Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 05, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The phone rang. I answered. The caller on the other end quickly said, “Call me back!”
I was baffled. I did not recognise the voice. The call was too short to allow for voice recognition. It was a mere few seconds. Why would anyone call me to ask me to call them back? Made no sense to me! I could not figure that out at all.
I did later the same day. The caller called again. This time he was annoyed. “Why did you not return my call?” he said.
I recognised the voice. I answered defensively, “I did not know it was you?”
“Well call me back right away,” he said. And with that he hung up the phone.
I had no intention of doing that. Why would someone call to ask me to call them back? Why is it that if my friend had something to say to me he did not just say it instead of asking me to call him back?
And to think that this had happened twice in one day, about eight hours apart.
I continued doing what I was doing. But all the while I was trying to figure out why is it that in Guyana, someone would dial your number to ask you to call them back.
I did not have to wait long for the answer. The phone rang again. It was the same caller. “Wha’ happen man?” he queried in an irritated tone, “Why are you not returning my call?”
I hit the roof. “Why are you calling me to ask me to call you?” I demanded. “Why don’t you simply state what you want and end this matter once and for all?”
“Take it easy, meh buddy. Is me calling you to ask you to call me because I low on credit.”
That was the limit. This was barefaced. Here was someone wanting to speak to me but wanting me to take a tab on his call.
He is calling me and asking me to call him because the credit on his phone is low. So he is the one wanting to speak to me but I must pay for the phone call.
I refused to do so and put down the receiver.
This did not deter him. He called back within minutes and went right to the point. He wanted to know if I could lend him some money.
This was all too much. Here was someone calling to ask me to lend him some money while wanting me to pay for the phone call on which the request was made. Now this was really taking things a bit too far and I decided to put an end to it by indicating that I considered the manner of his approach barefaced, and wished to end what he called our friendship.
I was in for a bigger surprise. When I related to a relative what had transpired, he was upset with me.
He said that this is something normal in Guyana. A great many people, he explained, have cell phones that are prepaid, in that they have to buy phone minutes before they can make their calls.
Sometimes they either cannot afford such minutes or they are low on phone minutes, or what they call credit, and thus request that the receiver call them back. My relative was very upset that I was rude to the caller, but when I told him that the purpose of the call was to borrow money, he said that I was quite in order in refusing to call back.
I later met the person who had called me earlier. He was apologetic, but explained that he badly needed the money. Feeling sorry for the manner in which I had treated him, I enquired why he wanted the money.
He bent his head and said that he wanted the money to buy some credit for his phone.
So the full story was out. He had called me and asked me to call him back because he was low on phone credit and wanted to borrow some money to put some credit in his phone.
Sounds bizarre? Not in Guyana. It happens quite a lot, according to folks.
So the next time someone calls and asks you to call them back, it may cost you more than just the cost of the call. It may cost you your personal phone credit and money to buy phone credit for others.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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