Shug on 13/10/2006 at 03:30
In response to the initial post: what if he was showing you something on your computer, and your home phone rang?
Additionally, I still use a prepaid mobile and voicemail is not free, so I don't use it. Having said that, I don't really find that much value in voicemail regardless; I have a mobile phone so people can contact me when I'm out of the house, and if I'm uncontactable at that point then it makes voicemail into a kind of "well I've told him now, the onus is on HIM to check his VOICEMAIL"
pavlovscat on 13/10/2006 at 04:02
What about caller ID? You know who called, so call them back. I think most services have CID. Am I wrong? I never answer cell or land line if I am with a live person. If it's important, leave a message or call back. I'll see who called & call them back when I don't have company. I only even look to see who's calling if I'm expecting a call back. Then, I preface my checking CID with the fact that I am waiting for a call and please excuse me.
How about call waiting? Do you put the person you're talking to on hold? Unless its really important, like say my dad who only calls if somebody died, I just look at the number & call back when I'm off the first call. It's basic courtesy, I think.
oudeis on 13/10/2006 at 05:49
It absolutely drives me fucking nuts when people don't answer their cell phone. In this case, your friend should have held up the 'give me a minute' sign so you could pause the playback whilst he grabbed the phone. If it wasn't urgent he would then have asked if he could call his friend back later and then thanked you for accomodating him.
mol on 13/10/2006 at 05:53
Ahh, bitching about mobile phones and their rude use habits! A perfect way to start a morning.
Oh, answering a mobile in the middle of someone playing their composition is definitely rude, and I'd give them the bollocking they're due for being such dicks.
Another thing that really chaps my ass is the call waiting service; you know, when you're on the phone and someone tries to call you at the same time, and you hear this tiny 'beep-beep' in the background every few seconds, or you're calling a person with the service and get "The person you're calling is talking with someone, please hold", or whatever.
More precisely, what chaps my ass is calling to or speaking on the phone with those people who have it on, because all they do is a) interrupt their current call probably in the middle of a sentence with "Hang on I've got another call coming", and b) only say to the person who was calling "I've got another call here I'll call you back *click*" (and of course never remember to).
So, they manage to annoy and be rude both to the person they've been on the phone with, and to the person who was calling. I mean wtf.
I've got it turned off. If I'm in the middle of a phone call, it's sure as hell enough that people calling me get the busy signal.
And while I'm now all worked up; people who hang up on your incoming call so that you get the busy signal. Now, I understand that sometimes you simply don't want to answer, or you can be in a place where you really can't answer your phone. Free clues:
If you can't/don't want to answer your phone, you can
1. Let it ring. Yes, you can actually do that. Amazing, isn't it. I know it takes a lot of shaping and training, but it can be done! In fact, monkeys could do it. Just let it ring.
2. Turn the damn thing off. Just turn it off ffs. It's not a suicide button, you idiot, it's just an off switch. Life will go on. Turn. It. OFF.
3. If that causes too much anxiety, and fear of being cut off from life in general, switch the phone's profile to meeting/silent or whatever you have on your phone. Don't have profiles? Get a new phone, or see 1 and 2.
4. Don't you have a button on your phone that simply mutes the incoming ring tone, instead of rudely cutting your call off? You don't? Buy a new phone, or see 1, 2 and 3.
Christ, I hate mobile phones.
I mean, I love them, but I do hate them.
Bomb Bloke on 13/10/2006 at 06:57
I don't know of any free voicemail on prepaids in Australia. At the very least you can expect to pay when you call the retrieval line.
It isn't just mobiles, homephones are also part of the equation. They ring, people answer them. But do you note that people don't like being interrupted when they are on the phone? Even if it's a local call, charged at a flat rate (meaning they can stay on the line for however long at no extra charge), you cannot convince someone to put the phone down for ten seconds so you can ask them a question.
I also read a similar complaint about someone who visited a department store. While being served, the phone rang, and the attendant answered it. The customers gripe was that someone else, who hadn't even bothered to come down to the store, was recieving service instead of himself.
paloalto on 13/10/2006 at 08:51
Quote Posted by Shug
In response to the initial post: what if he was showing you something on your computer, and your home phone rang?
Additionally, I still use a prepaid mobile and voicemail is not free, so I don't use it. Having said that, I don't really find that much value in voicemail regardless; I have a mobile phone so people can contact me when I'm out of the house, and if I'm uncontactable at that point then it makes voicemail into a kind of "well I've told him now, the onus is on HIM to check his VOICEMAIL"
In that case your deciding to interrupt your own show.
Shug on 13/10/2006 at 10:37
In response to the initial post: what if he was showing you something on your computer, and your home phone rang?
While it's a slightly ludicrous scenario, I'm just trying to nudge at the fact that most people would abandon somebody at their own house temporarily to answer a landline phone. It's because a phone ringing is an immediate thing; you're trained to answer it before somebody hangs up and their message is potentially lost FOREVER.
The mobile phone is perceived as more irritating because you'll find yourself answering calls in far more delicate social situations with less privacy. Around these parts, though, you'd generally answer your phone even whilst talking to someone and I don't really consider it that rude. Along those lines, though, the calls I receive on my phone are always a step above inane - generally someone that actually needs to talk to me at that point in time.
PigLick on 13/10/2006 at 14:31
dogs are all very well, but I find that faking a well-timed sneeze is enough to get through pretty much any social farting situation.
Fingernail on 13/10/2006 at 16:21
It's ostensibly as rude as turning away from a person who you're having a conversation with just because someone else walked up and started talking.
But we've become accustomed to it so much that it's not really thought of in that way by most people.
But again, would you not answer the door just because you were listening to some music?
It clearly is rude if you found it so, especially since it was something you were playing him to listen to specifically, and not just any old music.
Gingerbread Man on 13/10/2006 at 16:34
Quote Posted by PigLick
faking a well-timed sneeze
Christ, don't sneeze and fart at the same time unless you plan on changing your clothes. :(
