I was sitting at home, contemplating my next article, when I received a call from the magazine "Highlights For Children".  I wasn't surprised at getting a telemarketing call from them, since we did give a subscription of the magazine to my niece for her birthday.  When I answered the phone, I received a strange message from the machine calling me:

 

Hi, this is Highlights for Children Magazine.  At the time of this call, an operator was not available to speak to you.  If you have any questions regarding Highlight products or services, you can call us back at (XXX-XXX-XXXX).  Thank you.  (click)

 

First off, I'm not a fan to telemarketers, even if I am doing business with their company.  But having the automated system tell me that it wasn't worth their time to have a telemarketer to throw a sales pitch to me, (and imply that my personal time was worthless to them, pulling me away from my activities for their half-hearted phone call), was at best insulting.  They would never get any chance to sell me anything, instead they should have never even called, at least I would have had a higher impression of them.

 

While it was at least insulting, a bigger question is the business tactics we will soon be seeing companies use to try to do business during the economic downturn.  I hope companies keep in mind that during a downturn, while they may not be able to make much of a profit, they can try to capture market share for better times.  Skimping on their business practices too much, even if it's those annoying telemarketers, can do nothing more than to hurt the companies reputation in the long run. 

 

At least that's my 2 cents.

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