Hang up the phone CORRECTLY!

[hinakiba777]

There are two things involving telephones that my father does that are not just annoying, but have caused serious issues during emergencies.
1) He leaves his cell phone off at almost all times.
2) He doesn't hang the telephone up properly.

What I mean with the second point is that when my dad hangs up the phone he doesn't place it in the cradle correctly, so the phone is technically off the hook. It looks like it's own the hook, but it's not. This has caused a lot of serious problems where there has been an emergency and someone has had to call my parent's home and they get a busy signal. This is worsened by the fact that he leaves his cell turned off. So you call home from the ER and get a busy signal, then you call my father's cell and you get sent directly to voicemail. This has lead to MANY the convoluted phone tree situation wherein someone calls a friend or a neighbor in an emergency so they can physically go to my parent's house bang on the door and give them the information.

This morning was the worst of those situations.

The short version is that my brother calls me long distance on my dad's cell to tell me he is stranded at his security job because the car battery is dead. It's 6am and he should be home but the car won't start, and he can't get ahold of my parents and he asks if I can. I call home, and of course I get a busy signal. I call him back and he tells me that the battery on the phone is dying too, and he needs me to call someone to come get him or to get our parents to get him. I wake up 2 different people before 6:30am to ask for help. The second offering to go boost my brother who has no idea what is going on because he's been cut off since the phone died at 6:10am. It's 7am now.

All this because my father doesn't hang up the home phone properly. Now I need to stay awake until I know that my brother is home safe. I'm just lucky my first class is at 4pm.

Update: Brother just called to tell me he got home safely at the same time our cousin texted me the same information. I am now going to try to get some more sleep.

So do any of you have anyone in your life who has a bad habit that just makes everything chaotic?!

[PepperElf]

Perhaps not as bad as that.. but ... that would be me.

People seem to want one way to contact me that always works. But because I'm using cheap methods they have to cycle through my numbers & messaging programs until one works. And not all of them work reliably.

My cell - only works outside and if I'm by a window (this apartment is like that)
My skype doesn't always pick up from my google voice number
My skype doesn't always pick up my skype number either
My google voice & skype only work if I'm home anyway. Oh and the same with my AIM or messenger, and I don't always remember to bring the cell when I go out.

There's been a couple of times where my family just gave up and called my boyfriend

[Slayer]

Maybe it's time to get him a new phone :P lol. One that is easier to make sure it hangs up.

My mom is kinda of like that in the sense that she always forgets to put her cell on sound. She gets upset when she can't reach us yet we can't be upset when we can't reach her *sigh*

[telecom_goddess]

No offense but really how hard is it to hang up a phone? They've been around for how many decades now?

One thing that drives me bat shit crazy is when I try to call a certain person who has a cell phone and they NEVER PICK UP THE DAMN THING! Why even have it?

so how do Skype and google voice work together ....that boggles me brain. I have skype but I just use it to do text based chat.

[Andara Bledin]

It depends on the phone.

If it's a phone that's designed to be able to be mounted on a wall, it'll have a piece that can be turned around so that the handset doesn't fall off - but if you don't have the phone on the wall and you do have the piece turned that way, then you can end up hanging the phone up, but the handset will catch on that piece and not actually hit the button on the cradle.

We used to have that problem with a phone on the warehouse where I work - it was really annoying. Particularly as the only reason anyone used that phone was to page, so it would lock up the intercom until someone went out and hung it up. >_<

^-.-^

[Chromatix]

Yes, changing the type of phone might help with that, and making sure it's set up correctly.

Mind you, the old rotary phones tended to be more idiot-proof. And there's something about solid mechanical action that's inherently satisfying, too.

[telecom_goddess]

Yes, changing the type of phone might help with that, and making sure it's set up correctly.

Mind you, the old rotary phones tended to be more idiot-proof. And there's something about solid mechanical action that's inherently satisfying, too.

I grew up with those, and have two as part of a collection now

[Kristev]

My mother. She thrives on causing chaos. But then, she is an uproar woman. That means she's never happy unless everyone else is miserable all the time.

[Pixilated]

hinakiba777, you have my sympathy. My maternal grandfather hated the phone, I think -- their phone sat on the kitchen counter and I'd see him holding the phone with one hand (he always had one of those old rotary phones) and shuffling stuff around on the counter while he talked. He also tended to end phone conversations as quickly as possible.

When he got truly exasperated with this devilish device, he'd leave the phone off the hook. It drove my mother nuts because of course she couldn't reach him.

And it got even worse when the phone systems switched over to the type you could unplug. At least when he left the phone off the hook, mom would get a busy signal and she'd know what was going on. When he pulled the plug on the phone, it just rang nonstop, and she worried constantly that he might have fallen, he could be ill ... anything could be wrong. She used to pester him about it and he'd stop unplugging the phone ... for a while.

[Andara Bledin]

My paternal grandparents were paranoid and massive control freaks. They'd regularly turn their ringer off so that they wouldn't have to risk contact with the wrong people. They'd also ignore their doorbell; one memorable time was when they knew my mother was stopping by with us in tow for something holiday related, and they just left us standing there while they ignored us, and then complained later that they never heard us ring. I'm not at all surprised that my father turned out like he did.

^-.-^

[hinakiba777]

It depends on which phone dad hung up incorrectly. My parent's have three house phones, though usually only two are plugged in so we'll ignore the third.

The first is in their bedroom on mom's dresser which is on dad's side of the bed. It's directly next to his head. So if the phone rings at night, sometimes he will just kind of drop the phone back into place without making sure it has lined up. This is the most obviously mistake, but also the most forgivable.

The main problem is the main phone. The main house phone is a wall mounted phone that is on the wall of the living room directly next to the kitchen. Ideally the ear piece of the phone rests against the hang up button. If the button is compressed then the phone is on the hook, if it is not compressed the phone is off. The issue is that if you put the phone down gently enough and a certain angle, the phone will hang from the edge of the cradle and the hang up button won't be compressed. The phone LOOKS like it's hung up, but it's not. Also the stupid light that tells you if the phone is in use only lights up if someone has picked up one of the other lines. So it doesn't help.

I will have to try talking to family into replacing it though. This happens far too often.

[Shalom]

I grew up with those, and have two as part of a collection now

Collection, fiddlesticks. This is what's on the wall of my home office right now:



That's a Western Electric 354 (or 352, I'm not sure which). It's entirely line powered, which is a good thing what with Sandy heading our way in a hurry. Last time the power went out, we were the only one on the block with a working phone, which is why I'm not getting rid of our old POTS line so fast.

[telecom_goddess]

Collection, fiddlesticks. This is what's on the wall of my home office right now:



That's a Western Electric 354 (or 352, I'm not sure which). It's entirely line powered, which is a good thing what with Sandy heading our way in a hurry. Last time the power went out, we were the only one on the block with a working phone, which is why I'm not getting rid of our old POTS line so fast.

Yeah well gimme that one and I'll add to my "collection"

[Chromatix]

Some of the preserved railways in the UK use obsolete ex-BT equipment for their internal communications. This means rotary phones, exchange rooms that are full of electromechanical equipment, and old-fashioned telegraph poles on the lineside.

Those old phones are a joy to use though. And since the connection to the other end doesn't go through a multiplexed line, the sound quality is incredible compared to a modern type.