OK, my pet peeve. UTCs. Unidentified Telephone Callers.

[trof]

We're retired.
My wife is involved in several (too many? ;-) ) civic and volunteer organizations.
I'm at home most of the time, so I wind up being her message center.

Look, EVERYBODY doesn't have Caller ID.
It costs money and I don't really NEED it.
Did I mention we're retired? Wait till YOU get there and are trying not to 'outlive your savings'.
Besides, it makes life more interesting.
Every call is a 'surprise'!
:-)

So...when you call, the proper, polite, and accepted procedure is to say something along the lines of "Hello, this is (insert YOUR name here). Is (insert name here) there?"
It's not that hard.

If you call and say "Is Miz t. there?", I'm likely to say "WHO'S THIS?!".

I'm a geezer and now, naturally irritable.
You need to be respectful.
It doesn't take much to set me off.
:grr:

And don't get me started on voicemail messages that run on and on.
Didn't you hear me say "Leave your name and phone number."?
That's all I need or want.
Voicemail isn't for long, detailed, ifs, ands, and buts, or what ifs, or on this hand...
I'll call you back and find out what you want.
:-)

[Pithlet]

1. It's accepted for business, but not casual phone calls.

I've never known anyone who ever does that who's just casually calling. Even before the days of Caller ID.

[trof]

2. Everyone did where I live.

My mom taught me to always say who I was before asking for who I was calling.
Just common courtesy.

[driver8]

14. That's what I was taught, too.

My father used to get SO PISSED at people who did not identify themselves on the phone. I think that is why I am such a stickler about it, now.

[HopeHoops]

3. If the caller ID comes in "unknown caller" or "private", the caller does not exist.

I either don't answer or hit answer/end quickly to shut the damn thing up. If it isn't important enough to identify themselves, they don't deserve my time.

[trof]

4. OK, I get that.

My daughter does the same thing.
But the caller ID has got most folks ASSUMING I know who it is before I answer.
Well, I don't.

Just sign me:
Luddite
:-)

[some guy]

5. I'll agree with you.

Though I'm not actually certain if I identify myself when I'm calling people.

I think I do. But I don't make a lot of calls. It may be that I do sometimes, but not always.

I know I leave my name if I get voice mail. I leave my number, unless it's family. They should already have my number.

[trof]

7. There are some close friends whose voices I recognize immediately.

Same for me.
They know who I am as soon as I say 'hello'.
But I still say who I am.

[RebelOne]

6. I usually just say:

Ms. _______ is not here at the moment. Would you care to leave a message? If it is a sales call, the caller will usually not leave a message. I got into that habit when I was besieged by collection calls. Fortunately, I do not owe anyone now after declaring a Chapter 13 bankruptcy several years ago and paid off all my debts.

[MiddleFingerMom]

8. Sorry... not everything about "back in the day" is still applicable.

.
.
.
For instance, I'm fairly old (HUSH, Kali!!!!!) and I was taught to answer
the phone, "Hello, MiddleFingerMom residence."
.
Not very smart (or SAFE, even) to do that now.
.
.
.
And I'm with you on plodding along at my own pace, damn those torpedos.
.
.
.
But I don't expect others to slow down to accomodate MY comfort level.
If I'm gonna march to the beat of my own drum (and it has BECOME the path
less traveled now)... I accept the fact that I may not be able to put a
band together.
.
.
There needs to be a Luddite phone company -- where your phone is shut off
if you don't practice proper phone etiquette.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Geezer Wireless, this is Binky... how may I help you today?
.
.
.

[david13]

9. UTC? I don't answer. Can I find out who they are? Easy with

Google search.
Caller ID? $20 per year, which includes unlimited nationwide calling. (VOIP?)
My rule: If you leave a message, it MUST indicate WHY you want me to call back. If I don't like the reason, I don't call back.
I rule the phone. The phone does not rule me.
dc

[trof]

17. Where can you get caller ID for $20 a year?

That, I'd buy.

[david13]

18. VOIP. Includes nationwide free telephone calls, voice mail,

etc., for $20. Believe it or not.
It seems to work fine about 98 or 99 percent of the time. Once in a while people will say, I can barely hear you. But that may just be me not holding the phone close enough to my mouth.
dc

[GReedDiamond]

10. I've been getting calls from some collection agency...

...or something, I don't know for sure, because when I pick up the phone and say "hello," the caller hangs up immediately. If the answering machine picks up the call, the caller, again, hangs up.

I don't owe anybody anything, so if it is a debt collector, they have the wrong number. If they're a telemarketer, they aren't gonna market anything to me by hanging up, so I'm perplexed about what these calls are about.

This has been going on, almost every weeknight around 6PM, and, lately, sometimes in the morning, for well over a month.

A few days ago, I finally called the phone company (Verizon, I know, wiretappers and all), to complain and ask how to stop the calls. None of the options offered to stop the calls were of any use to me, because I would have to pay a $4 charge (which I refuse to do), or they did not apply to this case.

So, needless to say, I was blown away when the customer service person said, "in order to make this up to you, we will credit your account $15 each month for the next twelve months!" So, I'm getting a total of $180 in credit on my phone bill for the next year!!

Now these hang-up calls don't bother me as much as they did before.

[snooper2]

15. It's called an auto-dialer...

Machine sits there and auto dials TN (telephone numbers) that were entered into the database. (they usually run anywhere to 3-30 CPS (CPS = Calls per Second (CPS is how many calls are initiated at the same moment in time)))

So the auto-dialer is sitting there calling 1000's, 10's of thousands, 100's of thousands of numbers. When it detects that the calling party has answered it dumps the call into usually a call center or some type of hunt group arrangement. That usually takes 1-3 seconds, I.E. the silence. Then somebody is SUPPOSED to start talking and peddle whatever they want to you.

What happens is if they didn't use the correct ERLANG model to predict how many calls will be answered and correct average hold time you may be dumped into a queue. Sometimes if all the agents are busy they will have it configured to just dump the call and continue on. A decent company will usually play MoH (Music on Hold), I.E. now you know what is going on when you get a call and instantly start hearing elevator music :)


The DCCC needs to staff up because I'll get calls a lot from them and get the call dropped as soon as I answer.

[snooper2]

11. Actually, CLID is free..pretty sure not a single carrier is charging for CNAM as well

Only thing even remotely related that is charged for are Directory Listing.

Some people refer to caller ID as both the name and number, but technically speaking it's just the number. CNAM (Caller Name) is the name that shows up that is associated with that TN. A select number of companies like VeriSign have national CNAM database that carrier switches dip into to retrieve the name.

The name and number are passed along through the whole call flow, there are indicators within the messaging to determine "privacy". Terminating switch is responsible for blocking Number, Name, or both...

So when you say YOU don't have caller ID, but somebody calls you and you don't see anything on your display, that's because they are blocking THEIR CLID/CNAM. Unless your phone doesn't have a display which means it's circa 198x. CLID and CNAM are default features for all TDM services and VoIP services as well.

It's not like back in the day where you had to pay Bell for a little box that sat off your POTS line (Tip/Ring)....



There's your primer on CLID :)

[Dulcinea]

12. Hooray for Caller ID!

If a number comes up as "Unknown," I just don't answer the phone.

[av8rdave]

13. My answering machine outgoing message says...

"Please leave a BRIEF message, and we'll get back to you." The word brief is heavily emphasized. There are still people that don't get it!

[snooper2]

16. You should change it to ---

Just one word...


"Speak"


That always throws people off :)

[WinkyDink]

19. I'll see you, and raise you 10: I don't have voice-mail, either!