Comment by mykehunt

When in doubt try the "God" opt-out. I have found they usually either do not have a scripted rebuttal to this or they are legally not allowed to go against one's religious views. This can also be useful when feeling pressured to make an immediate decision by asking for a moment to "pray".

Examples:

1- "God told me to..."

While canceling Time Warner Cable I tried cancelling a few times prior. Always met with rebuttals, put on hold to research the account. Either waited on hold for 20 minutes or the call was disconnected. Tried again and gave the reason for cancelling "God told me to" account cancelled immediately. (I have also heard simply saying you're moving out of the service area works too.)

2- "Moment to pray" - Buying time or dissuade an aggressive salesperson.

My wife just recently gave birth to our first child. When her water broke she wanted to go to the nearest hospital which was within walking distance instead of getting a cab across town to the hospital where she was originally being seen. She remained adamant that she wanted a natural birth unless it would potentially endanger her health or our daughters. She has two friends who were pushed into C-sections both of which ended up having complications due to the procedure.

After six or seven hours after her water broke an administrative nurse came in with a shot and said she was going to start inducing labor. My wife pushed against this as she was worried about complications from a C-section. The administrator had a rebuttal to everything, to the point she even started crying. When I continued to hold ground they brought up concerns of spousal abuse.

This registered an immediate red flag and luckily I defaulted to "God mode"

I asked if we could have a moment to "pray". This bought us enough time to speak with the doctor face-to-face who agreed to wait a few more hours before inducing labor to avoid a C-section. We had a successful natural birth with no side effects.

(Hospitals' make 2-3x from a C-section as they do from a natural birth.)

(*When asked if it was medically necessary the administrative nurse would only say it was hospital policy and they do the same for everyone else who was on the floor.)