Agents, of All People, Should Know Better

Photo by Thomas Oxford on Unsplash‍ ‍

Wow. Some people.

I just got a call from a former, now-retired colleague. Someone I haven’t talked to in ten years, but someone with whom I collaborated often when we were both in the same office.

Here’s why they’re calling: Do I know how to spell the last name of a particular Realtor in San Francisco. This Realtor’s last name is challenging to pronounce or spell. The reason the former colleague needs this spelling is because they are selling their book of real estate business to this agent with the hard-to-spell name.

Dumbfounded and wanting to either hang up the phone or say something nasty (if I could only think of what to say), I looked on the internet (what a concept!) and gave them the correct spelling of the agent’s name. As I listened in stunned stung silence, they briefly thanked me and then asked me how I was doing (“fine,” I said), how my husband was doing (clearly unaware that he has been my ex for 10+ years), and then (though I showed no interest whatsoever) proceeded to tell me about their retired life, their dog, their marriage.

But I wanted to ask two questions:

First, how could it be that you’re selling your book of business to an agent whose name you can’t spell or be bothered to have written down somewhere?

Second, how rude and bold are you for calling ME – someone you haven’t spoken to in 10 years and someone to whom you aren’t selling your book of business – to ask for the spelling of this other agent’s name and take up a bunch of my precious time knowing how much time we agents end up giving away for free?

I wanted to say:

Call them yourself and ask them how they spell their f*&king name! Or – instead of wasting taking up MY time – try doing a Google search.

I’m still itching from the insult, and now am sitting here writing about it, throwing away even more of my precious time.

As my dear ex-husband always says, “The more you do for some people, the less they think of you.” Ain’t it the truth!?