Atlantic Xpat

Last friday I got a telesales call from Sears. 'Hello Mr AX, it's Sears calling, we just want to see how you are getting on with the new......erm......ahh.....oh........ah......I'm sorry my computer is down at the moment can I phone you back!'

Saturday the call went something along the lines of:

Sears'Hello this is Sears here, how are you getting on with the low impact step climber you bought in January?'
AX 'Well it was an elipitical trainer but fine thanks;
Sears ' and the stove and fridge you bought in 2005'
AX ' they too are fine'
Sears (and this is the bit that made me question the sanity of the caller) 'How's the lawnmower working out for you'
AX 'well when I last used it in October it was fine. The 3ft of friggin' snow on the lawn at the moment makes it a bit difficult to use right now'
Sears 'Ah yes, I suppose it would, hahah, yeah, winter, hopefully spring will be here soon, anyway would you like to buy extended warranties to cover all of these for a siqullion dollars? I can put that straight onto your sears card?'
AX 'No thanks. Have a nice day' Click, brr....

The saving grace was that she was at least ringing from a Canadian call centre (New Brunswick or Newfoundland in all likelyhood) rather than Bombay. Still, asking about a lawnmower in March smacks a bit of desperation or lack of ability to depart from the sales script.

Souvenir

Bint (in French): "can I interest you in a free trial subscription to the Journal de Montreal, delivered to your house every day?"

Me (in French): "no thanks".

Bint: "why not?".

Me: "I can't speak French".

Bint: "Oh. OK".

BTW, there is only one correct answer to the question: "are you the homeowner?".

Voyager970

Good one guys

Had a wee chuckle at you two bampots and your antics

Eddie

Mr Lee

They never seem to be able to pronounce the name of my other half very well.

Telesales: Hello - is that MISTER Piepot?
Me: Who Sorry?!?!
TS: Oh - errr...is Mrs Loon Piepot at home?
Me: Sorry - there's nobody here of that name - bye...

Thing is, everybody mispronounces her name (which isn't Loon Piepot I hasten to add) so I could have hung up on any number of important organisations. Ah well...

Souvenir

Ah, names. Mine is confusing to the French tongue. I nearly missed a flight in Montreal because of it. I was on standby and had been told to listen out for my name being called. The "St" at the beginning of my surname is not an abbreviation for "Saint" and my name was thus called lots before I twigged.

Atlantic Xpat

Sin-gen?

Souvenir

No.

If your name was Strong, would you be listening out for Saint-Rong?

Oakvillian

Only if I was living in one of those two ripe-for-gentrification South London areas of St Ockwell or St Reatham. There was a spoof Wikipedia entry for Ockwell once, complete with a tear-jerking account of his martyrdom at the hands of the unbelieving hordes from North Of The River... not there any more, I just checked

Atlantic Xpat

Rather like the other south London paradise of 'Cla'ahm'

I used to live near (couldn't afford to live in) the village of 'Stock' in Essex and drink in one of the sadly now 'essex winebar-ized' pubs. We used to refer to the village as "St Ock'.

Not sure why to a Quebecoiuse(sp) 'Strong' should be 'Saint Rong' though so I can see why you were confused Souv.

Souvenir

I think it's because so many places in QC are St this or St that. I guess they see "St" at the beginning of a name and automatically assume that it's Sainte. It makes a major difference to the pronunciation of my name (which isn't Strong, BTW, that was just an illustration).