When I’m taking a call here at work, I’ll ask the caller, “What’s the phone number you’re calling from?”
Invariably, the answer is, “It’s a cell phone.” And then they stop talking.
:rolleyes: :smack: :mad:
For the love of guacamole, is my question unclear? Is there any possible way someone could hear that question and interpret it as an invitation to describe the piece of technological niftiness they’re using to communicate with me? I don’t care if someone’s calling me from a Mickey Mouse phone that’s been anally inserted in their grandmother. All I want is the phone number. Why does this confuse people so?
My guess is that they think you want their home number so that you can look them up somehow. “It’s a cellphone” might be short for “It is cellphone, not my home phone, so the number won’t help you with what you want.” Do you explain why you want their number? For example, if I were on a cellphone and someone asked my number and said “What’s your number, so I can call you back if we get disconnected” I would just give them the number. The other possiblity is that they are saying “It is a cellphone and I don’t want to give that number out to just anyone.”
Why are you asking them what phone number they are calling from? Why is that important when they are the one doing the calling?
As an aside, my cell phone is always off (except when I’m using it of course ) since I only use it for making calls, not receiving them. So in my particular case, there would be no point in telling you my cell phone number.
I feel your pain. Someone calls my office, and before transferring them, I ask them their name. Then, I say “Where are you calling from?” This means “What company are you with?” Maybe I’m not specific enough, because they always tell me what state they’re in. sigh
I always use the ‘its a cell’ because my number doesn’t match my address and if they are inputting it into a database, the database often catches that there is an area code/zip code mismatch. After you have had several moronic conversations with people who don’t understand that you can have an area code/zip code mismatch adn not be a criminal, you start explaining that you are using a cell phone. If you are calling pizza delivery, lots of places won’t deliver unless they can verify the phone number with an address, which you can’t with a cell, so they won’t deliver. Also, I don’t randomly give out my cell number, so I always make sure that they aren’t going to sell it to everyone and their dog.
I’m still not seeing why this question causes so much confusion. “What is the number you’re calling from?” has only one correct answer. I can’t just ask “What’s your phone number?” because people in a high-stress situation will automatically give me their home number, and if they’re not at home then that number does me no good. If we get disconnected, or if they’re somewhere out in the boondocks where none of the trailers are marked with house numbers and I need to call them back to get further directions, and I don’t have the number they are calling from, things get ugly.
Hey, did I forget to say in the op that I’m a 911 dispatcher? scrolls down Yep. Oops. I can see why people wouldn’t want to give their cell phone number to a private company or someone who might use it for eee-vil, but I swear my intentions are strictly honorable.
OK, now your objection makes more sense. If I had dialed 911 and they asked me, I’d give them the numbers…and then tell you its a cell so that when you try to find an address associated with it and can’t that you know I’m not a crack-head calling 911 for no good reason.
But if I called the local discount store and they asked me they’d still get the :dubious:
Okay, I see. People are calling you in a high-stress situation. I think if you explained why you needed the cell, “In case we get disconnected, what phone number are you calling from?” might help them think.
Can’t you tell that it’s a cell phone call as opposed to a land line (given that you’re handling 911)? “I see you’re calling from a cell phone; I need the number in case we get disconnected” would only take a couple of seconds longer and would pretty much guarantee a sensible answer.
Although in my case I wouldn’t be able to tell you anyway. I have no idea what my cell phone number is. Since nobody needs to know the number, I made it display my name (in case I lose it) instead of my phone number when it gets turned on. I can get it to tell me, but that involves beating on the option keys until I find the right option.
But the real point is that we’ve all been trained by moronic customer service agents that the question they ask is often not the real question they need to ask, particularly for those of us with non-standard phone or living arrangements.
If customer service everywhere would ask: “what phone number should I put in my computer to look up your accout?”, I could answer that quickly and accurately.
