Friday Question #44
By kilax, October 31, 2008 5:59 am
Do you answer the phone if you don’t recognize the number on the caller ID? Do you have a land line phone?
I’ve gotten into the bad habit of not answering my phone unless I know who is calling me, and I want to talk to them. How awful is that? I think it has been heightened by all of the stupid political calls I’ve been getting lately. I have to remember though, my friend who lives in Rome often calls from an “Unknown” number. I would hate to miss her call.
We don’t have a land line. Just our two cell phones. A statistic from this year says that nearly 1/5 of homes only have cell phones!
Themocracy
Yes, we have a landline. Two, in fact. I let it ring if I know it’s someone I don’t want to talk to (ie sales calls or political calls), but as it’s a home business phone, we don’t always ignore calls from people (or places) we don’t know.
Yep, must have a landline since I work from home. And no, if I don’t know who it is on the caller ID, or sometimes even if I do and just don’t want to/have time to talk to them, I’ll just let it go to voicemail. I’m such a beeyotch!
Hell, I don’t answer the phone sometimes even when I DO know who it is.
I keep getting these calls from UNKNOWN on my cell phone – practically the same time every night. I was ignoring these calls for a while until curiosity set in and I started picking up the calls. When I pick up, I just get hung up on, so I won’t be picking up anymore calls from Mr. or Ms. Unknown for a while.
Steve and I have been debating about getting a landline. We had one before me moved but hardly used it. I just don’t like being forced to give out my cell phone no. out to everyone though.
i have a landline but only because it was included in my package deal with my cable and internet… i have no idea how many deadbeats had my number before me. my phone is constantly ringing for everyone but me, in fact, i don’t know that anyone but dc and momma & daddy have my landline number. i should probably just cancel it but the thought of not having a landline makes my anxiety flare up for some nutso reason. don’t feel bad though, i’m absolutely horrible at answering my phone and i never answer it if i don’t know the number.
=^..^=
I’m with Sizzle … there are times when I don’t even answer the calls from friends. Up until the wedding craze, I’d NEVER answer calls from numbers I didn’t recognize. But, I had to ditch that strategy because it seemed that 90% of those calls were from vendors. Now that the wedding is over? I’m so going back to screening my calls!
Sweets and I fall into that category of cell phones only. We love it! (Though, it drives my parents crazy because they can’t talk to both of us at the same time!)
If I’m busy, I’m more likely to answer if it is unknown. If it’s a someone who’s calling to verify something (an order, charge card company, mail order prescription [medco calls about stupid stuff that holds up prescriptions]) I don’t want to have to mess around with calling them back. If it’s someone I don’t want, I just tell them I’m busy.
It’s easy to call friends and family back if I can’t talk 🙂
If I’m in a “no talking” mood. I don’t even look at the caller ID. (It’s a phone, not a tether).
I only have a cell phone and I have Skype if my minutes start to get too high (two cents a minute with Skype.
We have a landline. We also screen our calls. If we do answer and it happens to be a telemarketer, they get to talk to what ever cat is the closest. They don’t talk long for some reason. Hmmm? Ha Ha 🙂
It’s not a bad habit at all. You pay for the airtime, so why should you have to answer every little call that comes in? No way. Screw that.
If I get a call from a number I don’t know, 99% of the time I don’t answer it. I figure, if they know me and it’s a new number, then they’ll leave a message. If not, then they either don’t care, it’s not that important, or it really is someone I don’t know.
We got rid of CallerID on our landline after our daughter refused to answer it without looking to see who it was. I hate hearing the phone ring. 🙂
I have no idea why we still have a landline. I would imagine we’ll get rid of it within the next five years.
I go back and forth. Caller ID has lead me to avoid many calls though. Bad me.
Odie – Hee hee. Better not ignore that other phone 😉 Do solicitors ever call that line? That is my biggest pet peeve.
Lisa – Sometimes I wish I did that at work. But then everyone is looking at me like “Why isn’t she answering her phone??!” Sometimes I feel too busy to answer.
sizzle – Oh yeah. Guilty of that too 🙂
Gina (Mannyed) – The nice thing about only having a cell is that you can be on that “do not call” list. Now, whether or not that actually works… 😉
CourtneyInControl – A colleague of mine had a cell phone that someone kept calling, thinking it was someone else. HOW ANNOYING!!!
Nilsa – Put the rents on speaker? Ha! Do they still get two phones in the house to call? That’s cute 😉
Gary LaPointe – Hmm. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to call me to verify something and I haven’t answered. I would be annoyed to have to try and track them down.
Denise – Meow meow meow feed me? 😛
kapgar – Yeah, I’m the same – if they don’t leave a message, it obviously was not important!
ajooja – The landline must just be a habit!
Kyra – No. Just “human” you 😉
I still have a land line (not sure why). And no, I do not answer the phone if I do not recognize the number.
Sometimes I do, but it depends… and I normally will look the number for a couple of rings, just to make sure it’s a number I know. But if it’s a number I don’t know or caller ID unknown or Blocked caller ID, I tend to let those go to voice mail.
My wife’s sister calls come from Blocked Caller ID, so I will normally answer those, but the last couple of weeks, they have been election calls… not too bad, but getting old quick.
Oh, and we have on landline, but multiple cell phones (wife, me, my daughter, her daughter)
Robin – This is making me feel better that I am not the only one not answering! 🙂
martymankins – My aunt comes from a blocked number too. So I have to keep that in mind when I am answering. It’s weird. I can usually sense when it is her. I think it can be obvious when it is solicitors, depending on the time of the call and the frequency.