Contractors chasing leads often don’t take “no” for an answer.
After dozens of unwanted calls, one clever target decides to make them regret ever dialing their number.
You’ll want to read on for this one!
So for the past year, I’ve been getting calls from contractors asking if I want any work done on my property.
They start off by calling me by a name that isn’t mine and then asking if I live at an address that also isn’t mine.
They try to nip this in the bud right away.
I tell them I’m not that person and ask them to please stop calling my phone.
I tell them I don’t own any property and to please stop calling me. I ask them to put me on the do-not-call list.
But the contractors go right to gaslighting tactics.
Sometimes they just hang up, and sometimes they get rude, saying things like, “Why would we stop calling? You gave us your number.”
For a long time, I would just hang up without saying anything because when the call connects, there’s a beeping sound that lets me know it’s them before they even speak.
So finally, they just start going along with whatever the contractor says.
Well, after over a year of this, I decided to start saying, “Yep, that’s me,” when they ask if I’m that person.
When they ask if I still stay at the address, I say, “Yep, that’s my house.”
Then they start to really have some fun with it.
When they ask if I want any solar, landscaping, painting, or driveway work done, I say, “Yeah, I sure do.”
Then they tell me they’ll have someone come out to my property and ask what time is good for me.
I tell them a time when traffic is at its worst, like late afternoon.
Then, they call me when they get there and say they’ve been waiting for 10 minutes.
I tell them I had to run to the store real quick and will be back in 10 minutes.
It’s very satisfying.
Oh how the tables have turned!
What did Reddit think?
A commenter in a similar situation knew just how to get those hounding contractors off their trail.
Waste someone else’s time? Start getting your time wasted in return.
While the solution may not be as clear cut as they hoped, it still feels good to get a little payback.
This redditor suggests a clever way to automate the process a bit more.
After all their pestering, it only seemed fair to give the contractors a little runaround of their own.
Turns out, poetic justice pairs nicely with rush-hour traffic.
If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.
