I agree completely with this rant.
Huh. I agree with Thudlow. It bugs the shit out of me when people answer with a “Hi Enipla”, instead of a friendly “Hello?”
Don’t have caller ID myself. Well, I suppose I could program it into my answering machine and cell phone, But I have no need for it.
Really? Wow. I can not understand why it would more annoying for someone to say “Hi Enipla”. “Hello?” comes across as vague, impersonal, and pointlessly imploring when you know who is on the end of the line. Can you elaborate on this opinion because I don’t get it.
I’ll ask you the same thing I asked Thudlow. If you were to spot a friend on the street and called their name to get their attention, would you expect them to turn around and say “hello?” after seeing you standing their waving? Or would “hi Enipla” make a lot more sense?
All I’m asking is for that the conventions that apply to in-person interactions also apply to telephone interactions, in this day and age of caller ID.
Maybe I’m just stuck in the past, or maybe I’m just phone-illiterate (I still don’t have a cell phone or caller ID), but I still can’t wrap my mind around being pitted for answering the phone the way I’ve believed for decades was the standard way to answer the phone.
Hello.
What if someone doesn’t have your number plugged in to their phone?
What if someone answered the phone without looking at the caller ID?
Goodbye.
It doesn’t seem imploring to me. It seems polite.
I donno. I guess it’s because I’ve never had or used caller ID. And I just fall back to what I’ve always understood as polite telephone etiquette.
And, I don’t expect someone to check to see who is calling. But then, I’m not a big phone person. I do have a cell phone, but only use if for emergencies. Really don’t understand people that seem to be talking on them all day. I don’t even leave mine on unless I know my Wife will be needing to get in touch with me while I’m away from home or work.
It is handy for business travel though.
If I see a friend on the street, I might say Hi or Hi Jim. Completely different scenario IMHO.
Then they are not relevant to the rant, as they might as well not have caller ID in that case. I’m only ranting about people who I know have my name and number plugged in.
That’s not likely if you’re calling someone on a cellphone. I don’t know anyone who manages to answer their phones without at least glancing at the LCD screen.
Huh. Even with as few calls I do get on my cell, I never look at the screen first. Just open it and say hello.
“Hello?”, to my ear, is a polite way of saying “Who are you and what do you want?” Perhaps imploring is the wrong word to use. Pointlessly interrogative is better.
I think that’s what I’m taking issue with: people falling back on outdated rules instead of speaking naturally. “Hello?” makes perfect sense if you don’t know who is calling. But it sounds nonsensical when you do know.
I don’t see how it’s completely different. Regardless of whether Jim calls you on the phone or taps you on the shoulder while you’re waiting in line somewhere, I can’t imagine why you would say “hello”? even after realizing that Jim is the one getting your attention.
By the way, I’m not a phone person either.
Oh sweet Jeezus, yes. The medical billing system in this country is FUBAR and needs to be completely scrapped. We got a collection agency notice once for $800 from an anesthesiolgist’s office for a surgery that happened 8 years before. After making a few phone calls we found out it was a mistake - the bill was for someone else’s surgery (DH had had hernia surgery around the same time - this was for a back surgery) and our insurance company had paid our bill - 8 years ago!
My dentist’s office can’t seem to bill properly to save their own souls, and we don’t even have an insurance company in that mix - yet. Can hardly we till we do. And DH had an office visit at the doctor’s almost a month ago. Paid the $20 co-pay and the rest of the paperwork goes to the insurance company, and then we wait to see how much we’ll end up owing them for the visit (we have a deductible we have to meet). Last week the doctor’s office sent him a check for $30, saying there had been an overpayment. What? When? Oh yeah, probably 8 years ago. :rolleyes:
Is there some reason you can’t make the decision for him? (Asking seriously, not snarkily.)
liberty, when I used to work downtown, I would notice that a large group of people waiting for the buses would block the entire, 20 feet wide sidewalk. I don’t think it ever occurred to any one person of those large groups that people would still want to be walking down the sidewalk that they were all blocking.
My mini-rant du jour is the trend for people to use decimals for separators in every kind of number. Telephone number? 403.555.5555. Time? 12.35. Date? 5.11.2007. Business address? 202.35 Street SW (Okay, I haven’t seen this one yet, but I’m sure I will.) In Canada (and most of North America, as far as I know) telephone numbers are in this format - (403) 555-5555, times are in this format - 12:35, and dates should be in this format - 5/11/2007* or some near variant of that so you can see instantly what kind of number you’re looking at. I think this is just pretentious and unnecessarily obfuscating.
