Today was a most interesting day.
Started out real early (for me, at least) at 6:30am when I got up to get ready to go to work with Mum. I went to her office to help her out with something. Anyway, when we were taking a break in the canteen, I ran into some former colleagues. 1 from the very first school I taught in. The husband of a former colleague from the same school (whom I had lost contact with, and was trying to look for for some time), someone whom I was in uni with (and worked together with even though we were never in the same school), and a colleague from the most recent school I was with. It was really nice seeing them again.
Then after lunch with Mum, I met up with DH who was on his half-day today (and eventually late :P). Picked up his new specs (I think he looks good - much fresher). I was hoping to buy a pair of Rockports, so we took a bus down to the nearest outlet. As we approached the junction to cross the road, we were approached by one of those survey takers. At the end of the survey, she gave each of us a lucky draw coupon, and I won a picture of a broken egg (Thank you, but you did not win anything). DH, on the other hand, won a picture of a building. Apparently he won 7 nights free accommodation somewhere. Catch - we had to agree to sit through a 80 minute presentation before we could collect it. We went off to look for the shoes first, but the outlet had moved. We managed to find it in another building, but the range was rather limited, so we decided to go to another outlet. And since we had time to spare, we thought we'd go for the presentation and collect our voucher.
Of course, having heard about many such 'scams' before, we were kind of prepared. I'd heard all about it - survey taker is a student who would earn extra $ if we went for the presentation. Pressure tactics once they get you to sit down for a presentation. Wearing you down by talking to you for hours, not letting you go till you sign up. So on and so forth. We went in firm that we would not spend any money, no matter how attractive the offer seemed. Our story was that we did not bring our credit cards, so we could not pay for anything (since the amount was going to be large). Going in before our dinner - excuse to leave.
So we went in. Were asked to the last 4 digits of our credit card numbers to a list of 10 numbers they had. If they matched, we would win $300 in vouchers. Declined to participate since we "didn't" have our cards with us. Sat us down and questioned us about our holiday experiences. Of course, we only gave info on our least expensive holidays. The ones where we travelled to neighbouring countries, had cheap accommodation (offer) or free lodging (staying with relatives). Basically, we painted a very sorry picture - one which basically prepared them for the fact that we cannot afford whatever they were offering.
The presenter was trying very hard to get us to agree that what they were offering is a good deal, but the most we would commit to was that it sounded good on paper - which is a fact. It sounds really good on paper, but of course, with no real time to process the information, it would mean making an emotional decision, which we were not really prepared to do. Okay, completely not prepared to do. The poor guy had to call for his supervisor several times, basically because he was not getting anywhere with us. Coincidentally, the sup is DH's army mate. They go for reservist together every year. About 1 1/2 hours into it, the presenter was still not willing to tell us the price of the joining fee (he had already told us the annual subscription), because he knew that we had not committed to it emotionally, and would reject it outright, his sup (DH's army buddy) decided to cut his losses. (The presenter had written down some figures when trying to convince us that we would save $ on this membership, vs what we would have to spend otherwise) He (the sup) came up to us, and basically said that he did not want to waste anymore of our (and his, I strongly suspect,) time, asked us if we were willing to pay that figure as the joining fee, which we of course said no to. He then asked us if we were willing to pay half that amount. When we said no to that as well, he then thanked us, and let us leave. We collected our voucher and that was that.
Mr Milo suspects that he let us go because they knew each other. I suspect that it had a little to do with that, and a little to do with the fact that the presenter was really getting nowhere with us. 90 mins into the 80 min presentation, he was still at stage 2. Around us, presenters were showing their potential customers brochures of the accommodations they would be entitled to. And there we were still not willing to even say that what they were offering was a good deal.
So, we'll be celebrating our anniversary this year either in The Canary Islands, Fiji, Portugal or Spain. :D
Started out real early (for me, at least) at 6:30am when I got up to get ready to go to work with Mum. I went to her office to help her out with something. Anyway, when we were taking a break in the canteen, I ran into some former colleagues. 1 from the very first school I taught in. The husband of a former colleague from the same school (whom I had lost contact with, and was trying to look for for some time), someone whom I was in uni with (and worked together with even though we were never in the same school), and a colleague from the most recent school I was with. It was really nice seeing them again.
Then after lunch with Mum, I met up with DH who was on his half-day today (and eventually late :P). Picked up his new specs (I think he looks good - much fresher). I was hoping to buy a pair of Rockports, so we took a bus down to the nearest outlet. As we approached the junction to cross the road, we were approached by one of those survey takers. At the end of the survey, she gave each of us a lucky draw coupon, and I won a picture of a broken egg (Thank you, but you did not win anything). DH, on the other hand, won a picture of a building. Apparently he won 7 nights free accommodation somewhere. Catch - we had to agree to sit through a 80 minute presentation before we could collect it. We went off to look for the shoes first, but the outlet had moved. We managed to find it in another building, but the range was rather limited, so we decided to go to another outlet. And since we had time to spare, we thought we'd go for the presentation and collect our voucher.
Of course, having heard about many such 'scams' before, we were kind of prepared. I'd heard all about it - survey taker is a student who would earn extra $ if we went for the presentation. Pressure tactics once they get you to sit down for a presentation. Wearing you down by talking to you for hours, not letting you go till you sign up. So on and so forth. We went in firm that we would not spend any money, no matter how attractive the offer seemed. Our story was that we did not bring our credit cards, so we could not pay for anything (since the amount was going to be large). Going in before our dinner - excuse to leave.
So we went in. Were asked to the last 4 digits of our credit card numbers to a list of 10 numbers they had. If they matched, we would win $300 in vouchers. Declined to participate since we "didn't" have our cards with us. Sat us down and questioned us about our holiday experiences. Of course, we only gave info on our least expensive holidays. The ones where we travelled to neighbouring countries, had cheap accommodation (offer) or free lodging (staying with relatives). Basically, we painted a very sorry picture - one which basically prepared them for the fact that we cannot afford whatever they were offering.
The presenter was trying very hard to get us to agree that what they were offering is a good deal, but the most we would commit to was that it sounded good on paper - which is a fact. It sounds really good on paper, but of course, with no real time to process the information, it would mean making an emotional decision, which we were not really prepared to do. Okay, completely not prepared to do. The poor guy had to call for his supervisor several times, basically because he was not getting anywhere with us. Coincidentally, the sup is DH's army mate. They go for reservist together every year. About 1 1/2 hours into it, the presenter was still not willing to tell us the price of the joining fee (he had already told us the annual subscription), because he knew that we had not committed to it emotionally, and would reject it outright, his sup (DH's army buddy) decided to cut his losses. (The presenter had written down some figures when trying to convince us that we would save $ on this membership, vs what we would have to spend otherwise) He (the sup) came up to us, and basically said that he did not want to waste anymore of our (and his, I strongly suspect,) time, asked us if we were willing to pay that figure as the joining fee, which we of course said no to. He then asked us if we were willing to pay half that amount. When we said no to that as well, he then thanked us, and let us leave. We collected our voucher and that was that.
Mr Milo suspects that he let us go because they knew each other. I suspect that it had a little to do with that, and a little to do with the fact that the presenter was really getting nowhere with us. 90 mins into the 80 min presentation, he was still at stage 2. Around us, presenters were showing their potential customers brochures of the accommodations they would be entitled to. And there we were still not willing to even say that what they were offering was a good deal.
So, we'll be celebrating our anniversary this year either in The Canary Islands, Fiji, Portugal or Spain. :D
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