Yes, this is a small thing but it drives me batshit fucking insane when I ask a caller for their home phone number and they say “I don’t have a home phone number. I have a cell phone.”
YOUR CELL PHONE IS YOUR HOME PHONE, you dumbfuck! You’re on unemployment, so you don’t have a job, so you’re probably calling me from your home right now!
Not only is it a small thing, you’re clearly wrong, and you’re the first person I’ve ever seen make that claim.
The term “home phone” is universally understood to mean a land line, and having a cell without a land line is a fairly recent trend. Most people are familiar with forms/questionnaires having separate fields for home phone and cell/mobile, so they are clearly identified separately. If it causes you that much consternation, perhaps you should adapt by saying “primary phone” or “home phone or cell, if you don’t have a home phone.” Until the rest of the world has a chance to catch up with you, of course.
Okay, in that context it’s stupid. It’s a little more reasonable when you’re looking at applications or forms that ask for your home phone and cell phone. Still, even then I put my cell in the home phone line.
Course, it’d probably be better if instead of Home Phone #, Cell Phone #, Work Phone #, etc., forms said something like Primary # and Secondary #. Or on the phone, “What’s the best number to reach you at?”
Most people don’t have to be so literal in our everyday lives. When asked by someone we’re conducting business with we realize when they say “home phone” they mean “not your work phone” and give them our phone number.
Otto, for the love of all that’s holy, find a new job. In a completely different industry. Preferably one where you don’t have to work directly with customers.
Otto, I’m still trying to figure out what one’s employment status has to do with anything related to what phone is the most convenient to make one self most available.
Actually “Home” phone should be universally understood to mean the phone I should call to reach you at home.
Cell/Mobile is the phone I call if you’re not at home, and I need to get in touch with you right away.
Work is the phone I call if it is between 9-5 on a weekday.
I can guarantee that the company you’re giving the number to doesn’t give two shits whether it’s a land line, cell phone, internet phone, or Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone. They want to know what numbers to dial in case they need to talk to you.
Seconded. Even if he’s technically right, getting this worked up about it is a sure trip to Myocardial Infarction City, population: dead.
It doesn’t matter what it should be understood as meaning. It’s not. Live with it. Ask a different question.
Perhaps the understanding is not as universal as either of us thought. 
I am the customer. In my mind’s eye I see the beleaguered support monkey (let’s call him Otto) in front of his terminal, dutifully filling out his form fields in response to my questions. Otto’s screen probably shows separate fields for Home and Cell, and being a good and helpful customer, I want to make sure Otto—who I know, from previous calls, is always a bit on edge—types the right number into the right slot. So I say “I don’t have a home phone, this is my cell phone number,” and give Otto my number, which I don’t think I’ll share here.
This allows Otto to put my number where it needs to be, and also explains why I’m not giving him my “home phone” number: not because I’m an asshole*, but because there isn’t one to give.
Unfortunately, my desire to be helpful backfires and I hear not a gracious “thank you” from the other end of the line, but instead an explosion of angry simian shrieks and a series of soft, wet plops.
*For hypothetical purposes; may not be accurate in real life
I’m one of those who only have one phone line, my cell phone. For all intents and purposes, I consider it my home phone, as well. The person asking for your home number doesn’t give a shit if it’s a land line or not. “Home phone” means what number can I reach you at home with. It may be the same as your cell number, it may not. Just like your work number might be your cell number if, like me, you’re self-employed and don’t have separate lines.
Still, not something to get bothered about.
While in the context of the OP it’s not as big a screaming deal as it’s made out to be (and to be fair, he did say is was a small thing) but the trends leading away from landlines and into the great wide open is maddening for a completely diferent reason. No matter if you live in a large city, medium town, small village or on a rural route in flyover, Nebraska when you switch from a landline to a cell phone and you dial 911 for an emergency, the odds are pretty good that, even if the folks answering your 911 call are able to get a relative location on you using Phase II (which not all of them nationwide are) the responders aren’t going to know precisely where you are, or at least what structure in which to seach for your remains, when they get there.
On the whole, reliable tracking of the location of cellphones, absent a vanload of geeks and a really good directional antenna is, at best, limited. I encourage anyone who has exchanged their landline for a cell (or even nomadic IP) to rethink it. Yes, it costs a little more (most phone plans can be had for between $20 and $40 a month) but it’s worth it when the worst thing happens and you dial 911 and can’t get help in time.
(I will say that the technology in the industry is getting better, we’re still some years off, but it is improving)
I retired two years ago, and one company I do business with still has my old office number on my profile as my “business number” because there is no way for me to delete it. Entering all zeros or just clearing the fields and leaving them blank causes a “invalid number” rejection. I also once had to explain to someone why my “daytime number” and my “evening number” were the same.
Well, someone at least doesn’t think anyone uses landlines anymore. I was filling out a form the other day and the default (required) line for a phone number was labeled ‘Cell Number’. It also asked for your provider (I have no idea why). Your landline number would’ve gone under ‘Secondary Phone Number’. Confused the heck out of my–I’ve never seen a form labeled like that before.
(I’m one of those freaks that only has a landline. Of course, I’m unemployed right now, so I’ll likely answer if you call the apartment. Hubby has a cell though. For that matter, we really only have a landline because he works for the phone company.)
Anyways, it should be pretty simple:
Work phone–either the front desk where you work or the landline/cell number assigned to you.
Home phone–Personal phone that you pay for yourself. If you don’t have a landline, this is your cell.
John McCain did not have a home phone or cell phone for over five years.
This is interesting. I never thought “home phone” meant anything other than “the number I should use to reach you at home.” So if I had only a cell phone, I’d give my cell number as my “home phone number” without even a second thought.
So there’s at least two of us in the world, I guess.
-FrL-
It seems fairly clear to me that the most helpful thing is just to give your cell phone number as the “home phone” and then when asked for a cell number, just say “it’s the same number.” I can’t see how adding all the explanation does anything but waste time.
If you’re trying to be helpful.
-FrL-
No, my cell phone is not my home phone. It serves as a home phone when I’m at home, so it’s the number I give, but since I imagine you sitting in front of a form that has “home”, “work” and “mobile” blanks, I’m going to mention that it’s a mobile number so you put it in the right field and the next question out of your mouth isn’t “do you have a cell phone?” I’m trying to be helpful, in other words.
I’m sure for every customer service asshole such as yourself, there’s another who would get upset if I just gave my mobile number, and then when they said, “do you have a cell phone?” I said, “actually, that number I gave you as a home number is a cell phone.”
Forcing me to guess what question you meant to ask instead of the one you did ask is a good way to irritate both of us.
A cell phone is not the same as a home phone at least as far as finance companies are concerned. If I enter a cell phone number on an application for a home phone number I have to note that it is a cell and the applicant does not have a land line. For applicants with less than stellar credit, not having a land line can disqualify their application. (I’m talking about cars here.) The reason is that a land line gives them a physical address where the asset is most likely located if it goes to repossession. The very nature of a cell phone being mobile makes it undesirable as a primary contact number for these types of applicants, and often they will have to get a land line and provide proof of such before the application can be approved. If you have great credit, it’s not a big deal.
So how many home phones and cell phones does he have now?
“Uh…I’ll have my staff get back to you on that…”