It's time to vent: bad phone ettiquite

[rockymountaindem]

I've been trying for days to get a very favorite person of mine on the phone. As long as I've known her she 1) rarely answers the phone and 2) doesn't return messages left on the machine or with her family (we've been in HS and college the whole time). The other day I had a surprisingly nice chat with her mom but still, nothing. The other day she could talk for a couple minutes and said we should chat on Friday. Friday comes and goes, no answer to my calls or return call from the voice mail I left. It's driving me nuts!

Does anybody else know people who just can't seem to integrate the telephone into their lives? Is my friend the only one? Is it as bad for you as it is for me? And before you go suggesting that she's giving me the blow off, all of her friends (who are my friends too), including her best girlfriend, also say she never returns their calls either. What gives?

[Inchworm]

1. Personally, I despise the phone.

Does anybody else know people who just can't seem to integrate the telephone into their lives? .. yes me.

Real life is so much better even if I'm alone. Well, unless 2 people on the planet call.. they have dibs.

:hi:

[rockymountaindem]

2. I don't like the phone much either

I'm probably one of the last people on earth with no cell phone. But still, if someone calls me I know that it's impolite not to call them back.

[zabet]

3. I hate telephones too.

I do not have an answering machine. I
only cut my cell phone on when I am leaving
the house. It is prepaid - so far I have
gotten by 4 months on $42 worth of time and
still have minutes left.

When I read the OP I thought that someone
who knew me was posting on DU. :P

[BarenakedLady]

4. Maybe she has phone anxiety?

It is very difficult for me to talk on the phone or make phone calls.

:shrug:

[rockymountaindem]

5. I doubt it

We've talked on the phone for upwards of four hours sometimes. It's just getting her to actually *make* the call, or answer the phone, that's the problem.

[cuke]

8. It could still be phone anxiety

I get it. It stops me from making and answering calls, but once I get past that it's OK.

[hisownpetard]

6. I'm terrible about making phone calls, returning phone calls, etc. Most of the time,

it just feels like an intrusion into whatever it is I'm doing (or not doing) at the time.
I love the people who call and will call them back, but at a time when it's convenient for me.
For years, I worked as Office Mgr. of a very busy medical office and, whatever I was doing, I got
interrupted 100 times a day by phone calls, sometimes tedious and long.
I finally decided one day that the phone should be a convenience, not an inconvenience.
And that's when I stopped answering it when it rang - unless I happened to not be in the middle of something.
Unless it's one of my kids - and I always answer those calls, tout de suite.

It seems to work out well.

[Ava]

7. i hate talking on the phone when people call just to chit chat and small talk

i prefer to talk in person and get frustrated when people call me "just to talk" and then have nothing to say. so a lot of times i don't return calls.. especially from certain people i know - and these are friends that i love but i just can't stand the boring, filled with nothing but small-talk phone conversations. so i dread phone calls and conversations. then again maybe i'm just a bitch. ;)