Do I Answer the Phone or Don’t I?
Photography by david.nikonvscanon
There is much to be thankful for this fall Sunday. There is hot coffee, a quiet cat, a comfy bed (yes, I have brought the laptop into the blanket confines of my current posture) and there is the loss of an hour. Yes, I am grateful for the loss because I slept an extra hour and still woke up at a reasonable hour. LOL.
The other thing for which I am grateful is that today my business line is still free from the various non-related work phone calls. Even though I have registered my phone on various “do not call lists,” I still get the annoying call or two that has no other function than to take up precious minutes of my life. Bet you can relate. Even though I have a policy of using Caller Id, it is a complicated practice for the business line. I am not comfortable letting all calls go to voice mail. There seems to be potential clients who are not comfortable leaving messages or they need to hear a friendly voice personally, helping eliminate the fear of dealing with a hypnotist. Usually, I satisfy my need to answer the phone by being aware of the local area codes and answering those. I let area codes two hundred miles or more away, eight hundred numbers, and private numbers to go to voice mail.
And yet…most of those types of callers do not leave a message. So there I am with a phone full of numbers and no idea who the numbers belong to and why they called me. I let them go in my nightly ritual of erasing censor, only to have the embers of my curiously oxygenated the next day when the same number reappears on the phone ID.
Sometimes, my curiously becomes engulfed with flames (on those particularly slow days). I find myself typing the number into a web search engine, hoping to find clues. Sure, I could answer the phone when it rings, but then I would have to find some way of getting rid of a telemarketer, hanging up on the political computers, or dealing with a charity I do not support. Yuck.
The positive thing about my phone number checking is that I am not alone. Take for instance www.reportphonenumbers.com, a site created just for the purpose of sharing information and experiences about questionable phone calls. When you visit the site, at the top of the screen is an area to type in the number in question. Upon hitting enter, you may see what other people have to say about the caller. If no one else has had an experience, then the site gives you an opportunity to cite your thoughts on the number. In this way you can help others know if they should actually take the call or not.
And yes, that leads us to the Sunday Question - how do you handle unwanted (or warranted) phone calls?
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:22 am
Whoa! I certainly wouldn’t answer THAT phone!
November 2nd, 2008 at 10:51 am
Can I ever relate to this.. ugh.
My rule of thumb is no longer answering calls that caller id (on cell) doesn’t pick up as being in my contact book and I can recognize. I’ve used similiar websites to look up phone numbers that show on my phone. The only characteristic common among all of them is they often call in spurts (usually twice within the same hour, then again the next day) then disappear completely.
Almost all the numbers I’ve keyed into similiar sites have come back with dozens of comments from others about it being some sort of scam or nuisance call.
I figure if it’s important they’ll leave a message (if it’s a legitimate call). Since it’s a personal line, I’m not too worried about letting voicemail screen for me, if the caller id can’t pick up the number.
Thing that worries me about picking up with these things, is I fear they’re fishing for live bait. What I mean is, I’ve heard about people using nonsense email messages to scan for “live addresses.” If someone replies back, whether seriously or to tell them to bugger off, the person then knows it’s an active email address. Then they can sell the address to marketing/spam companies for more $ because it has a confirmed live user.
I don’t know if it applies to a phone # as well, but I could see that being applicable there as well. And since I never pick up, these weird numbers that call me end up just stopping after a few tries. So I figure — they think the line is no longer in use, or whatever.
The last few days I’ve had a weird number of calls from the 876 area code. Google tells me it’s Jamaica. Couldn’t find a hit for the exact #, but from what I can tell other people have gotten marketing/spammy calls from other numbers very close to mine (same first six digits), so I figure it’s got to be another nonsense caller. I don’t know anyone in Jamaica, lol.
ooo. Sorry for the length of this comment, lol..
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 am
@feefifoto -me either.
@Jack -Thanks for answering! I had not thought about the calls being the whole “live bait” thing like email spammers try. Yuck!!!
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Ellie, what tipped me off is the description the people leave under those phone numbers. Many say that as soon as they pick up the line goes dead / hung up. Sounds like someone fishing to me.. (Though some do get weird messages on their voicemail — or someone live actually talks to them — but I’ve never had a phone spammer actually leave me a msg!).
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
I like your writing style…it’s very easy to read and understand.