dont use your caller-id this way!

The BBQ Pit
21

We don’t have caller ID on our phone, but of course there is *69. My wife has this urge that compels her to want to *69 if, say, the answering machine has registered a call but the person didn’t leave a message.

I tell her, “Honey, if they wanted to leave a message, they would have.” I know I would hate to get a call-back from a person for whom I didn’t leave a message. Besides, it’s $.75 for each use.

I can tell she really wants to do it, though. She’ll reach for the phone and what ensues is like the “Zip it!” scene from Austin Powers with me (playing the part of Dr. Evil) saying “don’t do it!” as she bites her lip and looks longingly at the * button. (…She moves ever so slightly closer… [me]“DON’T DO IT!”…[she]“I’m not! I was just, uh, checking the buttons to make sure they were ok.”)

But those $.75 still appear on our phone bill on occassion.

22

How odd, that assumption that every single incoming call must have been purposeful. It really puzzles me. It’s not like causing someone’s phone to ring is a sacrosanct activity and must only be undertaken with the utmost care. People dial wrong numbers. People call just to shoot the breeze and it wasn’t about anything important. People call to sell you stuff.

There are only a very few numbers that show up on the caller ID on my cell that I will call back if they don’t leave a message, and it’s only people I know. I assume that if it were important, they would have left a message, and if it’s a number I don’t recognize, I figure it was either a wrong number or a sales call, and why on earth would I want to call those back?

23

Geobabe,

Perfection!

-pinky

24

If someone is being really insistent with calling you back, try just messing with them.

“Look, pal, I couldn’t have called you because I don’t have a phone.”

“While I have you on the line, I was just wondering. Have you found Jesus?”

“Wait. Gotta go. Hee-haw is coming on.”

Sometimes I’ll give the phone to my 2 year old, who has taken to screaming “TALK!” into the phone.

25

Do we ever really outgrow that one?

26

No, Larry. Or at least, I find I haven’t. Not that I’ll call random people and say, “Talk to me NOW!” into the phone or anything like that, of course. However, I do know a few people who answer their cell phone with, “Talk to me.” so maybe they haven’t really. (these friends of mine are sort of crazy in a weird way)

As for calling people’s numbers back on your Caller ID, sometimes I do. For some reason, I leave my answering machine on rarely, so even if the people wanted to leave a message, they couldn’t. (yes, I know I should leave it on, but I think I started leaving it off because I didn’t want to hear my mom’s voice on the machine)

Usually, a phone call will disconnect me from the Internet, and usually it’s not a problem. However, if I get to the phone and the person on the other end has hung up already, that’s a useless waste of my time. Of course, if someone calls that I don’t want to hear from (my mom, telemarketers, etc.), that’s a waste of my time too. (I remember a time when Spoz and I used to complain about this fairly frequently… we’d both like to KILL those people)

I’ve also had a similar experience to lezlers’. There have been the times when I’ve checked my Caller ID only to find that people from Pennsylvania, California, Ottawa, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia have called me. Now, not only do I not know anyone in PA, NB, or NS, the people I do know in ON and CA wouldn’t call me! They haven’t called when I’ve been home, but why would someone from PA (for example) call me? I just don’t get it… and no, I do NOT call these people back. (too long-distance for me)

F_X

27

Don’t even get me fucking started on this topic (oops, too late), the whole idea irritates me so much. “I have absolutely no life whatsoever and therefore have nothing better to do than sit around getting the full story on every time my phone rings and I don’t know who it is”. What, did your soap operas get pre-empted today? OH MY GOD, HOW DID PEOPLE SURVIVE BEFORE THE DAYS OF CALLER ID? THEY MUST HAVE BEEN MISERABLE, NOT HAVING THE CAPABILITY TO DO THIS MINDLESS WEASELLY CALL-BACK MANEUVER.

This all hit home to me when I was in a situation a number of years ago similar to MissBunny’s – I happened to be in a work situation for a few hours when I was answering the phone at a huge high school. Someone called and the conversation went like this:

Me: “XYZ High School”
Caller, abruptly: “WHO is this?”
Me: “XYZ High School”
Caller:“Did you call me?”
Me [confused]: “I’m sorry?”
Caller: “Someone there just called me”
Me [thinking that an important conversation just got accidentally cut off]: “Who were you speaking with?”
Caller: “Your number just showed up on my caller ID, that someone called”
Me [irritated]: “Ma’am, that could have come from anywhere in this building.”
Caller: click

That really stuck in my craw.

28

We get this ALL THE TIME at work. ARGH! If you are not home and we are trying to reach you, we WILL call back. Really. Seriously. We’re not in the habit of just leaving phone calls to be made just hanging, on the off chance that you’ll read your call display. Especially after one call!! GAAAH.

