Let's face it... it's annoying when telemarketers call your home. Even telemarketers hate getting calls from telemarketers. Whether the callers hail from legitimate businesses, pollsters, or unscrupulous scam artists, one fact is universal: when telemarketers waste your time by repeatedly calling your house at all hours, day and night, it can be maddening. Getting mad does no good, though. Hasslein Books' latest publication, "Messing With Telemarketers," shows why it's better to get even.
After a friend played a horrible prank on author Haven Riney - signing him up for every "Go back to school!" college recruiting form they could find - he realized that the best way to deal with pesky callers who wouldn't leave him alone was to waste their time instead. The recruiters sold Riney's information to two companies, and they sold it to two companies, and so on, and so on, and so on.
Riney began receiving between fifty and a hundred phone calls a day. "I put my number on the Do Not Call List. Still got the calls," he recalls. "I told them to put me on their Do Not Call List. Still get the calls. I yelled, I screamed, I begged, I pleaded... all to no avail. Finally, I lost it, and just started screwing with them to see how far I could get."
The answer, he discovered, was often "quite far." Due to a combination of language barriers and indifference on the callers' part, Riney noticed that the calls became increasingly entertaining, leaving friends and family members laughing hysterically as they listened to the exchanges. He posted new entries from time to time on Facebook (facebook.com/messingwithtelemarketers), amassing a tremendous following, then realized that the next step was to collect them all in one place for readers to enjoy. Messing With Telemarketers (http://tinyurl.com/Hasslein-MWT) is that place.
Riney's lightning-quick wit, sharp comedic timing and seemingly endless patience culminated in a vast, hilariously off-beat collection of transcripts. Every call is real, and each is funnier than the last. Messing With Telemarketers is slated for publication later this year, and will actually make you look forward to your next telemarketing call so you can practice messing with them, too.
About Hasslein Books
Hasslein Publishing (hassleinbooks.com) is an independent New York-based publisher co-founded by Rich Handley and Paul C. Giachetti. The company produces unauthorized genre-based reference books, including Timeline of the Planet of the Apes, Lexicon of the Planet of the Apes, The Back to the Future Lexicon, The Back to the Future Chronology, Who Beyond 50: Celebrating Five Decades of Doctor Who, Lost in Time and Space: An Unofficial Guide to the Uncharted Journeys of Doctor Who and Total Immersion: The Comprehensive Unauthorized Red Dwarf Encyclopedia. Future volumes will cover James Bond, G.I. Joe, Alien vs. Predator, Battlestar Galactica, Ghostbusters, Universal Monsters The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Fringe, Red Sonja and more. "Like" us on Facebook (facebook.com/hassleinbooks), follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/hassleinbooks) and frequent our blog (hassleinbooks.blogspot.com) to stay informed regarding all upcoming projects.
Comments
To post a comment, you must
register and
login.
