Not answering calls from private numbers

Sir Oxman

melekalikimaka wrote:

he can turn of his phone but he doesn't as he would like for his friends and family to be able to contact him at all times, and thanks to him being ON PRIVATE he is albe to do so without the hassle of work related calls bothering him at late hours

And thanks to caller ID, I can ignore numbers that are withheld for any reason.
Voicemail if it's important.

People that don't bother with private numbers have been called everything under the sun in this thread whilst (some) private number users have frothed at the mouth over something that's a personal choice.

Strange, strange people about...

copacetic

melekalikimaka wrote:

he can turn of his phone but he doesn't as he would like for his friends and family to be able to contact him at all times, and thanks to him being ON PRIVATE he is albe to do so without the hassle of work related calls bothering him at late hours

surely his business contacts would have his number anyway, what has being a private number got to do with that?

sam34

markk06 wrote:

If you dont want to be disturbed then turn off your phone.

ive no problem being disturbed by friends/family, but dont want to be disturbed by telesales muppets

astrofool

markk06 wrote:

**BEEP**
Hi you have thirty seconds to answer this life changing question.. the question is.. oh no wait too late... ooh sorry guess you should have answered the phone

I bet you read all your spam email too, you've won the lottery you know?

Do the people frothing at the mouth have their phones set to private?

If people expect a call they'll answer it, regardless, if not, when they want to.

skywalker

Personally I dont answer private numbers, when was the last time someone rang you from private number to give you good news eh?

humbert wrote:

If it's important you can leave a voicemail or send a text.

Bingo.

The Bollox

even when it was 'cool' to have your phone on private I didn't bother. I never saw the point, mean where's the fun in having every call recieved a 'private number'. Call ID was invented to give us the choice of who we want to talk to over the phone

pred racer

The Bollox wrote:

Call ID was invented to give us the choice of who we want to talk to over the phone

QFT.
As above, answer it or dont! the world will still turn.
Although I answer all calls as a number of poeple I talk to ring from private numbers, all people calling from their workplace. Ive never yet got a telesales call on my mobile.

I also agree though that anyone who has their personal mobile set on 'private' is indeed a nob.

Dave!

Can't believe how pathetic some of you people are.... Have you nothing else going on in your life, that you get so worked up about people not answering their phone? Absolute sad acts....

johnnyrotten wrote:

Whats the problem with answering private numbers? To me its just plain ignorance. If you don't like the sound on the other end - hang up!
My landline is ex-directory and therefore its private.
I don't care if it shows up or not, I just don't want a listing in the phone book.

Ahh it's ignorance to not answer, but not ignorance to answer and then hang up...... Genius :rolleyes:

drdre

DaveMcG wrote:

Can't believe how pathetic some of you people are.... Have you nothing else going on in your life, that you get so worked up about people not answering their phone? Absolute sad acts....

Ahh it's ignorance to not answer, but not ignorance to answer and then hang up...... Genius :rolleyes:

Excellent

Agent Smith

Depends on the Time of day tbh,
if its half 8 in the morning, then its prob work looking for me, and i usually dont answer,
during the day, yeah usually, unless i'm avoiding someone or something

admiralofthefleet

i used to never answer any private numbers exept for 1 and she knew the exact time to call so i would answer it, but i have changed my number so i only give it to people i trust so if i get a call now on private i know its ok to answer because some people calling me from a landline are ex-directory

Ghupta Yahd

I also only give my personal number to family and close friends. I seldom even look at the number calling, I just pick up.

Saint_Mel

I used to always answer all calls but after the last 2 private numbers
I might not!

1st was from my boss a few weeks ago, who had gotten my number off a
mate at work! I was on annual leave at the time and he rang me to come
in to do some work as he had forgotten that he wanted to take some of the
same days off!

He was very put out that I refused to come in ... mainly because I was
abroad on holidays. He asked if I'd get an earlier flight home ... I said no
and he seems to have taken it as a personal insult!

2nd was a call from somenoe looking to view a car I had advertised for sale.
Problem was I hadnt advertised any car at all and I was explaining that either
he had dialed the wrong number, or the wrong number was in the advert, or
someone had put it in as a prank. With that, he became very abusive over
wasting his time! I reminded him it was he who had rang and was currently
wasting my time! He stared spewing loads more abuse so I hung up.


Before that, the only people I remember who never answered private or
unrecognised numbers were lads I knew who worked on the building sites
about 10 years ago. They were all paid cash in hand and were afraid to
answer phones incase it was the tax man (seriously!)

_feedback_

copacetic wrote:

surely his business contacts would have his number anyway, what has being a private number got to do with that?

Think the posters father does be dealing with customers 'average joes' through his mobile and he has to contact them during the day.. they could be ringing back at all hours. Presume doing something like service calls through bigger company etc .....

Saint_Mel wrote:

2nd was a call from somenoe looking to view a car I had advertised for sale.
Problem was I hadnt advertised any car at all and I was explaining that either
he had dialed the wrong number, or the wrong number was in the advert, or
someone had put it in as a prank. With that, he became very abusive over
wasting his time! I reminded him it was he who had rang and was currently
wasting my time! He stared spewing loads more abuse so I hung up.

Did the caller have a cavan accent??!! It's a recorded message, my cousin done it to me too and I was roaring abuse back down the phone at it! Twas one of your mates winding you up ....

ruprect

Called ID is a relatively new thing... How did you all manage to survive not knowing who was ringing you for all those years...

