Oh man, I am sooooooo half dead-like right now. I think it's because I've been sleeping a bit late the past couple of night.....though I don't think sleeping at 1am is actually THAT late.... but a few nights of doing that in a row is enough to turn me into Zombie Girl. Dang, that Rockstar Supernova. Wish they showed the repeat earlier. Or that my mum wouldn't watch her Chinese shows on Wah Lai Toi so I can the 8pm show..... Ah well...
Anyway, I've recently been in positions in which I pretty much crushed the hopes of two people..... Now before you go on thinking what a meanie I am, they were people trying to get me to pay quite a bit of money for stuff. So don't feel so much pity yet. :P
The first one was in the last two months or so, when an old friend of mine from college whom I hadn't seen for ages (and whom I used to have a crush on, but way over it now!) called me out for makan and wanted to tell me about a 'way of making additional income' but wasn't generous with the details when I tried to ask about it. Yes, very suspicious sounding stuff, but since he wasn't trying to push me to do anything and he was pretty nice asking me to just go to his office and check it out, I agreed. Turned out to be a multi-level marketing company called Synergy. And so my friend introduced me to this woman who launched into her whole sales pitch about how great their (superbly expensive) products are and how many amazing testimonials they've gotten from customers. I was pretty much about to doze off in that part coz' I've heard it all before. Then she explained the compensation plan, and that's when it got interesting. Coz' they have 6 different ways of compensating downlines who bring in more people into the company, and it's quite different from other MLM companies' strategies. And I'd been to MLM companies before where I was not impressed with the compensation plan coz' in those companies, we'd have to bring in like a gazillion people to make money, but this Synergy's plan made it a lot more easier. And I thought it would be good to make some extra income, what with the cost of everything sky-rocketing these days.
So I was almost convinced to join up.... my friend even got out the application form which I filled up. The only step left was actually giving the all important money.... But then after giving it some thought, I decided not to join. Not because I didn't think the plan was good enough (I still think it's pretty good), but just in order to really get some good returns, I'd have to take a lot more time after work to meet people and try and convince them to join up, and I know I just don't have the energy to do that. I'm quite happy coming home straight from work and bumming around at home watching tv, relaxing or chatting with Gerald. :D And if I started doing this MLM thing, I'd have little time to myself. Plus, I hardly ever call my friends out just to hang out anyway, and for me to start calling people up mainly to convince them to join this company.... well, it just feels so wrong. The company even has training sessions where they teach their people how to talk to their friends without sounding too imposing or pushy. They try to make it sound like they just wanna hang out and be friends, but actually got ulterior motive wan. And I asked myself if I really wanted to become like that and the answer was a resounding NO.
Another reason I decided to pull out was when I went for one of their talks about the company. It was a Cantonese talk that I went with my dad (I brought him along to listen so he could advise me on the company and also coz' I thought if he was interested he could join coz I had decided by then that I didn't want to join). And the whole presentation was so gung ho in a scary kind of way. Like they would play really corny dramatic music to intro the speakers for different sections of the talk. And then when the speaker asked if everyone was doing well, almost everyone in the room would say loudly in unison, "Ho!" which means "Good!" in Cantonese. It felt like so fake and freaky... it was during the talk that I decided for sure that I was going to bail. I don't think I could've lasted through any more corny talks. :P
So I dropped the bomb on my friend that I didn't want to join after all. And of course, he didn't want to take no for an answer, so he called me out again a few days later for dinner... and just as I suspected, sometime through our makan, he started talking about the company and tried to convince me to join again. He even took out some paper and a pen and wrote all this stuff to convince me that the calculated returns would be good or whatever. At which point, I was pretty impatient already, so I think he got the hint. And he hasn't contacted me since. Ah well.
The second person whose hopes I dashed was this MAA insurance lady who has sold insurance to my brother before and who was trying to sell a medical policy to me. She arranged a meeting with me last week where she explained the whole thing to me over an hour and a half. Of course, she started off trying to scare me into buying a policy by telling me sad cases of people who don't buy insurance or don't buy a complete medical plan and end up in a rut when they get into accidents or have diseases. I really hate it when these sales people use their scare tactic. Yes, I know insurance is important, no need to try and freak me out already!
Anyway, she was offering me this complete plan that covers accidents, hospitalization, critical illnesses and life protection (which is compensation my nominated relatives get in the event I suddenly kick the bucket) for the price of slightly over RM1500 a year. She also tried to convince me to pay for a better policy by saying a proper insurance policy should cost between 10-15% of my pay.... But I was like, hehe, no way, jose. Plus, she said that I had to buy it quick coz the policy price would go up in August. Yes, yes, the favourite catchphrase of all sales people.... So on the first day I met up with her, she already tried to get me to fill up the application form and all, but I said I needed to think about it for a few days, which she was ok with.
So I went home and ended up not really thinking about it. I intended to check out some other policies first to compare, but didn't have the time (especially when Gerald came to visit over the weekend, so obviously I wouldn't care about checking out boring ol' insurance policies then!). So I ended up dilly dallying til our next meeting, which is when she pulled out the application forms and got me to fill in everything and coerced my entire medical history out of me. And then when she started talking about payment and wanted to go to the bank with me to tranfers the money to her account, I said I had to go back home first to get money out of my joint account with my mum. I actually felt it was a bit too rushed to pay so fast, and I wanted to really think it over properly. And when I told my dad, he advised me not to get into it so fast. So the next day I dropped the bomb on the lady too, saying that I needed time to think about it some more. And then she emailed me apologizing for whatever mistakes she thought she made and 'reminding' me about the policy price going up in a few days.
Well, I'm glad I managed to stop myself from paying for these things so fast. The thing is that I've had such people try and convince me to buy their stuff quite a few times now, and I notice that I always do the same thing.... I aaaaallllllmost get convinced into buying whatever it is they want me to buy, and I sign all the forms or whatever, then somehow or another I tell them I will pay up later but end up changing my mind. And I'm quite annoyed with myself coz' I think I have a problem telling these people that I won't pay anything or fill up any forms til I'm completely sure I want this. Especially the darn good sales people who know how to say all the right things. Dang, I gotta learn to drop the bombs earlier. It would probably be a lot less disappointing for them too. Haha!
P.S.: I started writing this on Thursday night but it got too late, so I finished it on Friday night. Just so you know. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment