Saturday, January 08, 2005

phone survey...on my cellphone??

ok, i don't really want to be one who complains...but i had a crazy experience today.

i got a call from a long distance 1 877 # on my cell phone (i'm almost tempted to write out the full number...).

anyway, i answer it, and it is someone conducting a survey...on my cell phone??

anyway, i agree to listen, and she asks if i'm pregnant...i'm a bit taken aback...but answer yes.
she tells me the survey is about pregnant womens' attitudes and feelings.

then we have a less than delightful question and answer period which seemed extremely redundant and LONG and required me to say "walmart, thyme, motherhood, the bay, old navy" far far too many times.

there were times when she would say something like this:
"in your experience with thyme, motherhood, the bay, old navy and walmart: which would you recommend to your friends?"
being quite fatigued from the length of this survey, i said "all of them except the bay"
and she said "which ones would those be?"
and i said "i dont remember, its such a long list...what were they again?"
she said "thyme, motherhood, the bay, old navy and walmart"
so i repeated "thyme, motherhood, old navy and walmart"

isn't that weird???

eventually i asked "is it part of the survey whether or not i can keep a good attitude throughout such a long survey??...how long is this supposed to take? and how did you get my cell phone number?"

my cellphone was feeling way to warm next to my face and i have a headset for my home phone so i think i would've been in better spirits had it been on that phone.

she responded that they randomly selected numbers using an autodialer (which seems weird...what are the chances that they would get a pregnant woman's phone number...?) and that the survey should take 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the length of my answers.

it was seriously ridiculous how many times i had to name thyme, motherhood, the bay, old navy and walmart. anyway, finally she asked maybe 5 questions about being pregnant and how i felt about it, to which i prefaced with "i wish you'd asked this question at the beginning of the survey" before my extreme boredom and annoyance had set in. she wrapped up the session with more consumer questions.

oh ya, many times i would say something like "i like their products" and she would ask "what do you mean by that?" and i would say "i like the clothes they sell"...it thought that was pretty obvious since they are all clothing stores (or that was the topic of conversation). but noooo, i had to lay it all out...it was quite bizarre.

anyway, we said our teary goodbyes and i checked the time on my cell phone 28min 48seconds. now, i'm thankful it was on my cell phone, just so i could have the actual length of time. insane. no survey should be that long! and no, it doesn't make me want to rush out and buy maternity clothes!

1 comment:

kelly ens said...

gosh - that is terrible. i feel for you. you must have extraordinary pregnancy-patience. i woulda hung up after 5 minutes!