Private numbers

Wibbs

Wibbs wrote: »

You do seem to see ad hominem with ease. I was just speaking from personal experience.
American research. Which doesn't surprise me, as American culture is notably more paranoid than most in the West, so not a shock they might answer their phones less.

Did you miss the part where I typed: "and I'm not actually busy?" Of course if I'm busy I will let calls go to voicemail. If I'm not, I won't.

Just saying American research doesn’t cut it. You would need to prove that Irish people are radically different.

The “when busy” argument is newish and goalpost shifting. When EmmetSpiceland was suggesting he valued his private time more than some phone calls he was called weird. People have accused millennials of being snowflakes based on no evidence at all. The op was accused of being young and whiny for not answering all calls. You were convinced there are people on the spectrum not answering cold calls or unknown calls because that’s all that could explain it.

But other people’s definition of busy might just be slightly different to yours. Engaging in certain hobbies or taking downtime or whatever. Not just work work. If that’s all the argument is about, then we are all letting calls, known and unknown go to voicemail, aren’t we? So accusations of snowflakery seem a bit over the top.

I’m sticking by my argument that not answering unknown calls is normal, now with added data - not that I needed it, and is as normal as not replying to every single email the minute you get it.

I check junk folders every few days just in case, and listen to all voice mails so I miss nothing. But I don’t answer everything immediately. Which is entirely normal behaviour.

cj maxx

I answer the phone, and if it's a ( usually obvious) scam or marketing call i hang up. Simples. Sometimes its a health care professional from a blocked number. No big deal either way.

notsoyoungwan

I’m laughing at the “this is what’s wrong with the health service” posts. It’s not the 750 approx unfilled consultant posts, not the hundreds of thousands on waiting lists, not the inadequate number of beds, under-staffing in terms of nurses, NCHDs and AHPs, recruitment and retention problems, no, it’s the fact that some hospitals use a private number and some people don’t answer their phone to private numbers.

YFlyer

In the US a person receiving a call on their cell phone is charged as well.

_Kaiser_

In my experience, private numbers are usually banks or utility companies.

I just screen depending on what I'm at and who it is. If I'm busy/don't want to talk (I spend most of the day on calls for work) then I'll let it go to voicemail

More annoying of late are these one-ring calls from a variety of African countries that presumably expect you to call back and cost yourself a fortune. No way of blocking those that I can tell that wouldn't impact the first group as well.

tayto lover

I know that some teachers who were phoning students during the school closures were blocking their numbers. They didn’t want teenagers ringing their number at 4am.

10pennymixup

Deleted User wrote: »

No I am not on a sucker list penny, because I am not a sucker. I've never been "sucked". Reported for ad hominem.

Do you know what a sucker list is? How in any way is suggesting that you might be on such a list, a personal attack on you.

One aspect of the position you were maintaining was that you were too busy too answer calls from unknown numbers or hidden numbers. Implying that you receive a disproportionate amount of calls of this nature.

Do you know what ad hominem means? If I were to call you an outright weirdo for not answering your phone, that would be good use of the phrase ad hominem.

Another example would be claiming that I as someone that does answer the phone and not rely on impersonal typed communications, is weird.

Maybe I should report you for posts that are ad hominem??:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

KildareP

It's not always practical to give every phone extension in a company or organisation it's own direct dial number (01, 021, etc.).

Nor is it always practical - although extremely simple to do from a technical perspective on any modern phone system - to have the main switchboard number appear for all outbound calls from any phone in that organisation. They may not have the resources to dedicate to taking callbacks plus it might not even be possible to know where to direct a callback to.

Hence it's often easiest all round to just mask all outbound calls as private.


However - a much bigger bugbear of mine is the voicemail leaver who doesn't use private number but leaves a voicemail "Hi, it's Jimmy, can you call me back when you get a chance".

Call you back about what? I can see your missed call, so I'll know to call you back... but call you back about what? For a chinwag? Because you're on death's door? Is it urgent? Why bother wasting my and your time with a non-descript voicemail?! :mad:

Wibbs

Wibbs wrote: »

Of all the people I know the only ones that screen calls to that degree are on the spectrum. And that's grand, they're otherwise cool people, but their attitudes in that particular area are not normal

I'm fully sure this isn't your intention but the emboldene parts read a little offensive to people on the autism spectrum, many of whom don't have typical behaviours, but I wouldn't go so far as to describe as abnormal.

