[QUOTE=brownie55]
John McCain did not have a home phone or cell phone for over five years.
[/QUOTE]
So THAT’s why his campaign sent me an “Emergency Telegram” looking for donations in an effort to counter Obama’s record setting online contribution strategy.
And here I thought it was because they were so behind the times they were referencing technology that was old fashioned when McCain was a kid.
[QUOTE=ntucker]
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.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve had jobs where I had to ask people their numbers and fill them in on such a form. I wanted them to respond just like I described above: When I ask for a home number, if your cell phone number is your home number, then give me your cell phone number, and please don’t explain it to me because I just. don’t. care. I just want the numbers.
Then when I ask for a cell number, either repeat the number or tell me its the same number. Explanations of any length, again, are not necesary because I just. don’t. care. I just want the numbers.
I can’t see why anyone in a similar position to the ones I held would want anything else. We don’t care what kind of device we’re calling you on. What we care about is calling the right number at the right time for the right purpose.
-FrL-
So if someone (say, pulykamell) uses the same phone # for all three, you promise not to make him explain it later, like LurkMeister had to?
[QUOTE=Hockey Monkey]
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.
[/QUOTE]
My job is as a travelling consultant. For a period of time my only phone was a cell phone and my given address was a P.O. Box. I was on the road an didn’t like mail piling up at home.
Boy did that cause problems with financial companies. They look at this and think ‘criminal’.
[QUOTE=Frylock]
I’ve had jobs where I had to ask people their numbers and fill them in on such a form. I wanted them to respond just like I described above: When I ask for a home number, if your cell phone number is your home number, then give me your cell phone number, and please don’t explain it to me because I just. don’t. care. I just want the numbers.
Then when I ask for a cell number, either repeat the number or tell me its the same number. Explanations of any length, again, are not necesary because I just. don’t. care. I just want the numbers.
I can’t see why anyone in a similar position to the ones I held would want anything else. We don’t care what kind of device we’re calling you on. What we care about is calling the right number at the right time for the right purpose.
[/QUOTE]
You seem to be expecting people to intuit what you “just. don’t. care.” If words don’t mean what you want them to mean, you have to use different words. You’re the one creating the communication problem here. It’s because of the way you’re asking the question that you’re setting up a situation in which you have to listen to information that you “just. don’t. care.” about.
[QUOTE=Sleeps With Butterflies]
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.
[/QUOTE]
Obviously that’s not true, or this thread wouldn’t exist.
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip]
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.
*For hypothetical purposes; may not be accurate in real life
[/QUOTE]
Sadly, my customer (let’s call him Turnip) has a cataract in his mind’s eye and his assumptions about what my screen probably shows or doesn’t show are wrong. I have a field for a home phone and a work phone. No field for a cell phone. Apparently his reading comprehension skills are a bit on the shaky side, because the customers under discussion here do not say “I don’t have a home phone, this is my cell phone number, XXX-XXX-XXXX.” They say, as I wrote in the thread title and the OP, “I don’t have a home phone. I have a cell phone.” And then they stop talking. If they at least went on to say their cell number, while they are still technically wasting my time it is not so egregious because at least they’re answering the question.
The question I meant to ask is in fact the question that I asked, “what is your home phone number?” Straining your limited capacity and deciding that you know my job better than I do is the best way I can think of to waste your time and my time and irritate us both. If every asshole customer like you stopped doing it and just answered the question actually asked, everything would go much more smoothly. And again, it’s not the people who say “I only have a cell phone and the number is…” that are being pitted here. It’s the people who say “I don’t have a home phone, I have a cell” and then stop talking.
[QUOTE=acsenray]
You seem to be expecting people to intuit what you “just. don’t. care.”
[/QUOTE]
How hard is it for someone to intuit that the person taking his number down is looking for a way to contact him, and not looking to verify the type of phone he has?
[QUOTE=Otto]
And again, it’s not the people who say “I only have a cell phone and the number is…” that are being pitted here. It’s the people who say “I don’t have a home phone, I have a cell” and then stop talking.
[/QUOTE]
Seriously, this happens? Ok, those people are assholes.
[QUOTE=Cheesesteak]
How hard is it for someone to intuit that the person taking his number down is looking for a way to contact him, and not looking to verify the type of phone he has?
[/QUOTE]
And why should they be expected to intuit anything? One presumes that the person asking the question will ask for what he wants. The problem here is that the questioner is using words in a manner that clearly doesn’t comport with the public’s understanding of what those words mean.
