People who call without stating their name first

The majority of clients I get on the phone do not state their name unless prompted to. This is especially the case when they call trying to reach someone other than me. They’ll simply open with “Hi, I’m calling for (coworker).” and I’ll have to ask, “And may I know who’s calling?”, “And where are you calling from?”, and sometimes “Will he know what this is pertaining to?” because nobody wants to be told “Hey, there is some guy on the phone. I dunno who he is or what company he’s with or why he’s calling. But he’s calling for you.”

So why don’t these people open with the decidedly simple and faster, “Hi I’m (name) calling from (company) and I want to speak to (coworker)”? I can then immediately reply, “Let me see if I can get him for you.”

Is it some sort of forgetfulness? A power play? I always thought it was good form to state your name before asking for somebody, even if it’s just a house call, but hardly anyone who calls does it. Does anybody else on a phone system without extensions get this a lot? We are a decidedly miniature office of only 3 people so this could simply be a “feature” of being tiny I suppose.

I think it’s a bit rude, but maybe that’s just me.

Man, don’t start me on the quirks of callers today! They are all pissing me off.

I’ve gotten several today who call and say, “Uh…uh…hello, this is, um, um, um, [name]…and uh, well I…well I got transferred here from such and such, and I’m not even sure this is the right place, but…you know, I’ve been trying to call someone about this uh…it happened last Thursday or might have been Friday…”

At this point I am tearing my hair and silently screaming, “What the fuck do you waaaaaaaaaaaant?”

I suspect that many of them have never been taught phone etiquette, and some of them have been taught but can’t be arsed to comply. I agree that it’s rude.

Worse is when they ask who I am before identifying themselves. Very rude, yes, and I don’t think forgetfulness is the explanation.

I’m with Dung Beetle. As the receptionist, I don’t care who you are, what company your with or why you’re calling, I just want to forward your call. If you’re not sure who you need, then I’ll ask for more details to find the correct person, but I do not need a big long explanation as soon as I answer the phone. Besides, my other line is ringing and I need to answer it now!

And you know what else I hate? When I answer the phone with the company name, do not ask “Is this person’s name?”

I get this a lot too. When someone calls, doesn’t identify themself and then asks “to speak to Judge X,” I have perfected a slightly chilly, “May I ask who is calling, please?” It’s all in the tone. They all seem to suddenly remember who they are trying to reach, that is, a very highly placed publicly elected official who cannot and does not take calls from just anyone. :cool:

If someone calls where I work and just asks for someone without identifying himself first it’s almost guaranteed to be a cold sales call.

I also suspect that many of them have lived in the world of Caller ID and cell phones long enough that they’ve been conditioned against identifying themselves when they call.
My own peeve is people who leave a message with a number at which to call them back, but they don’t speak slowly and distinctly enough that I know what all the digits of the number are.

In my case, I wait to identify myself until I’m sure that I won’t have to repeat the information. If I start out by saying “This is (rather difficult name) may I speak to so-and-so?” I will always have to repeat my name and spell it.

So I always start out stating my business: “Good morning, I would like to speak to so-and-so” or “I’m calling about this subject”. Then they will ask the questions they need to ask.

This does not seem to me to be so onerous on the person receiving the call. Not everyone answering phones is trained at it, not everyone can absorb information about the caller before they have the context for why they need it. I don’t expect not to have to give this information, it’s just easier to let the person answering the phone drive the conversation.

Worst, for me, is when the person calling is a co-worker who assumes I can recognize their voice.

If I call to ask someone to check the schedule for me, I respond to the “Blank Department, How can I help you?” with “This is Eureka, can you tell me what my hours are for Sunday?”

This is my gripe too. I have perfectly professional people call, several times a day, and I have to ask them EVERY SINGLE TIME who is calling. One of my bosses also has a couple of clients that sound exactly like each other.

My other gripe is when people are talking to someone else when they are dialing so they don’t hear my greeting. Another boss’s wife does this, a LOT. Horribly annoying.