In any case, not answering the phone to all-comers seems to be very typical, and in that sense "normal".

is_that_so

I like answering the phone. I say hello and they mostly just hang up. Occasionally I get Brian Murphy in his thick Mumbai accent!

beauf

notsoyoungwan wrote: »

I’m laughing at the “this is what’s wrong with the health service” posts. It’s not the 750 approx unfilled consultant posts, not the hundreds of thousands on waiting lists, not the inadequate number of beds, under-staffing in terms of nurses, NCHDs and AHPs, recruitment and retention problems, no, it’s the fact that some hospitals use a private number and some people don’t answer their phone to private numbers.

It's a thread about private numbers. Not about the HSE maybe that's why.

But how an organisation struggles to deal with simple problems is often a reflection on the organisation as a whole.

beauf

KildareP wrote: »

...Hence it's often easiest all round to just mask all outbound calls as private.
...

Fair enough.. but it's an approach with a lot of cons for the recipients.

Victor

volchitsa wrote: »

It’s a filtering strategy, so that the direct number doesn’t come up otherwise people could call the person they want directly instead of having to go via the secretary or the switchboard.

There’s no way anyone’s going to “fix” it unless the system allows you to call from one number while showing another on the screen.

The doctor's phone line needs to display the phone line of their secretary. This should solve the problem of people phoning the doctor directly and potentially distracting them / wasting their time when they are in the middle of something.

notsoyoungwan wrote: »

I’m not going on a one-woman crusade to get the hospital phone infrastructure changed.

You complain of a problem that is wasting your time, but won't fix it?

It isn't an infrastructure issue, it's a settings issue.

Wibbs

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I'm fully sure this isn't your intention but the emboldene parts read a little offensive to people on the autism spectrum, many of whom don't have typical behaviours, but I wouldn't go so far as to describe as abnormal.

Neurotypical, the majority = normal, non-neurotypical, a minority = not normal. Doesn't mean it's bad, it's just not the background norm.

Lmkrnr

Nobody ever ring's to say here's something free for you, or you won this, or would you like that.

Fandymo

[Deleted User] wrote: »

No you are not normal unless normal is redefined as 20% of the population, which is a mathematical absurdity. Also your spectrum comments seem to be a generalised ad hom against the people not taking your position, not too distinct from a playground taunt.

This is from Pew research, and is later than the last one I posted..

Americans just aren’t picking up the phone much anymore. Eight-in-ten Americans say they don’t generally answer their cellphone when an unknown number calls, according to newly released findings from a Pew Research Center web survey of U.S. adults conducted July 13-19, 2020.

Only 19% of Americans generally pick up cellphone calls from unknown numbers; women, White adults, older adults, higher-income adults less likely to do so

And...

And though much has been made of younger adults’ distaste for phone conversations, the survey finds that Americans ages 18 to 29 are more likely to take calls from unknown numbers than those in older age groups.

So all the nonsense here about the young is just that. We can discount the "spectrum" argument anyway, the people I have known to ignore most calls when busy, be they from identified or unidentified sources are businessmen.

This is not America. Thank god.

Wallet Inspector

Always found the upset over private numbers to be absolutely bizarre.

eleventh

notsoyoungwan wrote: »

Absolutely. It’s not that difficult to just hang up if it turns out to be a scammer, cold-caller etc.

cj maxx wrote: »

I answer the phone, and if it's a ( usually obvious) scam or marketing call i hang up. Simples. Sometimes its a health care professional from a blocked number. No big deal either way.

If you answer at all they're more likely to call again at a later date.

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

...
More annoying of late are these one-ring calls from a variety of African countries that presumably expect you to call back and cost yourself a fortune. No way of blocking those that I can tell that wouldn't impact the first group as well.

I was reading somewhere you can get an app that blocks by country. I bookmarked it for future use as I used to get those calls a lot.

cdeb

You wonder is there a way a mobile network could display the phone number and the organisation associated with it? All an office's landline numbers are all linked with the one account anyway (presumably), so your phone could display "Incoming call 01-1234567 [Boards.ie]" or something like that.

It would make it much easier to scan calls. Could be optional from the corp's viewpoint, but in theory the spam callers would be the ones more likely not to sign up, and be identifiable that way.

Minier81

cdeb wrote: »

You wonder is there a way a mobile network could display the phone number and the organisation associated with it? All an office's landline numbers are all linked with the one account anyway (presumably), so your phone could display "Incoming call 01-1234567 [Boards.ie]" or something like that.

It would make it much easier to scan calls. Could be optional from the corp's viewpoint, but in theory the spam callers would be the ones more likely not to sign up, and be identifiable that way.

My Samsung phone does this. It doesn't identify every number but does identify a good chunck of them (of landlines anyway).

muddypaws

I work as a courier driver, customers get a message in the morning with a delivery window. The amount of them that don't answer their phone around this window is ridiculously high. If you know that someone is delivering something that you want, why would you not answer the phone? The vast majority of people don't check their voice messages so I text them, and usually get a phone call back very quickly, so it's not that they can't answer, but they choose not to.

