Dear Deutsche Telekom,

Please stop calling our house and harassing me 3-5 times a day. I don’t know what incredible new phone package you want to push us, but I am certain it cannot be THAT fantastic that you need to call over and over again for weeks on end.

I understand that you cannot talk to me, because I am not the person whose name is on the account…and quite honestly I don’t want to hear your pitch anyway. But if you cannot understand and make a comment in your files that the man of the house will not be available until after 7pm — despite the fact that I have told your call center employees on at least 3 occasions now — then I’m pretty sure we don’t want your service anyway. I mean really, how great can it actually be when you have that many people working your phones, trying to pitch customers to whatever the new product it? The good products usually sell themselves, don’t they?

Your people call at all hours of the day, but never when I tell them to. What is so hard about calling after 7pm? Have all the people in your Turkish or Indian call center have already gone to sleep by then? I’m sure they can’t be so busy disturbing the lives of other people — because most people do not want to be called that late. Although we have had telemarketers call here at 8pm before…but thankfully not often.

It’s been about 3 weeks now that you’ve been calling our house and most of the time I just ignore the calls. Thanks for implementing caller ID, by the way. But I want you to know that even though I don’t actually talk to your call center folks at that moment, I still know it’s you and I do not appreciate it. You see, I have learned that ignoring the calls is the best way to deal with harassment  because hanging up on them immediately just causes them to call back 30 minutes later. I guess that’s because they know someone is home and just need to keep trying until they get a real person on the line. But seriously, when you call 3 times a day and I don’t answer, I assure you I’m saving your call center personnel from getting an earful.

I did, however, reach out and touch a woman on the phone yesterday who was lucky enough to catch me on one of the most grumpy Mondays in all history. Don’t know what it was, but I was in a bad mood, Mackenzie was in a bad mood…and Ayla was just being crazy as usual. I made it clear that they better stop calling before 7pm — or they would have to deal with my wrath.

Perhaps if we got lots of phone calls during the day, this wouldn’t bother me so much. But the problem is, we usually only get phones calls when it’s important. We use email for everything else…so when the phone rings, it’s usually someone we want to talk to. But with you calling what feels like 50 times a day, I dread looking at the caller ID now. And when I see it is you, yet again, my irritation level gets just a little bit higher.

So for crying out loud, just call after 7pm as I’ve repeatedly asked you to do and give us the pitch…or stop calling. Either you want to make the sale and will call when it’s convenient for your customers, or you don’t. Because seriously, the people who can afford to pay for your phone service should not be home at all hours of the day, especially in the afternoon. And I know that business can’t be what it once was with all the competition out there…and because so many people are just using their cell phones as their primary phone. Believe me, the latter has crossed our minds. And now that you’re pitching us so hard that I want to inflict harm on your employees, perhaps it’s time to give that idea further consideration.

That is all.

Sincerly,

A Disgruntled Deutsche Telekom Customer User