Hmmm, I’m in a mood to procrastinate:
1. Do you like talking on the phone? Why or why not?
When it serves its purpose, I do. In particular with people I don’t see very often. WIth people I see all the time, the telephone is more of a tool for planning physical meetups than anything else.
2. Who is the last person you talked to on the phone?
According to the Recent Calls list on my cell phone, it was a head hunter from Ohio. Ummm, I’m sorry… I mean it was a network exec from another market.
3. About how many telephones do you have at home?
Depends on what you count. There is only one phone hooked up to the phone line, and we pretty much never actually answer it. Then, each of us (beststephi, sui66iy and myself) have a cell phone. There are also other old cellphones that are no longer active, and other corded phones that we just never bothered to hook up.
4. Have you encountered anyone who has really bad phone manners? What happened?
Telemarketers and bill collectors. jetgrrl01 said telemarkets go away if you ask to be put on their do not call list. But I have found that doing something like this works better:
Caller: Can I speak to a Ms…. “Stephanie Sill-HUR?”
Mav: She’s not available.
Caller: Well is Mr. Sill-HUR available?
Mav: No he’s not.
Caller: Ok, when would be a good time to call back?
Mav: When we aren’t having sex.
Caller: Oh my, I’m terribly sorry sir! <CLICK!>
They also tend to hang up when you hit on them. Particularly when they’re of the same gender.
5. Would you rather pick up the phone and call someone or write them an e-mail or a letter? Why or why not?
Actually, I greatly prefer talking to people in person. But given that that’s not possible, I guess it goes back to my answer for #1. I generally communicate by text, unless its someone I haven’t talked to in quite a while.
They may hang up if you disturb them, but people from their company will still keep calling you. If you ask them to put you on their don’t call list, they’re legally obligated to stop calling you.
Of course, if they’re from the Tribune Review they’ll tell you that their policy is not to have a don’t call list, even if it’s a federal crime, and then you can just get really frustrated and fantasize about having the police arrest Richard Mellon Scaife for harrassment and beat him to death while he’s resisting arres
i pretty much just make extensive use of caller ID and don’t answer anything listed unknown, blocked, etc. and assume that anyone that really wants to talk to me will leave a message.