One habit that I have changed since the house fire, is I am answering all calls on my cell phone. Because the emergency services we have put feelers out to, and which may be calling us back, will of course be unrecognized numbers, and may sometimes be listed as spam calls or telemarketers by the cell phone carrier. This means I am answering calls I do not want, many of which may be wasting valuable time I should be working on salvaging items before they are lost, cleaning up debris, and restoring the structure to usability.
There are three main time wasting call types, and I will give an example phone conversation of each.
1. Student Loans
Caller: Greetings this is Matt from Student Loan Forgiveness.
Me: Greetings Matt. Before you say any more, I have no student loans, and haven’t had any for over 30 years, My house burned down last week, and we had no insurance. Your calls are wasting valuable time I could use to salvage what remains from the fire. Please take me off your list so nobody wastes any more of my time.
(Matt hangs up somewhere in my speech, I don’t actually here the phone click. But I will still get more calls about help with paying off my student loans.
2. Medicare options
Caller: Hello, this is Diane calling about several new Medicare options…
Me: Pardon, Diane, but I am not old enough for Medicare. Actually I am already on Medicaid, and my house burned down last week and we had no insurance. This call is wasting valuable time I need to recover what I can. would you …
(Diane hangs up the phone)
3. Home Repair
Caller: Hello, this is Tom from Gutter Cover Solutions.
Me: Tom, before you say anything more, if you are hoping to sell me gutter covers for my house that burned down last week, let me tell you, you are going to have a tough sale…
(Tom hangs up)
At The Rainbow 