Ugh yeah I dislike that too. I’ll blatantly interrupt them with my opening spiel if they’re talking to someone else when the call connects. If they interrupt my spiel on top of that (“Hello, (business name), how can I help you?”) then I’ll know they’re trouble.

A smaller peeve is the apparent requirement of “How are you?” in this area. Usually it’s not even properly replied to, they just repeat “How are you?” back and start on their request. It just erases all sincerity from the phrase. If you try and remove it or use a different phrase you can hear the half-second of confusion and sometimes they act like you said it anyway.

Last year I started leaving my name and number directly at the beginning of a voicemail (as well as the end) so that people without a system to scroll through the message don’t have to listen to my whole message again if they didn’t hear the numbers the first time. They can just keep repeating the beginning part. Can’t believe I didn’t know that one earlier.

I have never in my life worked in a place where a person calling and asking for me needed to identify himself or justify the call. If someone calls for me, I deal with it.

If I phone and ask to speak to someone who can be reached at that number, the burden is on any person authorized to obstruct me from getting through to make that fact known to me, and inform me of what credential I need to present to get through the interference.

In some cases, I will say “I’m calling to speak to ___”, and let the operator call the shots.

Well if someone calls the company and does want to speak to me and I’m the one to pick up, I sure want to know who the heck I’m speaking to so I can pull up their file and discuss relevant information with them. Same thing if someone else picks up first; I’d like them to be able to say to me, “It’s Mark with CVP Realty on line 2” so I can open his file and be ready before I pick up.

I mean, they don’t provide a name, I can’t answer any questions at all so there’s also that. “Hi I want to ask about my sign…” yeah you and 50 other people. Which one are you?

Of course when a person asks for the accounting guy by name, I want to know if they have an accounting question, because he sure as heck can’t answer any design questions and they’ll get shuttled right back to me.

Working in a 9-1-1 center I am constantly speaking to police by phone, and they rarely identify themselves. Our office serves a police department with more than 250 officers. There is no way I can identify them all by voice.

Moreover, there are protocols for releasing certain information such as vehicle registration or driver’s license details and I absolutely MUST know who I am speaking to before giving out such information. The phone lines are all recorded and management can audit if I am properly handling these information requests.

So it really doesn’t matter if I recognize the officer’s voice or not. I still need him to identify himself. just a simple, “This is Constable Jones, badge number 4232. Can you give me owner’s home address for vehicle with registration plate QWM-7886 please?” Not so hard, eh?

No matter how often we repeat the request some officers seem to be offended. Go figure.

When I was a kid in my parents’ house, sometimes when I’d answer the phone the caller was one of their friends who sometimes assumed I recognized their voices, but many times I didn’t. (My parents had and still have a lot of friends.) It’s kind of embarrassing when they recognize my voice but I didn’t recognize theirs so I didn’t always ask who was calling. That made for an awkward conversation when I had to tell my parents that “someone” called for them.

To recount sort of a creepy story from childhood, one evening while I was about 6-7 years old I answered the phone, and I don’t remember how it started, but eventually I asked who was calling, and the caller replied, “a kind gentleman”. Followed by “what is your address?” I started to answer, but don’t know if I was allowed to finish. My sister was upset and thought that the guy would be along to kill or kidnap us, but since we lived on the top floor of an eleven-story building, it wasn’t very likely, and in any case, my mother didn’t seem too concerned.

:dubious: Maybe your company shouldn’t give callers the runaround, transferring them from department to department willy-nilly?

If they were capable of better communication, we’d know who to send them to!

If I’'m Mark, and I have to wait for you go get out the file, I don’t really care if it is you or the operator who has put me on hold. In fact, I’d prefer to do business with someone who said “Let me get our your file to make sure I have all the details in front of me”, than to have to run through a gamut of time-consuming explanations before I even find out whether you are in the office or not.