“Hello, this is a message about your payment protection insurance”

The landline rang this morning as I was working away at home. I looked at the handset’s battery and saw it had one bar left. Good enough to answer.

I wondered who was calling.

No one has the number.

I answered.

There was a pause whilst the automatic dialler software calling me calibrated itself.

“Hello,” the prompt began, “This is a message about your payment protection insurance…”

I hung up.

I’ve had this about three times.

I didn’t bother to wait to see what tosser of a Marketing Director decided this was a good idea. Spamming folk on their landlines? It might have been effective 10 years ago, but nowadays? Deary me. Deary me.

As I hung up, I paused for a moment to fully appreciate the reality of what just took place. Some company (dodgy or otherwise) decided at some point that this medium was the best way of reaching me.

Or, for ‘best’ substitute the word, ‘only’.

And you know what, I’ve had enough now. I’ll unplug it later on. I need to go downstairs to actually unplug it. But, screw you, telephone marketing idiots.

The world is moving on. Deary me.

Recently Published

Question: When is the only time a traffic jam is good news in the UK?

Answer: When you're sitting in the back of an Uber and you need reliable mobile signal. Boom! Sad, isn't it, dear reader? Travel all around...

Ah yes, an S23 with a BlackBerry Bold Keyboard: Exactly what I (think) I need

I was playing with Midjourney, the AI/photo generation service and I asked it to show me what a Samsung S23 would look like with...

It’s ok, your moon photos aren’t fake, they are just enhanced – quite a bit

Have you taken a photo of the moon recently? I almost did, the other day, when I spotted a fabulous moment here in Dubai....

Don’t move! You’ll jinx it! This looks like a tiny bit of innovation in the mobile world

It has been quite a while since I’ve seen anything in the mobile industry that’s caused me to want to write much. Just look...

The new BlackBerry movie trailer is here

Were you a BlackBerry fan? Of course you were. At some point, almost everyone was. I still remember the days and the joy that...

Airalo: The easy way to roam globally with a data eSIM

Shortly before I began my FinTech & Banking Tour around the GCC, I popped into the Apple AppStore and searched ‘eSim’. I wondered if...