Do You See What I See Debbie Peltier Editor

It seems the solicitation calls have started up again. I enrolled in the nuisance call bureau. What’s the deal? Last night I actually got a call from Southern Siding. It didn’t appear like that on my caller I.D. It was Mohammed Inc. or something similar. Do you realize these people have been calling me since my first house in Landry-Lasseigne Subdivision some 28 years? Then I had a house with siding that was in perfectly good shape. Of course I told them to take my name off of their list.

Then there’s the survey someone’s taking when you get the call at 8:45PM. It’s just going to take a couple of minutes. If these people can find my telephone number, can’t they also realize I have been making my living off of the telephone for 30 plus years AND THE LAST THING I WANT TO DO IS TALK AND BE NICE TO A COMPLETE STRANGER AT THAT HOUR.?

I have come up with a good answer that will stop them in their tracks about debt consolidation or better rates on my credit cards. Tell them you just filed bankruptcy. They hang up on you.

Then there is Bob. Poor Bob calls collect from a penal institution almost every Saturday at 1:30PM. He calls again about 5:30PM and sometimes on Sunday. Bob has been calling pretty much on a regular basis. Of course I don’t accept. I almost feel guilty that Bob has to wait around all day (what else does he have to do?) to get his phone privileges only to make a collect call and be rejected.

How did Bob get my number? Maybe he is dialing the incorrect area code. I do know my telephone number was written on the payphone across the street from Ricky’s junk yard. Out of state buyers would come to town and have to call me to open up on weekends. It stayed there until Car Baby told me, then I had him run across the street to black it out. That’s how we had to do business before cell phones were invented.

One of my pet peeves is peddlers. They disrupt your work place peddling their “over-stocked” junk, taking our money out of town while the city is losing the tax base. Who knows, they could be casing the joint. They may have a white shirt and tie on, however the dirt under the fingernails or the tattoos and piercing tells me they might know Bob. We have fought this from the Chamber office for years. We even were on the agenda at the City Council meeting regarding permits. Seems there were some issues addressed about peddlers at the Supreme Court level protecting them. I run them out of my office and I encourage everyone else to do the same. Let them incur all of the cost of having a business….licenses, insurance, utilities. It adds up to more that a run-down car and a full tank of gas.

To me these telephone solicitors are peddlers. They are disrupting my home or office only using a different method…the telephone. When I am home and feel like talking on the phone I can call Nez, Peter, my friends, or QVC.