But when they just ask “what’s your phone number?” or “what number are you calling from?”, I have to try to guess what purpose they’re going to use the number for and then supply them with the number I think will answer the question they should have asked in the first place.
So my adive, like the others, is for you to ask the question in a way that tells the caller what you’re going to use the number for; that way they can give you a number that’ll be relevant to your use. “What number can I call you back at?” “What’s the landline phone number where you are so I can look up your location?”, etc.
Have you considered what you’d do in exactly the situation described by the OP? I can understand not giving out the number, but you might want to at least write it on the phone with sharpie in case you ever DO need to give it out in a hurry.
I usually use the question “Is there a phone number where the (doctor, nurse) can call you back?”
And I frequently get-- you guessed it-- “Yes.” (silence)
sigh “What number should we call to reach you?”
I’ve tried:
“What’s your phone number?” (frequently gets some number they’re not at now)
“Where can we call you?” (frequently gets “I’m at home”)
I’m not even going to start on people who have that stupid “privacy manager” feature. It’s a good thing I love my job and the people I deal with, because otherwise they’d drive me crazy.
Exactly. Considering the kind of things people leave unsaid and the way they treat others as something to put up with only as long as they absolutely must, I frankly don’t trust almost anyone in your position to mean what they say.
My dad bought two Dodgers tickets from Ticketmaster. The woman asked him if he wanted a parking pass. She said it costed the same as the regular pass and gave us a special line to get in. There was a $2 fee for the pass that she never mentioned until he’d paid.
Today we went to the game, and there was no special line. You just get in line with everyone else.
This is only about the 100th example of this kind of thing I’ve had.
“Privacy Manager” is one name for it; another is “anonymous call rejection.” There are different versions and names, but it’s a service your telephone company sells in order to “prevent telemarketer calls.” I wouldn’t say it’s pure, unadulterated evil, but it’s pretty close.
Basically, it either (a) blocks people from reaching you if they’re calling from a number that doesn’t show up on caller ID, or is blocked from showing up; or (b) forces them to announce themselves so that you can decide to accept their call (sort of like how a collect call works, where you hear the name and choose to accept or not).
It’s sold on the premise that it keeps telemarketers from bothering you. However, many doctors and nurses either choose cell phones that block the number from showing, or use caller-ID block when calling patients back. When they’re woken up at 3AM and told to call someone who doesn’t bother to (a) turn the “feature” off or (b) accept their call, they tend to get MIGHTY annoyed.
Why would a doctor block their number from showing up on caller ID? Several reasons, mostly dealing with the idea that people tend to call back whatever number they got help at the last time-- and that’s not always the best way to get help.
The doctor may have left wherever the phone is, and at best, calling the number back will get you no answer or someone who tells you they can’t help you. At worst, if you’re afraid and confused, you’ll start blurting out whatever the problem is and the person who answers will try to help you-- even if it’s the church secretary or the teenaged son of the doc’s best friend.
Even if you have the right number, the doctor may be busy speaking with another patient, or they may not be taking calls anymore since you talked to them last (in many large offices, a different doctor takes call every day of the weekend.)
You may have the doctor’s personal mobile phone, pager, or home number, but that doesn’t guarantee that they’re home, or that they’re where their phone will pick up, or that they didn’t drop their pager in the lake.
More and more, doctors are starting to filter their calls through office voicemail (where they can have the system alert them on different phone numbers) or an answering/messaging service and then block their number when they call back, since it really only takes one particularly nasty voicemail from one of the patients while a doctor’s in the ER with a family member to really ruin their whole outlook.
Oh, yes, one more thing: *87 generally turns off such features, but if you’re unsure, you can call the phone company and ask, or check your phone book/phone bill-- and PLEASE put something by/on your phone to let people know about it if they need to receive a phone call at your house.
:rolleyes: :smack: :mad:
) since I only use it for making calls, not receiving them. So in my particular case, there would be no point in telling you my cell phone number.