Mrs Bear Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 People like to sell you things. To sell you things they have to get closer to you and gain trust. The most logical way of doing that is to call you by your first name. I'd find it really odd to be called by my surname. Maybe at a hospital or in a courtroom perhaps.Yes, all very well if you're happy with it, but many of us will instinctively mistrust any total stranger who instantly wants to be on matey, first-name terms - that is in a situation where they are trying to sell you something, or want something else from you. Of course it's quite different in a social setting. It was ages ago, on my first visit to the US, when some total stranger (young and attractive and entirely normal-looking) approached me in the street and started chatting, all as matey as you like, and wanted at once to know and use my first name. It took me a while to realise that she was recruiting for some weird religious sect and must have thought I looked like suitable fodder. Instant freeze on my part - partly down to shock since I'd had no idea and had thought she was just being friendly - No thank you (in best clipped-British tones) - bye bye. Edit to add, now I come to think of it, before going off to uni my daughter's year at school were given a very hard-hitting talk on cults, and the need for wariness at a time when you might be very vulnerable. And one of the points was to b extremely wary of anyone you didn't know who seemed 'excessively or inappropriately friendly'. (In fact in my own student days I had a politics lecturer who was 'inappropriately friendly' but he was just a lech who fancied himself rotten.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Why not join my "Wierd Religious Sect" Mrs Bear? You have to bring your own toothbrush, and we have no wisdom at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Cavey Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 If, reluctantly, I have to fill my name in for an online enquiry, I incorporate the name of the vendor into the name field, so I know who to complain to if I get a cold call or email from them, i.e.: Dear Mr Big 'N' Bouncy, or Mr Spanking Quarterly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy T Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 I'm 36. The only organisation that has ever addressed me as a Mr. xxxxx is actually the family owned garage where I've had my car serviced for years. The guy who works on the reception desk is only a couple of years older than me, it seemed really unusual back when I was 20-ish. If I ring them up, without thinking I say 'It's Mr. xxxx', but I never use my title with anyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knock out johnny Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 I'm 36. The only organisation that has ever addressed me as a Mr. xxxxx is actually the family owned garage where I've had my car serviced for years. The guy who works on the reception desk is only a couple of years older than me, it seemed really unusual back when I was 20-ish. If I ring them up, without thinking I say 'It's Mr. xxxx', but I never use my title with anyone else. Is he a crazee fool with his jibber jabber? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sPinwheel Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Mr Mister Missteer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.