I Was Called an Asshole by a TeleMarketer From Rapid7.

I work in IT (obviously) and we get LOTS of calls from people trying to sell us stuff.  We have told the gatekeeper (our receptionist) that she can tell any and all of them we do not need their services and please stop calling, and that if we do need their services we will seek them out.  Frequently a sales person will call multiple times before getting the hint that our gatekeeper is not going to open the door to the IT department.  She's very good at that.

Sales calls are a part of life, it's how a lot of business gets done.  Good sales people will try a couple times and eventually get the hint that the person they are calling truly isn't interested and will move on to the next record.  It's not uncommon to have to deal with rude receptionists (ours isn't) or irritated people on the other end of the line, it's also part of the job, so it's not necessarily a fun job to have.  However, it is not part of the job to call people names when they don't give you the opportunity to give your sales pitch.  It's your job to move on. 

Unfortunately one pesky agent from Rapid7 apparently doesn't know this, calling for both myself and my boss  several times over the course of a week, and would not take no for an answer.  Lauren was certain that because our  receptionist doesn't know what they do she can't possibly make the decision that we don't need her services.  Our very polite receptionist asked that next time she called I PLEASE take the call so I can tell them we don't need their services.  I did.  This is the story of that call.

8/24/2011, 1:05 PM:

I take the call and Lauren is very chipper and polite, attempting to sound like I'm her best friend (a decent sales tactic, it's much more interesting than monotone).  I immediately go in to my spiel about how we don't need whatever it is that they are selling, and that I would like her to please stop calling as she is annoying our receptionist.  She quickly became defensive and astounded that I would "blow her off" without even knowing who she was or why she was calling and that I would be sorry when in a month or two I needed to do a risk assessment (I doubt I will) and I had blown her off.  I informed her that was exactly what I was doing, and if we needed their services in the future I would happily call her (I won't now), and she would remember me and be happy I called.  She told me that she wouldn't be happy because she doesn't like working with assholes or poor people.  Seriously.  That's exactly what she said.

I said I can definitely be an a-hole sometimes but I have been polite and simply asked you to stop calling, if I was an a-hole I would have simply hung up on you.  At that point she hung up on me.  How rude.

I can't believe a telemarketer who was trying to sell me something called me an a-hole while I was being polite.  

NOW this blog post is me being what she called me. As was the email I sent to every email address listed on their website detailing this call.

Update:
Here is the reply I received from Rapid7

Hello Andrew,

Thank you very much for taking the time to get in touch with us so that we can investigate this issue. I can assure you it is certainly NOT our practice to call prospects names nor insult them. 

I’ll speak with the head of our Sales team right away to look into this. 

I can certainly understand the frustration that you’re feeling now but do hope that you’ll give us another chance in the future should you need Vulnerability Management solutions. 

Thanks, Catherine