Luv getting calls where people don't identify themselves but ask me "Who is this?"

[Kaleva]

For decades I've had the habit of identifying myself right away and stating my reason for calling as soon as someone answers the phone.

When I was going out with my now ex wife and I called her home, usually one of the kids would answer and I'd say "This is so and so. May I speak to so and so if she is available?"

[Edweird]

1. My response is: "You called me. You tell me who you are and what you want first."

[HappyMe]

12. That's my response.

[truebrit71]

24. Mine too...

..

[Liberal_in_LA]

36. I've said the same. had to go back and forth with a woman once

her - "who is this"
me - "who is this?"
her "who is this"
me - you called
her "oh ok"

[goclark]

44. My message clearly states

"I speak to those who I have given permission to call.
Others are not to leave a message."

It's a little strong but it seems to work for me -- I have caller ID so I can block their calls in the future.

If I happen to be holding the phone when they call and leave a message anyway, I block it immediately.

But that's just me, I had a caller that was NOT welcome so I got into another mode.

PS/ I tried the "Don Not Call List " but I must be doing something wrong.
I report and and still no change.

So ~ I have set my own rules.

[meaculpa2011]

2. My sister calls me...

says hello, then puts me on hold to take another call.

[kestrel91316]

8. Clients do this to us at my office ALL THE TIME.

I tell my assistant to hang up if they are gone more than 15 seconds or so. They can call back when they actually have the time to talk to us.

[enlightenment]

9. Wow. Rude.

Do you wait? If so, you're a better person than I am . . . I would hang up on someone (anyone) who did that. If it was my sibling, I give them the sharp side of my tongue the next time I saw them, too.

[HappyMe]

13. Wow. Sorry, but I would

just hang up.

[Liberal_in_LA]

37. grrrrrr sis.

[KurtNYC]

3. Lots of answer for that...

"How many guesses do I get?"

"Bob Dole?"

"Knock, knock"

[JHB]

20. Why Sam Clemens, you old devil! The rumors WERE exaggerated!

[Edweird]

39. "How many guesses do I get?" is awesome.

I have to try to remember that.

[quinnox]

4. Maybe one possible response

"Who are you looking for?"

followed up by

"May I ask who is calling?"

[seabeyond]

5. one of my pet peeves, and i get ugly on the phone.

this is candy, may i speak to fred. who the XXXX are you candy.

lol

i get the who is this. and they get a WHO is THIS...

i was raised and raised my kids to do as you. i worked in a business and the boss insisted we identify ourselves and business. no if ands or buttttts.

there is very little of it today.

edit... take out the fuck, i stopped cussing

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. "This is not the droid you are looking for". Click. n/t

[renate]

31. I love this but I am not awesome enough to try it

[Fumesucker]

7. Quick way to get a dial tone..

[blueamy66]

10. caller ID is gonna be the death of me

I hate when I call someone......don't leave a message for whatever reason....and then they call me back 3 minutes later, asking who I am......Why? If I wanted a return call, I would have left a message.

I misdialed my fiance's # a few days ago.....hung up when the voicemail was some chick....she called me right back, asking who I was and why I called....I asked her if she was in Iowa (my fiance's corp. office location), she said yes....I told her that I must have misdialed and that if I wanted a return call, I would have left a message.

I HATE caller ID.

[mac56]

38. Can't blame her for wanting to figure out who had called.

You may not have wanted a return call, but she wanted to know who called in the first place. Just sayin'.

[blueamy66]

46. Why?

Is she a secret agent?

[mac56]

50. Not sure why you're so flippant about this.

If a person recieves a hang up call from an out-of-state number they don't recognize, it seems quite natural and prudent to want to know who had called. Why be ornery about it?

[polly7]

51. Yes. I've done this ... I have a very large extended

family and group of friends and don't know all their numbers, I'm always worried about an accident or something.

[blueamy66]

53. Well, don't you think that if the call was important

a voicemail would have been left?

Seriously.....

[polly7]

54. I don't have voicemail.

Sorry .....

[blueamy66]

56. Oh, okay, now I understand

sorry, a bit touchy today

[polly7]

57. Oh, it's ok .. no problem. I know most people do have it,

I just had to cancel mine a while ago and don't want it back ... yet, anyway.

