My dad used to "play" with these guys. My dad enjoyed watching the weather so when one of these guys would call and open with "So how's the weather there Al?" he would go into a long, detailed spiel about the weather today, yesterday, and however far back he could go before the caller interrupted. We would hear my dad go silent for a moment then in a bit of a sorrowful voice say "But you asked me what the weather was like and I was just answering you." Most of the time the guy would hang up on him and my dad would sit there chuckling to himself.
Another time an extension cord guy called him. My dad plainly told him no. The guy ignored him and pressured him more. So my dad had him quote an order. Then a bit bigger order. And up, and up, and up. Then down, and down, and down. By them time you figure for 14, 12, and 10 gauge, plus 25, 50, and 100 foot lengths there were a lot of different combinations my dad could put together and he did.
He was back down to about 3 cords (with a high of around 300 or so) when he told the guy "Well, it's just me and my son and we have all the cords we can use already." Same thing he told him in the beginning.
The guy simply exploded. Yelled at my dad for wasting his time. My dad put on his best "poor misunderstood me" voice and said "Well, I told you no to begin with but you didn't listen so I thought maybe you just needed practice quoting different sized orders. So I was willing to spend some of my time to help you now you are mad at me."
Click. And it wasn't my dad that hung up on the guy either.
I don't have the time to waste like that, and neither does my dad anymore. But once upon a time it provided him with some much needed comic relief.