Wallet Inspector

Ubbquittious wrote: »

What are people afraid of if they answer a private number? That an arm with a clenched fist will shoot out from the handset and punch them in the gob? You can always hang up on them if you don't want to talk to them

Exactly. It's pitiful. How do they cope with real adversities?

Wallet Inspector

muddypaws wrote: »

I work as a courier driver, customers get a message in the morning with a delivery window. The amount of them that don't answer their phone around this window is ridiculously high. If you know that someone is delivering something that you want, why would you not answer the phone? The vast majority of people don't check their voice messages so I text them, and usually get a phone call back very quickly, so it's not that they can't answer, but they choose not to.

A job I had - "waaaaah ye never phoned me back!"

"We did - check your missed calls."

"Only missed calls are from blocked numbers and I don't answer them."

Obnoxious. As if the world is only about them.

EmmetSpiceland

muddypaws wrote: »

I work as a courier driver, customers get a message in the morning with a delivery window. The amount of them that don't answer their phone around this window is ridiculously high. If you know that someone is delivering something that you want, why would you not answer the phone? The vast majority of people don't check their voice messages so I text them, and usually get a phone call back very quickly, so it's not that they can't answer, but they choose not to.

The last delivery I got there was a text sent to me saying it would be delivered between 10am and 11am.

This text was received 10 minutes past 10am and the doorbell rang with the delivery a couple of minutes after the text. None of that mattered, or bothered me, I answered the door once I checked, through the Ring doorbell, that it wasn’t a “time waster”.

I’ve no problem answering the phone to a “hidden” number, or one I don’t recognise, if I’m expecting a call but not a chance if I’m not.

byhookorbycrook

muddypaws wrote: »

I work as a courier driver, customers get a message in the morning with a delivery window. The amount of them that don't answer their phone around this window is ridiculously high. If you know that someone is delivering something that you want, why would you not answer the phone? The vast majority of people don't check their voice messages so I text them, and usually get a phone call back very quickly, so it's not that they can't answer, but they choose not to.

Oooh, so if I’m in class , I’m expected to a) have my phone on and b) answer it ?
I include delivery options in most of my purchases . Why do you have to message and then ring in a very narrow time frame ?
If I’m trying to arrange something with a parent , I give them proper notice .

Wallet Inspector

Not a chance?

Because... what would happen?

I'm just wondering what the fear is over?

muddypaws

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Oooh, so if I’m in class , I’m expected to a) have my phone on and b) answer it ?
I include delivery options in most of my purchases . Why do you have to message and then ring in a very narrow time frame ?
If I’m trying to arrange something with a parent , I give them proper notice .

If you re-read what I posted, the majority phone me almost immediately, so they have chosen not to answer, it's not that they can't. Of course I understand that sometimes people cannot answer their phone, this thread is about people not answering private numbers and has diverged to include unknown numbers.

Good luck with the delivery options, customers usually give the company that they are buying from all of the information, eircode etc but so many companies don't put that information on packages. A well known electrical ompany with a .ie website but UK distribution centre use a generic eircode for all Irish deliveries, one that doesn't actually resemble any actual eircode.

Some deliveries will say "may be left with a neighbour or in a safe place". So we're supposed to know which neighbour you trust?

Strumms

Wallet Inspector wrote: »

Always found the upset over private numbers to be absolutely bizarre.

What’s more bizarre would be why somebody making a legitimate phone call and effort to contact you, would make an effort not to allow you to know what number they are calling from.

km991148

notsoyoungwan wrote: »

If it’s a cold call selling you something, just hang up. Then you’re not left wondering if you missed the actual call you have been waiting on.

If I was waiting on a call I would answer. For some others I guess the problem is they are either so used to ignoring them or they auto send private numbers to ignore. Presumably if waiting on news from a hospital then their minds are elsewhere and don't think to disable that feature.

My point was regarding people being "afraid" - which I think is nonsense, generally people just can't be arsed dealing with sales - even if that's to listen for a few seconds and hang up.

Regarding the hospital situation, if I had to put up with people not answering private calls, I would probably raise it as a suggestion that the hospital should be as accessible as possibly and now show private when calling people. But that's just me.

km991148

Wallet Inspector wrote: »

Exactly. It's pitiful. How do they cope with real adversities?

lol - I dont get this "afraid" or scared attitude.


I simply cannot be arsed dealing with randomers or sales - which 99% of the time a private caller is. If its important to me and not to help some wanker meet a sales target then they we will no doubt speak.

Where is the fear?