Tuesday 11 July 2006

Pic of the day: Not quite covered in dust yet, but going that way.

A tale of 3 phone calls

It is not every week I get a phone call. In fact, if we don't include wrong numbers, it isn't even every month. And the majority of those are from work, about some technical problem when I am on sick leave. So it is kinda spectacular to get three "phone days" just like this.

On Sunday the phone rang while I was in front of my computer. (Then again, I am there a lot.) As I no longer have the phone in my computer corner but in the corridor that connects all the rooms, I ran out to answer. I thought maybe it would be a relative informing me about a change in the number of family members, one way or another. After all, it was a Sunday, and the above mentioned worker on vacation too, what else could it be?

It was the doctor's office. I did not even know they were open on Sundays, except for emergencies. And in light of what I had been there for last time, I really hoped this was not an emergency! It was not. I had an appointment on the coming Friday to remove the suture (after I had a dark birthmark cut out). Now they asked me to come on Tuesday instead. I answered politely that my appointment was for removing suture, and this cannot be rushed. It was actually early as it was, because the doctor was going on vacation. The lady on the phone then got me an appointment at closing hour on Thursday. I suppose that is acceptable. It probably beats waiting an extra 3 weeks, which is the usual length of summer vacation here in Norway. (I don't know if doctors have longer or shorter vacations. They earn more and probably have the opportunity to work up some extra days through overtime, so my guess would be longer if anything.)

Imagine my surprise the next day the telephone rang again. This time I was playing City of Heroes and for a change I was with a larger team. Usually I am playing alone. I quickly typed "brb phone" and ran off to take it. This time it was from my telephone provider, Tele2, who told me that I could get free calls out November if I decided to stay with them for another year. (In Norway, phone calls are not free. Then again there is no difference between local and national calls.) I answered that I frankly didn't have time to talk about such things now, and returned to my game. Luckily no one had died.

So, the third day. This time I am free to talk. It is someone else from Tele2, repeating the offer from yesterday. I tell her that I consider changing to IP telephony. This is kinda true. Actually I have Skype on one of my machines, but according to my coworker the sound quality isn't very good. Since I need to keep a landline anyway for my DSL, and since I actually only call a couple minutes a year or so, I try to stick with whatever is cheapest when not calling, as long as I can preserve the same phone number. (It is the old phone number of Superwoman's family.)

In any event, when a merchant calls you, it is always because he wants to earn more money, not less. This means that unless he clearly points out the third party you both can grab money from, the victim is you. In this case, the third party would presumably be their competitor whom I should not switch to. But there are other options, such as they may want to raise their prices in December, which she would be under no obligation to tell me. After all, the free calls out November would still be literally true, and I would freely have agreed to stay with them for another year. This is how I think, and I think a lot faster than you might imagine from looking at me. (Not that this says much.) Also notable in this case is that her offer was worthless, since I have no plans to call anyone between now and November if I can avoid it. And if I do, it will most likely be to America, which is not included in the deal.

Eventually she realized that I was trying to politely say no, and gave up. But what a hectic telephone week! My social meter is full now. ^_^