Just for the courtesy, I answered the phone eventhough the basketball match was disputed between two great teams. When the phone rang, I stepped outside the gym and dedicated the best of my attention the caller. “Mr. so and so… this is Bank of America’s representative.”

“Mr. so and so… you have been selected to participate in a study and the paying is $100 dollar.” “Which day would you like?” she asked, “Wednesday and Thursday is available.” But… “before we determine whether you qualify,” she said, “you need to answer a few questions and would take only a few minutes.”

“What is your nationality, your status, your income etc.?” questions after questions for about eight minutes. Meanwhile, the basketball game was about to be over. Which team is winning is unknown. “Why so many question?” I demanded to her. “Would you like me to call you tomorrow?” she asked. “How many more questions do you have” I told her? “About to finished” she replied.

But a few minutes later, the questions went on and on. “I’m going to provide you the address” she claimed, “it is on Mindanao,” puzzling in her pronunciation.

“By the time you finish determining whether I qualify or not, you have already finished your study” I warned her. “No” she said “I’m just doing my job.”

“Would you like me to call you some other day?” she repeated while the basketball game was in seconds to be concluded “Yes” I said.

By the time I hung up, the game was over, regretting to take the phone call on the first place.

Two days later, at the day and time, as the phone caller mentioned, the phone rang again. “Hello” I answer. “Its Bank of America, I spoke to you a couple days ago about the survey.” “We left off so and so” she said. After a couple more questions, which again did not seem to end, I demanded that she drop me from the survey/study suspecting that by the time she will determine if I qualify she would have done her research.

“I do not wish to participate” I threatened her. “Why not?” she said “we are almost finished, I’m just determining if you qualify or not.” “But you told me that I already qualified” I replied. So after 15 minutes, she finally provides the address of the study.

On the day in which the study supposed to take place in Marina del Rey, the phone rang again. “Mr. so and so… we are calling behalf of Bank of America to inform you that we are doing the study by quota and at this point we have too many men.” “Sorry we cannot have you.”

It is disrespectful when others don’t consider that 15 minutes of an individual’s time is extremely valuable. But most importantly, there should not be any excuse preventing them from delivering the promise. This creates a terrible example for society, specially a business such as Bank of America.

And for that matter, after close to two decades of being Bank of America’s customer, I will provide my business to another bank that values my business and respects my valuable time.

If a representative from Bank of America calls you and asking a bunch of questions for a reward of $100 dollar, be alert.