I have a love/hate relationship with telephones. This is nothing new. Phones have always been a fabulous convenience. Or a pain in the butt.
For years, I dealt with the constant phone calls in my beauty salon, and since the shop was in my home, I got calls day and night. The ringing of the phone was usually the sound of money, though those calls were an annoyance as well because I didn’t have a receptionist. I answered the phone, scheduled, dealt with whatever, which meant a day and evening filled with interruptions. Seven days a week. See, when your business is in your home, people fail to respect that you have “days off.” Big pain in the butt.
When I got out of that business, the silence of the phone was sweet music to my ears. Except for telemarketers, I lived what might be considered a normal home life dealing with personal calls. Bliss, especially when I’m writing.
Then came the wireless phone, which I love and don’t go anywhere without. Super convenience, and necessity, imo.
Now I’m learning to deal with the phone again at the new job. In a doctor’s office, the phone rings constantly and usually several lines at once. And for some ungodly reason, the calls tend to come in clusters–usually when several people are at the desk, waiting to see the doctor or waiting to get another appointment.
It gets chaotic at times, and like when I’m busy at home, I let the answering service pick up for me. When I’m free I return the calls–if they leave a name and number. I’ve had a string of them at work (and even at home) lately that didn’t respond.
Though it’s annoying at the receiving end, I have to admit I don’t always leave a message when prompted either for various reasons. What about you? Do you leave voice mail? And while I’m on the subject of phones, how do you feel about the automated voice options you get when you dial a business?
I always leave a message, because I hate when people don’t leave me one.
I really hate the automated message systems, but I’ll leave the descriptive words I use when I get stuck in one of their loops out of this blog.
Usually the automated message systems are easy to by-pass, Barb. Most of the time you just hit the “0″ and it should take you to a warm body. Not always, but most times.
I deal with the phone system all day at the job, Jan. Its irritating, but comes with the territory. However, when I’m trying to write at home, I resent the interruptions. Try as I will, I cannot ignore them. I have to at least get up and check the caller id to see who it is. If family or friend, I allow myself to be interrupted … which is bad.
Telemarketers? Forget it.
Hey Liz, I do the 0 thing, too, on the message systems. And I absolutely love caller ID, saves me time with telemarketers. And when calling businesses, I wanna a warm body. That’s when I’m in the frustrated zone, talking to robot-voice and they don’t have the options I want.
It depends. If I’m calling because they’ve pissed me off, I don’t leave a message. There’s no telling how it’ll come out. Otherwise, I leave a short, but sweet message and leave it at that.
In terms of the automated system, if I’m pissed, I want a warm body. What makes me mad is that you sometimes have to go through three or four options before you’re finally given the chance to speak to someone. I just experienced this while going through my refinancing. Automated systems assume that options 1 through 9 will handle your problems and don’t give you the option of speaking to the rep until you’re hopelessly lost in the automated system. By then you’re more pissed than when you first called.
Oh, boy, you got me started. Sorry! The phone is bad for my business. I have this high voice, really high voice. I lose about half my cold calls because they think I’m a teenager. If they know me by word of mouth, then it’s fine, but if not …
Because of the high voice, I often hit the exact same pitch as the pound key. You can imagine how difficult this makes the old-fashioned automated systems.
Not to mention, the ones that make you speak just don’t understand me. If they don’t let me punch numbers, then pretty quickly, I’m screaming at the phone, trying to get it to understand me.
DH handles all phoning out.
As for receiving calls, we got Grand Central (.com). It forwards to where I want it, so everyone is forwarded to email, except very close friends, who I forward automatically to my cell phone. Grand Central is brilliant.
I probably only use the phone (aside for its use as an alarm clock) about once a week, maybe once every two weeks. (Unless DH is out of town.)
I HATE the phone.
I never answer the phone. It can just ring and ring for all I care. I hate the phone.
As for voicemail . . . If I can get my need across (like something with the doctor’s office or an appointment) clearly in the minute or whatever I have, I will leave one. Otherwise . . . I just try not to interact with anything customer-service oriented.
E
LOL, Barbara. I’m imagining here…
Liz, that’s me. I hate to let the phone ring, and I intend to get caller ID, because people don’t leave messages. Telemarketers do. Grrr So right about 0 bypassing the system to get a warm form on the line.
I hear you, LaD. It’s difficult being on the receiving end for a change, and trying to be understanding. What makes me feel bad is when I have empathy for their plight, but the business dictates is firm in whatever view they have. TG I don’t have to deal with insurance issues. That’d make me white-headed in a month, I fear.
Marcia, I hate that too. I had being routed through a series of numbers, then find out you’re in the wrong place and have to start all over again. It is a time suck, and a blood-pressure raiser for sure.
Ducking here, spy! LOL, I know what you mean though. I have a friend with a higher pitched voice, and she’s mistaken for a child a lot. I can only guess your frustration. Grand Central is a new one on me. Wonder if we can get that in Whoville? Doubtful, since I can’t get DSL either.
Now, you want to talk about frustrations, I’m so pissed that dial up is my only affordable option.
I’m there with you Erica. Hate the phone. Necessary nuisance, imo.
You can get GrandCentral.com anywhere, but they can only assign you a phone number in the continental United States. It’s completely free, run by Google, and basically it’s like voicemail, stored on the internet, except you can set up forwarding to any phone you want.
So, for example, you can set it to forward to your office from 9 – 5, your cell from 5 – 7, your home from 7 – 10, and your voicemail while you sleep.
If you ever move, you never have to change your number, because GrandCentral will forward your calls to whichever phone (or email) you want.
And then, you can create certain options for certain people, like, my best friend goes to my cell phone all the time. My difficult acquaintance goes to my email all the time. I block Sprint completely, because they keep calling me to upgrade my phone. I don’t want to!
In ten years, I bet they’re going to be able to screen out “phone call spam.”
LOL My verification word is Listen.
I NEVER answer the phone if I can help it unless it’s the son’s g’friend and he’s out playing because she’ll just call back, adn call back and call back until someone answers (she’s 12).
As for automated voice systems, I hate them but that’s the price we pay for convenience.
That’s an intriguing setup, spy. I may look into that later on.
Too funny about the verification, Amie! OMG, that age is phone crazy. I feel for you, GF. Yep, seems we’re paying the price for a lot of “conveniences” that really aren’t anymore.