Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Mad Light Bulb Giveaway!

A funny thing has happened over the past few days here in our suburb...

A whole bunch of Indians descended on our suburb, each with a fold up chair and one of those red/blue striped laundry bags. They then proceeded to sit out on the median strips around our suburb in the shade and I had no clue as to what they were doing.

Then on Friday, the door bell rang... and standing at the door was an Indian girl... and she offered me some spiel that she was from some sort of company and asked me how many energy saving lightbulbs I would need in the house? "Twenty?? Thirty??" she asked... Me, in a daze, said "what, are you giving me free lightbulbs? Why?" She then said, "Wait here, I will be back in five minutes" and then I asked her if I had to do anything for these lightbulbs.

She said "we have to take your name and details down on our computer". Nevermind how they powered their computers by sitting by the side of the road all day, I said "No way" and told her not to worry about it... she seemed genuinely dismayed, but relised that I wouldnt fall for her scam.

Then yesterday, the doorbell rings again... this time, the girls answer it expecting a neighbourhood kid, but then I hear the dreaded "Hi, is your mummy home?" and I head for the door.

Standing there was this nerdy looking guy with acne sporting a lime green polo shirt with some indiscernible logo and a crackling CB radio on his hip.

"Afternoon sir, I am from the Blah Blah company and I am offering to fit your house completely with our energy saving lightbulbs!"

I said, hang on... weren't you here on Friday. He is puzzled and then asked...

"Was it an Indian person?"

I answered in the affirmative...

"Well they're really dodgy" was his reply.

Stunned, I said "Well you're not to genuine sounding yourself and I said no to them and I will say no to you too... thanks" and then I shut the door.

Can I ask... why are people willing to give you a huge amount of energy saving lightbulbs? What's the catch?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clay they do this in shoppingcentres too giving away bulbs and water saving shower heads.

They take your details and claim carbon credits and then on sell these to large companies that need it.

OB

Clay said...

But why did they hit my suburb - which is an obscure off the beaten track area - twice in a space of a few days?

Anonymous said...

Big Houses, lots of lightbulbs, lots of carbon credits

Anonymous said...

it was just your turn.

Actually this madness was about 2 yrs ago. so your probably last on the lists being up in the mountains.

OB