Chapter 18 - Day Three - On My Way To Inbound

Sorry about getting side tracked there for a bit. Now, back to the story! Obviously this is literally not day three. But I will continue this format for continuity purposes. I am trying to get as much content here as possible, so that a major screenplay writer like Brian Helgeland can come along and help me finish this masterpiece.

It did not take long, and I started writing up multiple deals pretty much every day! I was excited! People were already paying attention to me. They knew that I would lead the pack one day, and I did. First, I had to get off the red pen. Every sale I wrote - I had to write on the cassette tape in red sharpie. That means the Service Quality Department would review every single sale. Also, it meant I could not sign up for weekend Inbound. I knew Inbound was where it was at, and I wanted it bad. It took me a few weeks. My mistakes were small, but they held me back for good reason - they wanted me to be the best of the best. Later on the Director of Service Quality would run into me, and Don W. would tell me how much he loved listening to my tapes. I was that good. Also, I had reloads tell me they loved my leads, to do their upsells on my sales, cuz they were that strong! Also, I had one of the lowest chargebacks on the floor - my clients loved me! And I loved them!

I finally got my black pen, and I signed up for as many weekend Inbound shifts that I could get. I was there on a making money mission. Week ending March 5th I wrote $12,500 - number one in Outbound (with the help of Inbound of course). Week ending March 12th I wrote about $8300, good enough for second I think among Outbound, and I had now qualified for FT Inbound - wow! I made it. I kept my Inbound chair for a year. Not too many people did that. Sometimes I would take the AM shift, but usually I stayed on the PM shift which was like noon to 8pm, or 11am to 7pm - depending upon DST. AZ does not change their clocks, but the rest of the states did, and we had to adjust to maximize our contact percentages.

Being new to Phoenix, I had no close friends. As I was 39, most of the staff were early 20's. One night after work, I asked one of my desk neighbors what he was doing after work. His name was Roy, and he was about my age. He was from St. Louis and used to own a car lot. He was the epitome of a used car sales man. We called him Redneck Roy, as his views were strong and somewhat warped. He reminded me a bit of Barney Rubble. He said a few of them were going to the Double Deuce nearby after work. I asked to tag along, and he said ok. It was a dive bar in an industrial area of University. We were joined by his current mistress Jamie, and a very dark black man name Kirk. The four of us enjoyed beverages and chatted. I was new. I have always been inquisitive. I guess I might have been a bit too straight for them, and when I asked a lot of questions (to get to know them right), they asked me if I was a narc. I said no and laughed. We later became fairly good friends, but not close. Cordial I guess you would say.

Eventually, Roy went back to his wife Carol. He told me one day, you know Dave, she is a very good woman, and I need to do right by her. I made a mistake. I understood, and left it at that. They got back together, and he died a few years later in his sleep of a heart attack. Kirk had heart problems. He later received a heart transplant I believe. He kept up his hard partying ways I understand, I died sometime later. Jamie was another story. She was a cute girl, but lacked self respect. She was also a repetitive drunk as I call them, and later I found out, a stalker. I became a regular at Old Chicago's on Broadway. She found this out, and would follow me there with Kirk. One night she gave her car keys to Kirk, and made up a story how he wanted to go cruising for a hooker or drugs, I don't remember. So, she needed a lift home. I made the mistake of getting too friendly with her that night, and she was hung up on me. I hung with her for a short time, and then dumped her. She was a drunk with no self esteem. After she dumped me, she then moved into the apartment right next to mine. OMFG! I remember seeing her in the pool one day with another guy. She swam over to me, put her arms around me, and said she was not sleeping with him, and that she wanted me. I said go away, and eventually moved. Crazy women! I can tell you some stories. And I will.

One last story about Roy. He was a red neck for sure, and his opinions were strong. Our neighbor was Dr. Tim O. Tim is a chiropractor, and we became very good friends. He will be referenced frequently in this movie project. Roy was saying negative things about chiropractors, like, you have to keep going back, over and over again. Tim's response was, yeah, just like you only have to brush your teeth once, right. Or, yeah, you only have to exercise once, right. One day when we were all on the Inbound phones, Tim went under Roy's desk while he was at break, and unplugged Roy's Inbound phone. As the day progressed, Roy caught on that everyone was getting Inbound calls, but him. He picked up the receiver, and the line was dead. WTF! He slammed down the phone and left for the day. A mean thing to do, but I think he deserved it. I don't think he ever learned who did it to him. The phone specialist fixed it for him, but no one but a few of us knew who the culprit was. Good times!

Tim became a very good friend of mine. A mentor in some ways. And not so much in other ways, lol. Much more will be written about him.