29

I have had this guy calling me (I know it is the same guy because of caller ID) asking for “Sally”

The first time me: “Sorry, no Sally here.” The guy says OK, hangs up. 30 seconds later, he calls back. This time he insists on talking to Sally, I assure him that no one named Sally lives here. About an hour later, phone rings, he shows up on caller ID again. I don’t bother answering this time. My boyfried told me he got a few calls the next day from this same guy, looking for Sally. A few weeks pass, I forget about it. Then one day, the same name again shows up on my caller ID. I think it looks familiar, and answer. Him: “Is Sally there?” Arrghhh! All I can think is a girl gave a fake number to a guy, and it happens to be my phone number. Gotta give the guy points for trying though.

30

I cannot help but laugh at these people. Especially LurkMeister’s guy. I mean what a bizarre person this must have been to spend an entire hour trying to get some revenge against this guy who rang your phone twice. Especially when all you can do is yell at them over the phone which they can hang-up at any second. How pathetic.

That makes me wish I had a hold button with a musak version of “Livin’ la vie da loca” on an infinite loop. But I haven’t answered my phone personally in … um … 8 years. And sometimes I don’t check my messages for weeks. heeheehee, I hate phones and everything about them.

31

Although I generally dislike caller id call back, it can sometimes be a very useful tool.

I was going to pick up my mom at the train station, but we were confused as to where to meet, and of course I’d forgotten my cell phone. Mom doesn’t even have a cell, but she could have borrowed one. I race home and as I open the door, I hear my phone ring, but I’m too damn late to pick it up. Caller id left an unknown cell number, and I figured it may have been mom borrowing a phone.

So I call back.
“I’m sorry, someone just called me from this number and I think it may have been my mom who borrowed your phone”
“Why, yes, it must have been, just a moment”
“Hi mom, where are you?”

See? Call back works wonders sometimes. You just have to be polite about the whole thing.

32

“Polite” being the operative word here. None of this rude “Who are you?!?” or “Why did you call me?!?” crap.

I’ve had the same experiences (at work, don’t have Caller ID at home), and I just hate that, especially when there’s several lines in, and it could have been anyone. I don’t even normally answer the phone, but will pick it up if the receptionist is away, and I CAN’T STAND that immediate “Who called me?!? What do you want?!?” questioning. What a paranoid bunch we’ve become.

33

Oh, man, does this remind anyone of “Ruthless People” I think it was? Danny Devito got a call. I don’t remember the name of the person they wanted, let’s call her Sally:

BRRINNGGG
“Hello?”
“Sorry, Sally can’t talk right now, my DICK is in her mouth!”
hangs up

“I love wrong numbers!!!”":eek: :eek: :eek:

34

I caller-id call backed just the other day.
My wifes father is getting older and has had several strokes so I didn’t know if that missed call from his area code at 3am was important. Of course, I JUST missed picking up the phone before they hung up.

The coversation went like this;

Me: Hi, this is Seven. Someone from this number just called me?
Some guy: Is Yolanda there?
Me: No. Sorry wrong number.
click

Of course, this guy called me 3 more time thoughout the night looking for Yolanda. The last time he called I said “she just went to the airport, she’ll be back next week.”

I don’t think he bought it though.

35

I caller-id call backed just the other day.
My wifes father is getting older and has had several strokes so I didn’t know if that missed call from his area code at 3am was important. Of course, I JUST missed picking up the phone before they hung up.

The coversation went like this;

Me: Hi, this is Seven. Someone from this number just called me?
Some guy: Is Yolanda there?
Me: No. Sorry wrong number.
click

Of course, this guy called me 3 more time thoughout the night looking for Yolanda. The last time he called I said “she just went to the airport, she’ll be back next week.”

I don’t think he bought it though.

36

Boscibo, there is a great thing called “Call Block” which is quite useful for these types of callers.

37

A few weeks ago I had my pager light up on a Saturday morning with a number I didn’t recognize. I figured it couldn’t be work-related, so I waited till Monday to call back. The woman at the other end insisted that neither she nor her roommate had paged me.

38

I am a network Admin for a global company. I get calls from all around the world and I must assume that any call could be important. I frequemntly miss calls because my cell doesn’t work well in the building I work or it is halfway across the house and answering machines have taught people that if someone by the 2nd - 4th ring they are not answering. I call back calls on my caller ID:
About a third of the calls are actuallypeople desarately trying to reach me, about a third are rude bastartds mad that I called back a number on my caller ID. About a third of the conversations go like this:

me: This is <my actual name> Were you trying to reach me? I just received a call form this number.

Dude: Is Carla there?

Me: No what number were you trying to reach?

Dude: 555-555-5555

me: That is this number, perhaps it isn’t in this area code or you have it wrong.

           or

me: That is not this number. It is just one digit off.

dude: oh man, redial messes with you.

And I do not leave messages when I call friends that I know have caller ID unless it is something time sensitive I wanted to talk to them about. They can see it is me calling and if they want to talk to me they will call me back. Most of my circle seem to think that it a good technique. I hate leaving vioce mail messages anyway.

Oh, and BTW: I like to think that there is a special place in hell for people who call my cell phone from the building I work when I am sitting at my desk in the same building they are in. My extension is 126. Try that. I’ll probably anser. If not leave me a voicemail and then I will at least know who called. I am often there after hours. I am not ditching my cell, I am at my desk and the reception is lousy in here.