number six.
Oh, they are trying hard. I am wondering whether they will keep trying until I give in and "answer" their "survey".
I tried a little experiment on automated telephone call number five. I listened to the first "question". It gave five options - press one of buttons one to five. I pressed button six.
"That is not a valid response."
And the whole thing started over again. I put the phone down. It might have been interesting to hear how whichever political party it was had worded their questions but I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of any replies.
I wonder how effective this sort of push-polling is? The political parties must consider it is worth setting it up. I assume it is relatively cheap - certainly cheaper than sending something out in the post if you don't have an army of people to put things in letter boxes.
The son of a neighbour is standing for one of the smaller political parties. We were invited to the fundraising dinner on Friday night. Fortunately he isn't standing for our electorate. I could not in all conscience vote for the party concerned. Equally fortunately there was no real belief we would attend.
"Why on earth is he doing it?" the Senior Cat asked me, "He's a nice man but nobody knows him."
He is a nice man. I like him. I can only assume he feels passionately about the causes the party stands for. I am not going to raise the topic of automated telephone calls with him or with his parents. If his party is doing it too bad. I am not going to answer those calls.
Someone said to me yesterday that she regards those calls as an intrusion. The phone is there for her convenience not theirs.
Our phone is here for our convenience too. We don't actually use it a lot. If people have a legitimate reason to get in touch that's fine. I don't regard "vote for me" as a legitimate reason to contact me directly in that underhand way. If you want to advertise yourself then say, "I'm from ABYZ party and I'd like to talk to you."
I might listen - but only to a live person who is prepared to answer my questions.
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2 comments:
My landline is rarely used by me. It was part of the package of connections when I moved in here some years ago. It is mostly used by those soliciting donation. It sits next to my cpomputer and if it rings whioe I am there, I just mmay answer it. Otherwise I leave it. I have several chatities I give to with a [planned system of giving. I find that thsoe cold caller get very uppity when I refuse. It is easier not to answer. If anyone really wants me, they will know my other number or email.
I woould most likely not give my vote to anyone who rang as you received. I do know people who have had such calls on a mobile. I haven’t had that supposed pleasure so am not entirely sure of my response. If I ever had such a call, I would make sure I let the party know that the call was unwelcome and probably lost them my vote.
As you know, I have many political concerns right now and these are all issues that have been going on for years in the community with little action from any governments - the parties are ignoring them because they are 'too hard' or just plain ignorance.
I received a phone call this morning from a real person who introduced themselves and identified the candidate they were representing. This person seemed to have no understanding that I have been corresponding with the candidate for over 12 months. They were very polite and gave me the option of saying no to their survey but I said yes to see what their campaign agenda was.
Their 'research' was seeking yes/no answers to their policy ideas; e.g. would you support a policy of ...insert policy idea here ...
These people are looking for quick yes/no simplistic answers to support their campaign arguments. If they were truly interested in constituents concerns, they would be asking open ended questions right through the political terms with everyone they met. Then they would already know the concerns of the electorate and wouldn't need to poll for opinions.
This person was on a mission to get through a certain number of phone calls per hour and had allocated 3 minutes to each call (I assume because they said it wouldn't take more than 3 minutes of my time).
So when they asked me about each policy, my answer was either to go into a detailed rant about the topic until they came up with the next question or to say "I don't know about that but what about this issue?" and continue on a detailed rant about the next issue....and then the next etc. Basically, hijack the polling person's phone call and make sure they find out the issues on MY agenda and not theirs.
Sure enough, when the 3 minutes was up, the caller suddenly had to end...and if they didn't take notice of the real issues and the complex issues instead of the issues easily 'spun' then folly for them.
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