[blueamy66]

52. because it's annoying

there are reasons why people do not leave messages

[mac56]

55. I find it more annoying to get a hang up call I can't identify.

But whatever. I'd have a sad if you were annoyed.

[bemildred]

11. Just hang up. nt

[closeupready]

14. Sometimes, I just hang up on such rude callers.

Sort of like the phone version of ignore.

If I'm in a good mood, though, I'll simply respond, "Who are YOU? With whom am I speaking?"

[Iggo]

15. Spanky from The Little Rascals had the best response ever.

Phone rings.

Spanky answers it.

Guy on the other end says "Who's this?".

Spanky says "How should I know?" and hangs up.

[GoCubsGo]

16. This is why I love Caller ID

If I don't recognize the number, it goes straight to the answering machine. But, the hilarious thing is, people who dial the wrong number still leave messages, even though I state what number they are reaching in the answering machine message.

[Catbird]

17. I expect an ID from a caller.

Sequence of responses:
Who is this calling, please?
You called me. I didn't call you. Please identify yourself.
Click!

Unless the caller is looking for my late husband. In that case the response is:
He is not available right now. May I take a message?
For some reason no one ever leaves a message.

[JNelson6563]

18. Fun to mess with people

Give 'em a famous name. "This is *famous person*, who the hell is this and how did you get this number??!?"

Of course if it turns out to be someone you actually need to talk to that strategy may not prove terribly effective...

Julie

[appleannie1]

19. That is why I love caller ID. If I don't recognize the name or number, I don't answer. If they

leave a message and it is someone I think I might want to talk to, I call back. Now that election season is upon us, I am getting a lot of calls that don't leave messages but I don't have to listen to any of them.

[madmom]

21. I have a number very close to a local

auction barn. The numbers are identical except the last number, ours is 7, theirs is 1. I get so impatient with people who call asking for "Dan" and I tell them they have the wrong number, they hang up and call right back. They then ask me what the right number is, I sometimes tell them to get off their lazy ass and look it up themselves. I suspect a lot of it is mis-reading since the numbers look similar if you just glimpse it quickly, other times I tell them I don't know. I do know because this is a small town, but really....shouldn't they know.

[Kaleva]

22. Some wrong callers ask me to look up the correct number for them.

[PDJane]

23. I always answer the phone with my name. Always.

It annoys the hell out of me when people then ask for me, after I've identified myself...or hang up and redial, as if they don't know what to do when someone identifies themselves. I really hate the robo calls, since my number is unlisted, and it's that way for a reason, thank you! What is wrong with these people?

The phone number is unlisted because a couple of women are convinced that Steve E...... lives here. They insist on calling for him to give him a piece of their mind or something at god awful hours of the night. I suppose I should feel either compassion or admiration for the continuing obsession of these women with the elusive Steve, but it was just too damn annoying; they kept getting my 86 year old mother, who lives with me, tied in knots.

[Kaleva]

26. I identify myself when answering by giving my first name. "xxxxx speaking. May I help you?".

[ashling]

25. Who is this?

&feature=related

[Lint Head]

27. Proper phone etiquette is that the caller identifies is or herself and states why they are calling

after the person being called says "Hello." The person being called does not have the obligation to even answer the phone much less provide any information.

What I despise is when I get a call from a company employee and I ask, "Who's calling?" and I just get a first name. It's usually a phony name. I like to 'yank there chains' when they get into asking my complete name and address and I reply with, "You called me and I will not divulge my full name or address unless you divulge yours."

[LynneSin]

28. I will not idenify myself to any caller from a number I do not recognize or is blocked

and the moment I hear - 'may I speak to mr. or mrs.....' I realize they are solicitors - I just hang up. (no Mr. in my house just me). I also hang up when they can't pronounce my last name. People who know me can pronounce it but rarely do they call me by my last name.

