A year or two ago, I had an odd charge appear on my credit card bill. It was only a couple of bucks so I really didn't care except that I wanted to make sure that I wasn't getting charged a monthly fee for something that I didn't want. Hadn't happened with this company before, but better safe than sorry. What followed was the most excruciating half-hour I'd spent on the phone in a long while. I wanted to ask a question, I wanted to get the answer, and I wanted to get on with my day. Instead, I spent 30 minutes listening to one ad after another for a service that I didn't want because of a mistake on my credit card bill. By the time it was done, I wanted to send them an invoice for the time they took from me.

It's always good to learn something about yourself. What I learned that day is that I have little patience for my time being wasted on the phone with sales pitches that I don't want when, unlike with a telephone solicitor, I can't just hang up. I'm a captive audience. Though I didn't work for OmniStar TV for very long, I learned something about myself. I learned what I'm not willing to do for money.

I had always assumed that I was easy-going and capitalistic enough to do just about anything legal. I figured that I wouldn't have a problem working for Big Bad Tobacco, endorsing sexual deviance, or whatever made me a quick and honest buck. It wasn't that I was immoral, I just wasn't, you know, up tight. I am not generally inclined to tell people how to live their lives. I have my ideas of what a proper life consists of, but as long as they're only harming themselves, no harm no foul, right? Well, not so much.

One of the things I take most seriously is financial responsibility. Anna and I almost broke up over a $3,000 debt that she had foolishly accumulated. Another person's $30,000 debt was almost a deal-breaker for me. I am big on money management and people spending their money wisely. OmniStar is a good company with a great product. Though sales was not my primary job, I had no problem selling the product. What I did have a problem with, however, was selling the product to people who couldn't afford it and didn't want. It wasn't sales that got me, it was retention.

Some guy calls in and says that he wants to downgrade from the Caviar Plan to the more sensible Filet Mignon Plan. I can tell that the guy is not particularly educated and I can hear machines running in the background. One guy, I kid you not, was calling while on break working at a fast food joint. He's obviously a guy that doesn't need the Caviar Plan. The only people that need 45 movie channels are those with families (he only had one reciever activated) and/or those that can for whatever reason clearly afford it (he was $200 in the hole and hadn't been current since Clinton was in office). So he's calling in to cancel a plan that he doesn't need. He didn't end up downgrading.

Or I'll take another case of a guy that lost his job and needs to downgrade to the basic Meat & Taters Plan. He might want to cancel altogether, but for now he wants to try to basic channels. He loves movies, but he just can't afford it. It was my job to convincingly read from a script that told him (just like the fast food guy) that he did need this programing package that he could not afford. In my zealousness, I even pointed out that he'd have more time to watch movies since he doesn't have a job. I said it in a half-joking and friendly manner, but he realized I had a point.

Like the fast food guy, I convinced him to hold on to the package that he didn't need for a price he couldn't afford. There's a reason that companies upsell: it works. Like when I called the credit card company some time ago, they didn't call to hear a sales pitch but because they needed to hear me out before I could make the requested changes to the account.

Ethically speaking, I can't make decisions for other people. Nor am I particularly responsible for the decisions that people make. If I hadn't tried to upsell him, someone else would have. The unemployed guy said, "Thanks, Buddy" when we got off the phone. He had nothing to thank me for and I was not his buddy.

After a couple of experiences like that, I became incapable of reselling. I couldn't do it. I deviated from the almighty script. Once you start doing that, you put yourself in a position to be fired. I was let go from my last two employers and I couldn't afford to wait it out and be let go again.

So, just when I was starting to get really good at the job, I quit.

I'd be lying if I said there weren't other reasons. My employment there was temporary from the outset. I even chose the schedule so that I could look for a better job. Unfortunately, the schedule didn't leave me with enough time to do that and I was missing potential leads. Lastly, I would have had to leave anyway because I had a trip planned during a blackout week (no absenses allowed).

But mostly it was reselling an unnecessary (if nice) product to people that called with the intention of financially doing the right thing.