People just answered in the hope it was a call they wanted. Decent spam filters werent out "for all those years" and I had millions of crap in my hotmail account. Now people can check emails & phonecalls easier. If somebody is not willing to display who they are I presume I do not want to talk to them. If I get a call from a private number 3 times in a row I answer it. If I am stuck with only access to a private number I will ring 3 times too.

I have no doorbell on my house, wasnt there when we moved in and just never bothered to get one. It is the same sort of thing, if somebody I know is going to call in they will always call beforehand. If not (and they know me) they will know if somebody is in by cars etc and will knock loudly on the door. Salesmen, canvassers etc would be reluctant to hammer on a door, neighbours have our mobiles if the house alarm is going (which would be obviously turned off if we were in).

johnnyrotten wrote:

Whats the problem with answering private numbers? To me its just plain ignorance.

Exactly, they are ignorant of who is calling them so presume they do not want to talk to them. If I look out the door and do not recognise the person I won't bother to answer either. If they really wanted to contact you they would leave a note in the door, or a message on the phone.

johnnyrotten wrote:

If you don't like the sound on the other end - hang up!

I would see that as more rude. I would prefer just not to answer, or if I was the salesperson I would perfer people not to answer the door/phone than to have then answer and shut the door in my face/hang up.

johnnyrotten wrote:

My landline is ex-directory and therefore its private.
I don't care if it shows up or not, I just don't want a listing in the phone book.

Why did you make it ex-directory? to stop unwanted phonecalls??? Just like many others want.

even when it was 'cool' to have your phone on private I didn't bother.

When was this? having your number shown allows people to easily stored by others. I cant think of any people I would be ringing that I would want to hide my number from.

Saint_Mel

elviscostello wrote:

Did the caller have a cavan accent??!! It's a recorded message, my cousin done it to me too and I was roaring abuse back down the phone at it! Twas one of your mates winding you up ....

They did indeed!
Dammit.

Siogfinsceal

I only ever answer private numbers during work hours as our office lines come up as private. otherwise I dont answer as if someone does not want me to know who they are then they are not worth answering to. If they leave a voice message and its relevant i will ring them back

Sir Oxman

Saint_Mel wrote:

They did indeed!
Dammit.

LOL! That caught me out ages ago as well!

A Random Walk

I use my phone like email. I'll decide when it suits me to reply, so leave a message please

limerick_man

I also dont answer my phone to private numbers, if you want to hide your identity then why call me unless its a prank or something?! I've learned from answering them for years most of the time its a call you dont want.

I have an ex-directory phone at home too, you just dial the code before you call and the number comes up?!?! Like is instructed to you...

What if it's your mate trying to ring you from work?

They can leave a message, or just use his mobile...

What if it's your mate ringing from another mobile phone that he doesn't want you to start replying to by mistake?

If he's calling me, i will just reply to him over the phone, or if its after go into my phonebook under his name and press 'call', rather than going into last received calls and finding the number i didnt recognise to call back?!?!?!?

What if someones ringing you in an emergency?

then why turn your phone to private to call in an emergancy?!?!?!?!

InFront

ruprect wrote:

If I look out the door and do not recognise the person I won't bother to answer either. If they really wanted to contact you they would leave a note in the door, or a message on the phone.

Why not? It's such an unnecessarily drawn out way of contacting someone. I can't believe someone just wouldn't bother answering the door like that. They could be telling you that your garden is on fire or want to offer you a million dollars or anything. I find the suspense terrific, a bit like a private number.

event

so, all the people who dont answer to hidden numbers, what do you do if someone calls the house and you dont have caller ID?

seamus

event wrote:

so, all the people who dont answer to hidden numbers, what do you do if someone calls the house and you dont have caller ID?

I don't have a house phone

Miguel_Sanchez

Never realised so many people had a problem with private numbers. Any friends of mine who used to refuse to answer private numbers just owed lots of money and were trying to get snared.

A phone call for me could mean a job so I try not to let them go because if they don't get an immediate answer then they might just ring someone else.

6ix

I personally dont know why people don't answer their phones to private numbers - most of it seems to be paranoia. I doubt you all have security cameras outside your front door - you probably answer the door 'blindly'. Why is answering a phone call blindly so much worse?

Red Alert

would you let someone in to your house tho?

InFront

Possibly, but how is that like answering a phone?
I'm in your house right now, Red Alert, I'm on your computer:p

The Bollox

6ix wrote:

I personally dont know why people don't answer their phones to private numbers - most of it seems to be paranoia. I doubt you all have security cameras outside your front door - you probably answer the door 'blindly'. Why is answering a phone call blindly so much worse?

if you have a peep hole, or eye hole or whatever it's called on your front door, you're going to look through it before opening the door, right? and what happens if you see a suspicious looking fellow outside? you're not going to open it as it's going to be a salesman or a Jehova's Witness or another time waster. how's that any different from deciding who you're going to answer your phone to?

InFront

Of course that's different... you can see who is outside your door, but you cannot see who is calling you. The example you give is more like avoiding a number when you know who is calling.

A better analogy would be not answering your door because you don't know who is on the other side.

robinph

InFront wrote:

A better analogy would be not answering your door because you don't know who is on the other side.

And I don't answer the door unless I'm expecting someone, like the pizza guy. But that is not due to being scared of who might be on the other side of the door, it's just because I cannot be bothered as I know they have nothing interesting to say to me. They will just want to ask me to vote for them or they are trying to sell me something, so why bother getting up to then just shut the door in their faces.