[Proud Public Servant]

29. Man, this drives me nuts. A few years back

I had just moved back to the US after an extended period overseas, and I picked up a disposable cell phone at Radio Shack while getting my permanent phone service sorted out. Apparently, they recycle those numbers very quickly, and mine had recently been used by someone named Debbie. I know this because every day, someone would call asking for Debbie; when I said there was no Debbie at that number, I'd get asked if I were her husband. Since different people were calling but the calls all sounded the same, and no amount of "there's no Debbie here" would get them to stop, I came to the conclusion that the calls were from a debt collection agency. Eventually, we went around like this:

Is Debbie there?
May I ask who's calling?
I'd like to speak to Debbie.
May I ask who's calling?
Are you her husband?
May I ask who's calling?
Sir, please just tell me whether or not you are her husband.
Please tell me who's calling.
Sir, can you answer my question?
Can you answer mine first?
Sir, I just need to know if Debbie's there, or if you are her husband.
And you know what you need to do to get my answer: identify yourself. You called me; feel free to hang up.

They hung up.

But I still had to go through that script three more times, on three successive days, before the calls finally stopped. I still get irritated thinking about it.

[spanone]

30. i answer NO ONE who's number i don't recognize. if they really need me, they'll leave message

the 'do not call' lists are a fantasy....they haven't made a shred of difference in the calls i receive.

[lapislzi]

32. The ex has run up a bunch of debt since our breakup

The collection agents are on about their third round of old numbers, I guess, because I believe he's moved twice and hasn't lived at my address in four years.

First clue is, they mispronounce his surname (it's slightly unusual, but not a tongue-twister). I say, "he no longer lives here. Please do not call here again."

"Are you his wife?"

"I have no information."

"Do you have his current phone number?"

"I have no information. Please do not call here again."

[datasuspect]

33. I found a VERY useful solution to this problem:

i stopped answering the phone. completely.

EVERY call goes to voicemail.

if they want a response, they can leave a voicemail.

fuck the goddamn phone.

[Arkansas Granny]

49. That's pretty much what I do. If I recognize the number as being someone I want to talk to,

I'll answer. Otherwise, they can leave a message. I have a phone for MY convenience.

[lapislzi]

59. Very important point:

The telephone is a convenience for ME. I crack up when my husband dives for the phone or scuttles out of the bathroom to answer it, only to discover it's a telemarketer or some charity grubbing for money.

I will answer the telephone at my convenience. I will return calls at my convenience, except in the event of an emergency.

Or, as I like to say if the phone rings during dinner, "if someone's dead, they'll still be dead in half an hour."

Fortunately, my voice mail is on speaker, so if it is a true emergency, I have the option of answering it.

[Marrah_G]

34. I hang up on folks who do that.

Robo calls are also instantly hung up on. And at work, any calls that start with " may I speak to the person who handles..." is immediately hung up on.

[RebelOne]

35. When I get a caller that says, "Who is this?" I always ask, "Well, who do you want?" n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. Similar experience with texting just last week

I got 3 texts from a number I didn't recognize. Texts made no sense. So finally I replied that they had the wrong number. They answered "Well who are you?" I replied "You texted ME. And you don't know who I am?"

Texts stopped. LOL

[Trailrider1951]

41. Oh gawd, the come-backs are endless

"I'm not the droid you're looking for."

**click**

[Lugnut]

42. I had one of those last week.

The guy got miffed at me because I refused to identify myself.

[Kaleva]

43. I've had those.

They seem to get pissed because I'm wasting their time by not identifying myself and asking them who they are and what the call is about. One person muttered "ass-hole" and then hung up.

[MineralMan]

45. I answer with, "Hello, this is {firstname}

The wrong numbers just hang up. The computer-dialed phones pause while they try to connect to Sara or whoever the person calls him/herself. That gives me time to hang up before the salesbot is on the line. My friends start talking.

All of my phones have caller ID. All toll-free numbers get a pickup and an immediate hangup.

[Marr]

47. Just get all sexy-sounding and say, 'who do you want me to be'?

I've found that I can get rid of almost anyone by putting on my sexy voice.

[Arkansas Granny]

48. I just ask them "Who did you want to speak to?".

Most of them want the homeowner (who never happens to be there) and some just hang up.

[stevenleser]

58. I usually respond with the name of someone from history

Ones that usually come to mind:

- Anastasia Romanov

- Franz Ferdinand

- Georgii Zhukov

- Harry Hoover

- Jean d'Arc

etc.

Then it becomes funny because the person usually doesnt know who that is and starts calling me by that name.