How to ask a 3rd party to tell someone to contact me?

Question

I am looking for information on my estranged father of 20 years.

I found the sister of his old best friend on Facebook. Her name is Lily. Lily told me her brother George lived with my father for many years. Lily is very active on Facebook and I've chatted with her on the messenger feature a few times and she gave me George's phone number. I have tried to call George a few times now and no luck. There was no answer.

Lily called George and told him to pickup and he said he would but no luck so far. Lily said George doesn't use Skype at all and he does have Facebook but he doesn't go online very often.

George is very hard to contact. He can't call me back because it's long distance. I've been using Skype to landline to call him.

How can I ask Lily for further help in contacting George without sounding desperate or pushy?

Answer 1

When we arrange for phone calls with a 3rd party for a professional purpose, we always give to our intermediary a suggested time and date. It is customary for the third party to confirm, or to suggest a different time and day. Once they give their availability, we ensure to not miss the agreed slot.

This comes from experience with calling third parties in the preparation of civil cases, as well as data vendors, as well as public officials.

Dear Lily. I failed to reach George. When you talk to him, could you ask whether [DAY] at his local time [TIME] would work? Otherwise, any other day or time of his choice would work for me. Thank you again.