't hang up.

Sometimes the best approach is to simply reply that this is a phone number for booking enquiries only. The phone number for the owner is 212-660-2245.

Ha, ha...good one. I used to give out a phone number in the Cayman Islands.

Madeleine said:

Ha, ha...good one. I used to give out a phone number in the Cayman Islands..

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Well, apparently there are numbers for different states in New England...
Maine: 207-376-0768
New Hampshire: 603-413-2340
But you can also use 401-285-0696 for "How to Keep an Idiot Entertained"

This sounds just like the jerk that kept calling us. I got so I knew his voice. The last time I heard from him, he went through the same spiel...I put my best acting voice and in a tearful voice said that "Phil" had died.
That was the last time I heard from him and it's been at least a year

Today I got one which the caller ID said Skype... I thought it was a reservation OR the current guest here that uses the service. No it was a sales caller - website one that sounded as arrogant as your guy. CLICK!

Breakfast Diva said:

This sounds just like the jerk that kept calling us. I got so I knew his voice. The last time I heard from him, he went through the same spiel...I put my best acting voice and in a tearful voice said that "Phil" had died.
That was the last time I heard from him and it's been at least a year

.

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My best call was when someone asked for my dead Grandfather. I asked if they have a OUIJA board, the line fell silent, they didn't know what to say after that.

I had one who called me by name and it was fairly clear that he didn't know me. I hate it when the next words out of his mouth are "how are you doing today" and so I just asked him what he was selling. He said I was rude and hung up on me. I always wonder if this is the one goofball who is really trying to call for a reservation. I'll never know, but boy do I hate that kind of call.

Breakfast Diva said:

This sounds just like the jerk that kept calling us. I got so I knew his voice. The last time I heard from him, he went through the same spiel...I put my best acting voice and in a tearful voice said that "Phil" had died.
That was the last time I heard from him and it's been at least a year

.

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That one's going in my satchel!

Innkeep said:

I had one who called me by name and it was fairly clear that he didn't know me. I hate it when the next words out of his mouth are "how are you doing today" and so I just asked him what he was selling. He said I was rude and hung up on me. I always wonder if this is the one goofball who is really trying to call for a reservation. I'll never know, but boy do I hate that kind of call..

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The advantage of having a name that isn't common... they don't know how to pronounce it. My bank has a policy to greet people by their last name. They screw mine up so often it's laughable. And on cold calls, they screw up both of our names... it's easy to tell that they are cold calling.

Eric Arthur Blair said:

Innkeep said:

I had one who called me by name and it was fairly clear that he didn't know me. I hate it when the next words out of his mouth are "how are you doing today" and so I just asked him what he was selling. He said I was rude and hung up on me. I always wonder if this is the one goofball who is really trying to call for a reservation. I'll never know, but boy do I hate that kind of call..

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The advantage of having a name that isn't common... they don't know how to pronounce it. My bank has a policy to greet people by their last name. They screw mine up so often it's laughable. And on cold calls, they screw up both of our names... it's easy to tell that they are cold calling.
.

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Eric Arthur Blair said:

The advantage of having a name that isn't common... they don't know how to pronounce it.

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How hard is it to pronounce 'Orwell'? ;-)

Madeleine said:

Eric Arthur Blair said:

Innkeep said:

I had one who called me by name and it was fairly clear that he didn't know me. I hate it when the next words out of his mouth are "how are you doing today" and so I just asked him what he was selling. He said I was rude and hung up on me. I always wonder if this is the one goofball who is really trying to call for a reservation. I'll never know, but boy do I hate that kind of call..

Click to expand...

The advantage of having a name that isn't common... they don't know how to pronounce it. My bank has a policy to greet people by their last name. They screw mine up so often it's laughable. And on cold calls, they screw up both of our names... it's easy to tell that they are cold calling.
.

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Eric Arthur Blair said:

The advantage of having a name that isn't common... they don't know how to pronounce it.

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How hard is it to pronounce 'Orwell'? ;-)
.

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Apparently different enough. And DH name isn't even in English. People have seen the name often enough, but because it's always preceded with a name that starts with an S they think that it's pronounced, so it sounds like he owns everything and there is an apostrophe S after his name.
I still have to admit my favourite is when they ask for Mr. or Mrs., then I say that I'm the Mrs. and they know they have no chance of making a sale.

We got a call yesterday from someone saying they were from D&B. I'm sure it was some kind of scam. They were talking all about our credit report and the fact that companies have reviewed it recently (we've recently applied for a line of credit). Anyway, they started asking for all kinds of info, so we said we weren't interested and hung up. THE WOMAN CALLED BACK!! and said that we 'must have gotten disconnected'. DUH! We hung up again.

Aussie Innkeeper said:

We got a call yesterday from someone saying they were from D&B. I'm sure it was some kind of scam. They were talking all about our credit report and the fact that companies have reviewed it recently (we've recently applied for a line of credit). Anyway, they started asking for all kinds of info, so we said we weren't interested and hung up. THE WOMAN CALLED BACK!! and said that we 'must have gotten disconnected'. DUH! We hung up again..

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I hate Dunn & Bradstreet. When I worked for a wholesaler, they used to send us all these requests for information on our clients. We faxed back a form for them to sign on reciprocity. They never signed, because they don't believe in sharing their data, they just want to sell it. We never faxed them info. They would then sell all that data to everyone else... so your telephone would ring from every telemarketer, ever.
It is likely actually Dunn & Bradstreet who called you. They are hired to do credit reports, but they don't really have any resources that prove anything about you. So they called you to get as much info from you as they could and then go ahead and try to call around to get others to verify the info. What ever you would have told them, they would then have bothered all of them to get them to give up their data on them.
It's also very easy to fake data for D&B if you want to. Because they often don't have any corroboration of the data, caused by the fact that they aren't willing to share properly with others.