A true story in her own words:
Today (July 10, 2015) I answered the phone at the office… 
“Good Morning HomeLife Professionals”
I was immediately accosted by a young lady speaking a mile a minute; “Good Morning – its Brandy calling from the notification department at I.D.C, and I’m calling regarding an increased rate in your toner costs for your Kyocera copier.”
At this point I knew exactly who she was and felt the need to immediately nip this in bud… I raised my voice to a level that directed her to stop her diatribe long enough to hear me and answer my question…
“Excuse me Brandy” I said, “You’re calling me from the notification department of WHERE?!”
Brandy responded “I.D.C. “and again she began to launch into her spiel at an impressive rate of speed.
Again I loudly interrupted, “Brandy! What exactly is I.D.C?”
Brandy’s response was “I.D.C. is an abbreviation” and again her auctioneer like sales pitch began.
“BRANDY!” I interrupted again “What does the abbreviation I.D.C actually stand for?”
It was at this point in the conversation that Brandy’s speech slowed to a very slow crawl and her response was… “ It …. stands …. for…. really….. big……. words”
“Meaning, I won’t understand them?” I questioned.
“Yeah” was her response.
Needless to say, her ear will still be hurting from how loudly I hung up on her, and Amy and I are still chuckling about the entire encounter!!
Morale of story… Pirates might be out to RIP YOU OFF, but dealing with them can be humorous!!!
MFP Toner Piracy Is a Real Issue
The above story is real and came from one of our clients who has a solid understanding of their MFP contract and the fact that it includes toner as part of the maintenance agreement. This client has previous experience in the business so knows some of the horror stories around the scammers who call and try to get unaware phone people to place an order for toner that is not only not needed but has a price level that is way above the market.
We have previously documented this material and told of other attempts to confuse and rip off clients, but the way this instance has been written is so compelling we thought it was well worth reminding readers again about the dangers of these kinds of sales efforts.
Hope you were able to enjoy the humour as much as our client who obviously enjoyed winning her exchange with Brandy....and the chance to respond aggressively as well.
Lee K
Photo credit: By Clément Bardot (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