[QUOTE=ntucker]
Seriously, this happens? Ok, those people are assholes.
[/QUOTE]
Of course they’re not assholes. It’s a perfectly reasonable response. The question is why Otto finds it so annoying to then say, “Okay, give me your cell number then.” If you use your words, you might find yourself minimizing your frustration.
[QUOTE=Cheesesteak]
How hard is it for someone to intuit that the person taking his number down is looking for a way to contact him, and not looking to verify the type of phone he has?
[/QUOTE]
I dunno, but if someone specifically asks me for my home number, as opposed to “a way to contact me”, I assume they specifically want my home number for a reason, such as that the system they’re entering data in wants them to categorize what kind of phone number it is.
Frankly, either just keeping your mouth shut and pretending your cell phone is your home phone or giving your cell phone and saying “but that’s a cell phone” are both quite reasonable responses, and getting upset about either one is stupid. But apparently neither of those responses is what the OP is about.
[QUOTE=buttonjockey308]
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)
[/QUOTE]
Not only that but I have yet to use a cellphone that has the audio quality of a landline phone.
“What’s the best number to contact you on?”
“My mobile phone number.”
…
…
There’s a reason I left customer service.
[QUOTE=acsenray]
Of course they’re not assholes. It’s a perfectly reasonable response.
[/QUOTE]
Are you the guy from the other thread that thought it was funny to answer the phone and when asked “Is John there?” to just say, “Yes, he is.” and not put John on the phone? Because that’s also an asshole response.
What’s so hard about “daytime number” vs “evening number”?
If you ask me for my home number, and I don’t have one, I’m going to tell you I don’t have
a home number.
If you ask me for my drivers license number, I’m not going to give you my passport number, if I don’t have a drivers license, just so you can have some kind of ID number for me.
[QUOTE=Otto]
Apparently his reading comprehension skills are a bit on the shaky side, because the customers under discussion here do not say “I don’t have a home phone, this is my cell phone number, XXX-XXX-XXXX.” They say, as I wrote in the thread title and the OP, “I don’t have a home phone. I have a cell phone.” And then they stop talking.
[/QUOTE]
Well, that IS pretty dumb, but why can’t you just say, “Can I have your home or cell number?”
[QUOTE=ntucker]
Seriously, this happens? Ok, those people are assholes.
[/QUOTE]
Constantly. And then there’s the people who after I say “how may I help you?” say “Yeah, this is Firstname Lastname.” And stop talking. Or they say “Yeah, I have a question.” And stop talking. Or say “Yeah I have a (name of card program) card.” And stop talking. I do not understand how these people think, or if these people think.
What is so hard to understand that “home phone number” means “the phone number where I can reach you at home”?
No, it’s an unreasonable response. If I were asking “do you have a home telephone?” then it would be a reasonable response. But I’m asking “what is your home telephone number” and the inability of someone who apparently is not in any way brain-damaged to answer that question by providing the telephone number they use in their home is irritating, especially when it happens 15 times a day.
There’s nothing hard about it, but that’s not what I’m required to ask.
Not even close to a reasonable analogy. Passports and drivers licenses are not equivalent and do not serve the same purpose. A home phone and a cell phone used in the home in the absence of a land line are the same thing.
[QUOTE=Otto]
What is so hard to understand that “home phone number” means “the phone number where I can reach you at home”?
[/QUOTE]
Hey, I know… why don’t you just ask for that?
It’s a few more words, sure… but look at how many you’ve expended here, and it may help palliate your ulcer, at least until you die of a stroke.
ETA (too late) that I’ve worked in phone support and I’m fully aware of clueless and annoying some people can be, but much of it can be mitigated by asking questions in the right way. If you’re not getting the answers you want, and it happens enough to make clear that there’s some ambiguity in meaning (this thread alone should be proof of that), isn’t it easier to adapt the format of your own questions to remove that ambiguity?
It may be perfectly obvious to you that “home phone” means “whatever number you want to give me,” but John Q. Dipshit—who may deal with the customer service reps of a dozen different companies, each of which has its own requirements and way of doing things—may not know instinctively what you mean.
And the “I have a cell phone” followed by a pause probably is annoying, but many people are accustomed to (or may require) prompting throughout the call. It’s just the nature of phone conversation, and the way people have been trained to respond to customer service. (I was personally more annoyed by the people who vomited out all their information without being asked, and without giving me time to type it in.)