*A related peeve - no standardization in the numeric-only formats for dates. Is this November 5th, or May 11th? Who knows?
Bolding mine.
What seems natural to you doesn’t necessarily seem natural to everyone. People who came of telephone-using age before the ubiquity of caller ID have a way of approaching phone conversations which has become natural to them due to force of habit. To them, being addressed immediately by name is what seems unnatural, and in my case, at least, damned unnerving. The only person whose cellphone I call regularly is my husband. He normally answers “Hi, Hon, what’s up?” and it took me a while to get used to it. Without the “Hello?” from him, and the “Hi, sweetheart it’s me” pleasantries from me, I felt like I was falling into the conversation head first. I’m okay with it now, because I expect it from him, but being greeted immediately by name by someone else I might call would still be, well, damned unnerving.
To me, when you see someone on the street, the moment of visual recognition takes the place of the few moments of collecting oneself that occur during the exchange of identities on the phone.
Or if you’re like me and use a bluetooth most of the time, I don’t even take my phone out of my purse to answer, and therefore have no idea who is calling before I pick it up. Also, in one more week, it’ll be a business cell, so I have to act a little more formal when picking up that line.
shrug I can’t get with this one only because it smacks of a self awareness that dictates a certain protocol on how you’d like to be recognized by others, when some of us just don’t think about it at all. I used to know a girl who’d answer the phone at home and if the sound of her hello wasn’t immediately recognized, she’d have a fit and bitch about how you obviously weren’t her friend if you didn’t recognize her voice on the phone. :rolleyes:
I’m not sayin’ that’s what you’re going for here, but I’ve heard a song that sounds just like this before.
[hijack]
And before anybody steps on my tits about bluetooth, it’s mostly in my car through the car’s system, and even when I’m using my headset, I don’t give a fuck what you think about the way it looks.[/hijack]
I think I’m a little edgy today.
If you don’t know who’s calling because A) you don’t look at the caller ID or B) you don’t even have caller ID, then my mini-rant was not directed at you. This is about people who choose to answer with “hello?” even when they know who’s calling.
As I admitted upfront, my problem with “hello?” is a petty concern. But it does annoy me, yes. One reason why talking on the phone bothers me is because it is inherently more unnatural than talking to someone face-to-face. So when the person I’m chatting with makes it even more unnatural by using outdated etiquette that they’d never think of using in a similar context in-person, it bothers me even more.
Hmm. Ok. In that case, I’m with you. When the exchange goes like this as it often does:
Them: Hello?
Me: Hey, blahblah, it’s Faruiza.
Them: Yes, I know.
Me: ? (thinking) why didn’t you say so?
Then yeah. I hate that, too.
That reminds me - I need to get caller ID enabled on my home phone so I never have to talk to my sister again.
Kindly put your trash in the compactor, please. It does not belong in the recycling containers. It does not belong on the ground in front of the compactor. It belongs inside the blasted thing! Inside!
I’ve had it with you assholes that can’t be bothered to dispose of your garbage properly. Do you realize you start a chain reaction when you do that? Folks walk up, see your trash sitting there, and either assume the compactor is broken or they just seem to think “oh well it’s okay to do that then!”. After a bit it gets to the point where there’s so much fucking garbage on the ground, nobody can even get to the compactor door.
I’m tired of wading through your trash every day. Knock it off!
Jerks.
As long as caller ID is being discussed:
For crying out loud, if you are asking that I call you, and your phone blocks calls from people who have caller ID blocked on their phone, don’t ask me to unblock my phone.
Does that make sense?
See, I cover emergencies for my clients. When they contact my answering service, they are told that I will be calling from a phone that blocks my number from showing up on their caller ID. If they normally block people who do that, the service tells them to remove their block. Some people then ask why I can’t just allow my number to show, since that would be easier for them.
Guess what, shitferbrains, I DO NOT WANT YOU TO HAVE MY NUMBER!!
thanks, that feels better.
You! Dawdler! Outta the fast lane!
GRRRRR!
Today is Maunday Thursday. I was planning to attend a 7 pm church service to celebrate today. I even went to the effort of setting my VCR so that I could attend church AND watch my usual Thursday Night TV.
So, guess, what happened–as I prepared to walk out the door, I heard horrible wind noises, and looked out my window and saw near white-out conditions. Given the roads which I needed to drive, the distance I needed to drive, and the fact that it is light now, but will not be by the end of the service, I decided that maybe I wouldn’t go to church this evening.
So, guess what happened? It has quit snowing. And quit blowing. Now, that I can’t get to church on time.
GRRRR!
I hope the whether is more cooperative the rest of Holy Week.