Some people are simply stuck in the 1800s, apparently.
This woman shared that a salesman came to her house one day and immediately upon seeing her, asked to see “the man of the house.”
So she let him.
He had no idea she was the one who handled all the finances.
Let’s read the story.
You want the man of the house? Fine!
As we live in a busy estate, we are in a prime position for door to door callers.
Usually they were fine, polite and if I was happy to listen to their pitch then great and if not, they were pretty good about hearing “no” and leaving me be.
In our house, all the utility bills are in my name because I am the financial person in the household and by mutual agreement, the one who knows how many beans make five when it comes to deals and offers.
In a lot of households, the woman handles all the finances.
Also, it’s the 21st Century.
Therefore, I decide on our provider each year and negotiate the best offers.
I know the exact date we come out of the contract and am generally organized in swapping suppliers.
Sometimes I do this with the D2D salesperson and other times online or via phone.
It just so happened one year that we had a D2D salesperson knock in for a utility that was pretty close to its contract end date.
He immediately started his pitch with “Good afternoon, is the Man of the House there?”
Oh no, he didn’t.
Now, straight away that rubbed me up the wrong way.
I answered no and he proceeded to ask me when he would be home.
I mentioned that he was at work but he was welcome to call back after 5pm when “The Man of the House” would be home.
The salesperson wrote this down in his book, nodded at me and left.
Wow. He was in for a surprise.
Sure enough, he called back after 5 pm and spoke to the very irritated Man of the House who asked the salesperson why he didn’t speak to me about all this.
The salesperson back pedaled so quickly and asked if I was there.
Sadly, I was out and wouldn’t be back until late but he was welcome to call over again tomorrow and see if I would speak to him.
As it so happens, I did speak to him the next morning.
She was actually the woman of the house and the person he should have talked to all along.
With a beaming smile and a smug of tea in my hand, I thanked him for reminding me to check my offers and I had switched online to his company a couple of hours before he arrived.
Then I waved him a cheery goodbye.
I believe that would have cost him two sales, as I switched gas and electricity.
I bet he never dared to use that sentence again.
Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this.
Someone compliments her way with words.
Likewise!
This reader also compliments her smug of tea.
A commenter shares their thoughts.
Another commenter chimes in.
A man shares a similar story.
Who would translate it?
Maybe now he has finally caught up with the times.
I’m feeling doubtful, though.
If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.