Private numbers

What is private-number roulette?

Not all private number callers are out to get you, I have a number of elderly relatives and friends who just don't realise they have the hide my number setting on their mobile phones turned on. Also most don't realise if you put 142 in front of the number your calling from an unlisted landline your number does not appear as a private number to who you are calling.

I just want to go back to the days when the phone out in the hall was the only way to contact me......ring ring....hello?....life was simpler then.

notsoyoungwan wrote: »

I’ve no idea why it does.

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.

steinbock123 wrote: »

I’m highly amused at people complaining about private numbers.
I’m old enough to have lived at a time when mobile phones weren’t even thought of, never mind invented, and back then , when the phone rang , you just answered it, obviously as someone was calling you.
Why it’s deemed necessary to know who’s calling in advance before you answer these days is beyond me. I get that it’s a neat feature to see who’s calling, but private number coming up would never stop me answering the phone.

Same here.
Like the hospital example above, this also happens with some other large organisations.
I am more inclined to answer private numbers as I don’t want to be wondering who called.

Just hang up otherwise

notsoyoungwan wrote: »

I work in a hospital and the switchboard comes up as a private number. So if I’m ever ringing a patient or their family, it’s a private number call. It never ceases to amaze me how many people will ring my secretary looking to talk to me and then not answer their phone when it rings- bearing in mind they’re expecting a call. It got to a stage where it was a considerable waste of my time, so now I have a policy of leaving a message if they don’t answer the first (if they have voicemail enabled) saying who I am, that I’m returning their call and that I’ll try again, giving an approximate timeframe. If they don’t answer the second call, that’s it, I’m not trying again. I’ll also document the date and time I phoned.
The same people will often turn up to their next appointment and make an issue of it, saying “I was trying to contact you” or similar, often with a reproachful tone or air of disappointment so it’s very handy being able to say “yes, I rang you back twice, at 2.30 and at 4pm on the 15th” - cue a backtrack “oh I mustn’t have heard it” or such.

Or.....why not have your secretary warn them the number will be from a private number.....

steinbock123 wrote: »

I’m highly amused at people complaining about private numbers.
I’m old enough to have lived at a time when mobile phones weren’t even thought of, never mind invented, and back then , when the phone rang , you just answered it, obviously as someone was calling you.
Why it’s deemed necessary to know who’s calling in advance before you answer these days is beyond me. I get that it’s a neat feature to see who’s calling, but private number coming up would never stop me answering the phone.

I also don't remember my house phone receiving nearly as many unwanted calls from telemarketers, scammers and other annoying parties though. It's not really comparable.

Saying that, I do find now that most private numbers are legit these days with covid as they're people using their personal mobiles for work calls.

Mullinabreena wrote: »

I get lots of work related calls on my own phone on my days off. So yeah it's definitely handy to know who's calling. I normally don't answer work calls when I'm not at work.

You need to go Android if not already. Dual sim phone and get a new personal number using a cheapie service like 48. Then turn off work sim when not in work. Even consider ditching voicemail altogether if your work will allow it. Never will you be annoyed again nor have to worry about say your kids or family inadvertently answering a work call for you on a day off.

CPTM wrote: »

This is why people roll their eyes at the health system these days. Everything is a crusade. And of course it is when the default idea is that something else, over there, owned by someone else, has to change.

Just get a mobile phone and set up call forwarding to your secretary's number.

Why though? Because some people don't want to answer a number they don't know? Shouldn't people working in the health service be saving their energy for important stuff?

The only sensible idea I've seen on here about how to "fix" this is to have the secretary warn people that the call will be from a private number, and if she's queried about it, she can explain that this is to prevent hospital staff from having to waste time dealing with nuisance phone calls - exactly the same reason they don't want to answer unidentified calls in the first place.

A better solution IMO (but a bit off topic as it can't be done by any individual) would be to stop all the selling on of phone lists and so on. One thing that was great during the first lockdown was there were no phone calls of people trying to sell home insulation or roof repairs or tell you you needed to contact an insurance company. Such a load of scammers - and they all had to stay home during the first lockdown, it was wonderful. Though IME they're rarely from private numbers anyway.

notsoyoungwan wrote: »

I work in a hospital and the switchboard comes up as a private number. So if I’m ever ringing a patient or their family, it’s a private number call. It never ceases to amaze me how many people will ring my secretary looking to talk to me and then not answer their phone when it rings- bearing in mind they’re expecting a call. It got to a stage where it was a considerable waste of my time, so now I have a policy of leaving a message if they don’t answer the first (if they have voicemail enabled) saying who I am, that I’m returning their call and that I’ll try again, giving an approximate timeframe. If they don’t answer the second call, that’s it, I’m not trying again. I’ll also document the date and time I phoned.
The same people will often turn up to their next appointment and make an issue of it, saying “I was trying to contact you” or similar, often with a reproachful tone or air of disappointment so it’s very handy being able to say “yes, I rang you back twice, at 2.30 and at 4pm on the 15th” - cue a backtrack “oh I mustn’t have heard it” or such.

