Still in for a Videotron, still out for a Bell

Alright, Opération Franophonize La Mabel begins. I'm taping a French movie called L'Esquive. Hopefully my TV's subtitling will work, because it's Parisian French. It is! Phew, cause it's a bunch of fast-talking Arab-French banlieue youth! I would be totally lost.  "Ils nous prennent pour des baltringues." What is that? Hmm I see.

A customer who was learning French gave me a good tip once--to never look up words in French-English dictionaries, but in French dictionaries. He was right, if only because most of the words I need to look up don't tend be in pocket F-E dictionaries anyway.

My cable provider must have known I wanted to practice French and was on a budget, because they're building a library of Quebecois cinema, and the movies are only $1.99:

ÉLÉPHANT
LA MÉMOIRE DU CINÉMA QUÉBÉCOIS

Quebec's film heritage is now secured! As part of the "Éléphant: mémoire du cinéma québécois" project, Quebecor is investing half a million dollars per year to digitize 800 Quebec feature-length movies and make them accessible. To help you enjoy them, this treasure trove is available through Videotron's Video on demand service. 

Speaking of Videotron.  Today salesmen from Bell, the other major Canadian competitor for internet/phone/TV services came knocking at the door. I tried warning them right away, politely, that I have NO interest in switching to Bell. Now... here is what I hate about hard selling techniques, cause here are some of the things they tried.

• When I said I had bad experience with Bell and would not switch, they actually said I wouldn't be switching, and then launched into their spiel. At the end of which I said... Me: "But I would be with BELL."  Them: "Yes."  Me: "I have no interest in switching TO BELL."
• How they somehow justified that I wasn't "switching" was in saying that I'd keep the same phone number and package of services, I wouldn't even notice the switchover. Yes, but, that's still SWITCHING. You are LYING to me.
• They presented "keeping the same phone number" as though this was a service. Of course I would! That's the norm!
• They tried to pressure me by saying all my neighbors had switched over. Which of course there's no way I can know.
• They tried to get me to tell them what I spend on my bill. "Your bundle if it's like your neighbors must cost about $120 right?" ...silence... "You will receive the same service for only $60!"  I did NOT bother asking how this was possible, for how long, what's the small print, etc. If this is the real deal, then there's enough competition that Videotron will be forced to match them. In all likelihood there's a catch somewhere anyway. Because Bell is always full of catches catches catches which is why I refuse to do business with them.
• I kept telling them over and over that I would NOT do business with Bell, and they kept trying to tell me, yes in the past people had trouble with their service, but now we have these bla bla whatever cables with x x x whatever company so service is yada yada improved which is why we're here annoying you. I think what I didn't make clear to them is that I never had any service issues with Bell, cause I never had them for internet or cable TV. I just mean I cannot STAND their customer service, their billing practices, their practices once you cut ties with them, their general underhandedness and pressure tactics, such as I was presently experiencing.

But I didn't hold it against these guys. I've been in sales and I know that these are the kinds of people who make sales. I could see how their wee lies, their little ways of saying things just the right way, their stories about the neighbors, etc. were hitting all the right notes. I suspect they were pretty successful. They were pushy, they wouldn't take no for an answer, they never let me close the conversation (I had to close the door on them, so they put me in the position of having to be the rude one) etc. You can tell a staff member that you don't expect them to hard sell, but the reality is that a staff member who uses techniques like this will outperform their co-workers.



So I didn't take it personally, they were doing their job, and well. And but it made me dislike Bell all the more, cause they (the managers) are the ones who created whatever incentives that inspired this bit of tomfoolery.