I know this isn't exactly a Radical Reference topic, but I just need to say this publicly somewhere. I hate Grey House Publishing. Actually, I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other about their publications, what I despise is their obnoxious telemarketing campaign. I've now had unpleasant conversations with 4 different callers in the space of maybe 6 months and have twice asked to be removed from their call list. Today I sent an e-mail. We'll see if it takes.

The first call was one of those "let us send you this book for a free 30 day inspection" kind of deals. I mean, who in the library world does that, other than as a part of a pre-agreed upon approval plan? Once I stopped hesitating for a second, the salesperson took that as a yes and put me on with his superviser to confirm the "order." I'm sorry, but I'm a busy professional, and I don't have time for that nonsense--especially when I don't want the book to begin with.

I got another call about the same book and said that we don't participate in unsolicited free trials. With both the third and fourth calls (about two weeks apart), as soon as the caller identified him/herself as Grey House I just asked never to be contacted again.

I am sympathetic to independent publishers needing to find ways of marketing their wares, but I prefer they not adopt the used car sales model.

Because I attempt to be a fair selector of materials, I won't hold this against Grey House when reviewing items they publish. Instead, I just wish much suffering and maybe a little bankruptcy on their owners and managers.

Ah. Now I feel better.

UPDATE FROM MAY 2013: They've stopped calling. Me. But, they did recently pull the "we'll send you a 'free preview' of this encyclopedia there's no way your library would ever order" bs on an academic department at my institution. The encyclopedia (of gun control and gun rights--really, Grey House?) ended up in the library's care to return to the publisher, so I still hate Grey House Publishing.
UPDATE FROM OCTOBER 2009: They called the reference desk and asked for the "head librarian."
UPDATE FROM JULY 2009: They called the reference desk, and the librarian staffing it at the time transferred the call to me.
UPDATE FROM JUNE 2008: They called the Head of Technical Services, and he transferred the call to me!
UPDATE FROM JUNE 2008: At least they didn't call me personally this time. It was the reference desk!
UPDATE FROM APRIL 2007: They just called me again! To make it even more annoying, it was one of those obvious telemarketing
UPDATE FROM OCTOBER 2006: They just called me again!
calls where you say hello, and there's not answer the first time.

I'm going to save this post as new each time they call.