Business Model of Alumni Solicitation

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So picture this: A lady comes on the line who is friendly, very polished and articulate.  She peppers her remarks and queries to me with "Dr."  She conscientiously checks to make sure my contact details are accurate.  I am annoyed that for the fifth or sixth time, I find that a previous employer from eight years ago is still on their records as my work place.  This, after I've corrected it each time.  She's peddling an alumni directory, and I ask her point blank, "What is the fee for it?"  She hesitates a moment, probably not expecting me to ask so soon or so straight, and she mentions it.  When I say no, she drops down to the next lower-priced product: a CD ROM (huh, I haven't heard that in a long while).  When I say no again, she drops down yet a third time to something even lower-priced:  I don't even remember was it was, as I was, at that point, turned off. 

You see, I graduated from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and nailed down a PhD in clinical psychology.  I was out of touch with them for nearly 20 years, mainly because was abroad.  In 2012 I gave it a good year of reconnecting, but ultimately and terribly felt disappointed.  I won't unload, at least not now, my complaints about the unprofessional, unresponsive, and unsophisticated behavior I ran into, but suffice it to say that I have no intentions of reconnecting or giving back.

The context that gave rise to that sales call was this:  I received e-mails and postcards about the importance of my calling back on a toll free number.  The e-mails were official alumni business, so Gmail had no reason to flag them as promotion or spam.  Interestingly, though, the postcards came in drab yellow-brown, which made them stand out in the mail and made them look official and urgent.  It was curious that they had to verify my contact details, when they already had all of it (except for my work place).  Even the last postcard had "Final Notice" on it.

But the call made all of that clear, and I was disgusted at their backhanded effort at sales.