Posted by:
Yewt102
(
)
Date: December 09, 2010 01:28AM
This is a true story that I witnessed firsthand.
I am a student at the University of Utah. During my freshmen year I payed for my expenses by working for the University's Alumni association. We would call alumni of the school to update school records and ask for donations... pretty much glorified telemarketers... it was a pretty painful job to say the least.
Anyways, we would be hooked up to these computers who would constantly feed us outbound calls. Our protocol would be to update records of the alumni, and then chat with them in hopes that they would donate a small sum to the university by the end of the conversation. As a telemarketer we would encounter a lot of less than friendly or agitated people throughout our night, but I was actually surprised by the overall friendliness of people. This one night, all of our computers were put on hold and our manager asked us to all gather around one of the girls who had worked there for a very long time.
She was making a "high priority" call, and our manager wanted everyone to witness how a phone call of the likes should be handled. I peeked at her computer screen to see "Mr. Thomas Monson" under the name and realized this was going to be interesting. I could tell several others had realized the same thing, and the 3 or 4 LDS employees were extra giddy.
The call was put over the speakers so we could all listen in. The dial tone droned on as everybody listened. Finally, there was an answer and a males voice droned in. Granted, this happened about two years ago so I don't remember the exact words of the conversation, but it went something like this.
Tommy: hello. (his greeting was lifeless and cold, slightly agitated... but... I would probably be the same way being in the same situation.)
Mary: Hello Mr. Monson, my name is Mary ****** and I am a student working for the alumni association at the University of Utah. We are calling to update some information for our records and I was wondering if I could confirm your mailing address... blah blah.
Tommy: (he wasn't very cooperative, seemed very unfriendly, did not want to talk. Did not confirm his address, or give any acknowledgement. After some coercion he confirmed his information.).
Mary then went on to inquire into his hobbies or whatever sort of bonding possible. She threw him every single possible conversation starter
Tommy: (response was very cold, did not have any interest in any sort of conversation. Everyone could tell that he was getting very agitated and his voice was getting louder)
Mary: (The phone call is a train wreck, but Mary had done everything right. Tommy was just not having any of it. After a couple of painful rejections the manager finally signals to give the punchline and ask for a donation.) Something along the lines of "well... I'm sorry to bother you Mr. Monson, and I just wanted to talk and hear about your experiences but I wont take any more of your time but our last matter of business ***proceed to punchline*** would you consider donating blah blah to the University of Utah?
Tommy: (his demeanor suddenly brightens, he seems intrigued and suprisingly like he may even donate at least a couple of dollars. The following is how he responds I kid you not) "Miss.. what was your name again? Mary? Well that is a nice name. **pause**. Mary?...**cough cough*** are you LDS?
Mary: No Mr. Monson I'm actually Greek Orthodox, I've attended the Greek Orthodox chapel downtown my whole life.
Tommy: (with no hesitation or pause before his response) "I'll have no part in this" **CLICK**
There were 15 employees standing with their jaws open. The 3 or 4 LDS employees acted like they could never have been more embarrassed in their lives. I, for the other hand was laughing my ass off with a few of the other guys who knew and understood the gravity of the situation.
I made thousands of phone calls working at that place.... Never ever ever ever witnessed anything as rude as the one phone call to Tommy S. Monson.
I thought that story was worthy to share to the board.
-Yewt102