Ah that explains it... but at least you say when you will ring back. Some people are on another call when a private no. Rings and then can't ring back.

Why have a private number if this is a problem for the hospital? As mentioned, it's most likely hospital etc don't want patient etc to ring back this particular extension number but to ring a general number.

Always sad to hear people “harping back” to the days of the rotary phone and how exciting it all was. Times have changed and things have moved on.

The other reason, that I can see, for answering a call for an unknown number is that you have nothing better to do. And, what’s worse, is that it encourages these “time burglars” to call someone else.

Yes, I’m well aware that I may have to answer one of these “hidden” numbers if I’m expecting a call from a teacher or a doctor but I’m expecting that.

Just text. Leaving voicemails and calling over to someone unannounced are things of the past and should be left there. It’s the height of bad manners. Hell, I won’t even answer a call from a number I don’t recognise and I got the Ring doorbell so I can tell any, in person, callers I’m not interested without having to listen to their “spiel”.

Time is precious. I understand, for some people, it’s still very exciting to “chat” to someone trying to get you to switch electricity provider but, quite frankly, I’ve more important things to be doing.

Calling someone from a “hidden” number is quite a sinister act and should be viewed as such.

moycullen14 wrote: »

This, this, a million times this!

My head is wrecked from this, especially working from home during Covid.
The open ended, one line email that could take an age to respond to and could so easily have been sorted out with a 30 second call.

It's got to the stage where calling someone is almost like an assault. How dare you call me!

"How dare you call me" this was the tenet of the Sydney Morning Herald piece on the younger generations attitude to receiving calls.
Seems its not just an Australian phenomenon

cdeb wrote: »

I would have said communication with patients is fairly important now all the same.

That's why patients should answer the phone if they're expecting a call. It's up to them to make a small effort too.

Because many of those same people won't answer even if the number comes up, unless they actually recognise it. How far should the health service go to placate someone like that?

cdeb wrote: »

Always someone else's problem, eh?

If that's a reply to me, I've no idea what point you think you're making. The consultant (I presume it's a consultant) called people back more than once. God knows I'm not one for excessive deference to anyone, but I can accept that a hospital doctor is a busy person with more to be doing than repeatedly calling people who are out in their garden or who just refuse to answer because they don't recognise the number.

It's not "somebody else's problem", it's the problem of the patient who knows they're expecting a call and can't be arsed answering the phone.

basill wrote: »

You need to go Android if not already. Dual sim phone and get a new personal number using a cheapie service like 48. Then turn off work sim when not in work. Even consider ditching voicemail altogether if your work will allow it. Never will you be annoyed again nor have to worry about say your kids or family inadvertently answering a work call for you on a day off.

Or just ask your employer to provide a separate mobile phone for work purposes. I have had one for years. Makes life very simple. When I finish work in the evening, it turned off. At weekends, it’s turned off. When I am on annual leave, it’s turned off.

Just answer the phone.

Say “ it’s done, but there’s blood everywhere “ and hang up !

volchitsa wrote: »

Why though? Because some people don't want to answer a number they don't know? Shouldn't people working in the health service be saving their energy for important stuff?

notsoyoungwan wrote: »

Or, you know, people who request a phonecall from someone could simply answer their phone when it rings, instead of perceiving it as some sort of cross between a nuisance and a threat.

I know when I’m waiting on an important phone call I keep my phone within arms reach and will answer it. It’s not a novel concept.

Because people are silly, to put it kindly. They shouldn't speed in their cars. They shouldn't smoke cigarettes. They should stay at home during a pandemic. They shouldn't obsess over men and women who clearly have no interest in them. They should exercise 20 minutes a day instead of eating plates and plates of pasta and then complaining about a weight problem. They shouldn't sit on mindless internet websites all day long and then wonder why they're unable to make life decisions or feel happy. And they SHOULD answer their phones if they went to the bother of buying one.

But they don't. Why are humans like this? Who knows. All I know is that a handful of them did things like make it to the moon about 50 years ago and the rest decided it makes everyone logical geniuses when in actual fact an incredible number really are just 1% away from being monkeys in trees.

It does mean that if an employee of any industry wants to be effective, they need to know that changing themselves is a lot more efficient than changing a world of.. 'silly' people.. to put it kindly.

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

This covid thing and sitting at home business is doing the world no good by making everyone so timid

corsav6 wrote: »

Yes, and humans lived through a time where we had to catch and kill our own dinner, but I bet you'll happily use the supermarket.
Times have changed and we have to move with then. A private number is rude, the person receiving the call has no idea who is calling. Would you rock up to someone's door in a balaclava?

That's an extremely low bar for rudeness and the balaclava example doesn't compare. Balaclava man might kill you where the private number might annoy you a little and you can hang up.
Not answering private numbers, along wih hiding in your house when the doorbell rings (which I read about on boards and seems to be a thing now) sounds like a very paranoid response to the world.