I was taught to let it ring seven times before giving up.
my answering machine picks up after the fourth ring. So four…
I’m 47. My parents are 66. We are late adopters for tech but no one has had a landline for a decade. I’m not threadshitting, I promise!
People still have answering machines?
I’ve finally convinced my mom to not leave me voicemail b/c I’m not going to listen to it.
Unexpected phone calls are kind of rude. I never answer them. Ringers all turned off.
For a landline, I let the phone ring at least 10 times. Most of the people I’m calling are elderly or ill. I’m ill, and it often takes me longer than 10 rings to get to the landline or cellphone. (We share a cell phone, so it’s kept on the desk with the landline phone.)
For a cell phone, I let it ring until it goes to voicemail.
I think this is one of those things that’s going to depend on the people you know. In my family if you only let the phone ring 4 times you’ll get complaints. In other families, letting it ring 4 times will be too long.
On a lighter note, my first impulse was to answer, “I let it ring until the second before you try to answer.”
I’m not sure that landline vs mobile makes that much of difference to pickup speed, if that’s what you’re getting that. When I’m home my mobile tends to sit on its charger at the computer … right next to the landline.
If you’re just expressing astonishment at the number of times people have said ‘answering machine’ in this thread OTOH - carry on!
What do people do? Write you letters notifying you that they’re going to call?
Re the OP: I was taught to let it ring 10 times. I still do that, except that I can’t remember the last time I got to 10 without my call being answered or kicked to voice mail.
No landline.
I usually text, but if I call someone I wait for voicemail. Very few of my friends have landlines as their primary communication mode. When I call a landline it’s usually to make dinner reservations, a doctor’s appointment, a car service appointment, etc.
I prefer receiving texts. If I get a call, I most often shunt it to voicemail, listen to the message, then text a reply. Unless it’s my gf; in that case I reply, “Yes, sweetheart” on the first or second ring.
Nitpick: CID info is sent between the first & second rings, so it really doesn’t take two rings, but if you let it ring twice, you are assured of not missing the CID info.
Some voicemail systems have a default of 12 rings, I have found. It’s possible the recipient isn’t even aware that there is such a default.
The VM and machine systems I see have limited settings, and often offer only 2,4, or 6 rings before kicking in (user configurable). I find 2 is too short, 6 too long, so I usually settle on 4, but I wish I could specify 5.[sup]*[/sup]
If you are a caller and really want to use the technology properly, be aware that most VM systems have an option to transfer the call to another line after X rings (again, usually limited choices, like 4 or 8). This transfer is not obvious to the caller (no click or change in ring tone). I have my cellphone account set to transfer on no answer to another line after 4 rings, which means the other line starts ringing after the caller hears 4.
After the second line rings 4 times, if no answer, VM picks up.
Therefore, I tell callers to ring at least 10 times. This way they are assured of reaching me personally or VM. Even more important since I live and travel in an area with spotty cellphone coverage, like my living room, and I can sometimes miss the initial call. Kitchen, OK reception – living room, not so much.
- Ah, for the good old days, when answering machines cost $600 and were the size of typewriters. I was able to get the schematic for mine (“Dictaphone” brand) in 1974 and replace the fixed resistor with a pot, mounted outside on the case, to specify how many rings I wanted it to answer on, from zero to about 8. Zero, when I wanted to sleep; 2 when I was at my desk, and 6 or more when I expected to be farther away, like outdoors. Pretty handy knob, that.
Huh. That’s the way I feel about unexpected visits in person, but calls are so easily ignored it wouldn’t occur to me to beel intruded on.
BTW, I’m afraid I use “answering machine” to refer to either a real physical one OR any voice mail service. Sort of the way my Grandma Letty refered to refrigerators as “ice boxes” until her dying day.
Snort!
But hey, unexpected letters are such a shock. Wonder what can be done?
Funny, because I’m sure the same transition occurred after the invention of the telephone. People used to get up and get dressed just to hang out at home all day waiting for visitors who might stop by. Nowadays, if I’m not expecting anyone, I’m usually hanging around the house in my underwear or pajamas.
In fact, “call” used to mean “visit”. Pre-telephone, if someone said “I’ll call you at four”, they meant to expect them at your doorstep at four. Or if your house maid said “someone called”, they meant someone stopped by to see you. People even used to have business cards that said “you’ve missed a call from so-and-so” they’d leave with the help if you weren’t home. A sort of 19th century voicemail.
“Social call” I think is how we refer to it now. And they’re usually arranged ahead of time. It seems now that we have texting, people are starting to expect their phone calls to be arranged ahead of time, too. If they take phone calls at all, that is.
Any machine that answers phone calls can be considered an answering machine. It could be your personal CP3O, a digital/analog machine attached to a landline, or a service provided by your phone company that allows callers to leave a message.
In elementary school, I was taught that 8 rings was the way to go.
I let it ring 4 times, and the microsecond before the 5th ring, I hang up.
When I was growing up (there were still dinosaurs in those days) the phone company suggested ten rings. Now, I hang up after 4 unless I want to leave a message. I guess there may be someone I call without an answering machine or service, but I cannot reall who. My cell phone neither sends nor receives texts, so there would be no way for me to contact some of the posters on this thread.
I’ve noticed several times when a friend calls me that my phone only rings once or twice but when i call her back she insists she let it ring like ten times. I think it has something to do with smart phones just making it seem like you are connected before you actually are.
Landlines, too. The rings the caller hears are not the same as the receiver hears. While you might want to hang up at X rings to avoid an answering machine, the machine may have gotten more and fewer than X rings.
In some situations, you have people picking up before the first (apparent) ring. Mrs FtG does this to her sister sometimes.
When you make a phone call, regardless of the type of phone/phone service you’re using, your local phone company office (near end) supplies the ringing signal that you hear. The ringing that you hear does not come from the far end phone office or telephone.
Meanwhile, your attempted call proceeds from phone company office to phone company office until it reaches your intended destination. At that point, the far end phone company equipment supplies the ring signal to the far end phone to alert the called party that they have an incoming call.
No, not really. A standard ring cycle is six seconds.
For most people, I just let it ring until either a person or voicemail answers. If I get more than 6 rings I assume I’m not getting voicemail and hang up, unless I know there’s something weird about the phone. For example, I’ve got a friend in rehab, and a call to the phone there might take a lot of rings because it’s in a hall where there might be no people to answer it.
For the question I thought it was, I usually wait until the 3rd ring to pick up if I’m at my phone, because if someone butt-dialed they usually would realize it and hang up by then. If I don’t recognize the number and am not expecting a special call, it goes to voicemail.