The Telemarketer's Lament

Yesterday I was just hanging out when my phone rang. Caller ID said it was MASSACHUSETTS and since that's where I live, I figured it was safe to pick up the phone. I was greeted by a cheerful-sounding man and we had the following conversation:

Man on the other end of the line:
"Hey, this is Charlie the Chimney sweep."
Me, seriously doubting his name is in fact Charlie, as the alliteration seems too convenient:
"Um, ok. How are you?"
Charlie, thrown off, because clearly he's reading from a script and not expecting to have to answer a question:
"After a tough winter, I was wondering if you needed your chimney cleaned? How about the chimney from your wood-burning furnace? Because you know -"
Me, while wondering who the hell still uses a wood-burning furnace:
"Woah... I'm all set. Thanks, though."
Charlie, the wind out of his sails as he hears that for probably the 800th time that day:
"(heavy sigh) Yeah... ok, bye."

Here's my issue: does cold-calling ever work any more? We live in a world where you can do any kind of shopping that you could ever need online or by calling the company yourself. Especially with a service like chimney sweeping, which I would imagine is not a snap decision. You would go looking for that; no one decides in a second that they need their chimney cleaned. Now, obviously for Charlie probably has some time to kill during the day, so that's why he was calling around. But, I would love to know how often this worked for him.

-As the NBA Finals start tonight I'm, unfortunately, expecting the Lakers to win in 6. If the Tampa Bay Rays and Arizona Cardinals have taught us anything in this past sports year, it's that the young upstart team can make a run and get to the championship series, but they're going to come up short. They just can't handle the biggest of the big stages yet.