what do you mean i can't use your phone??

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Don't feel ignorant...I'm in the US and I never heard of that either. Can anyone clear that up for us?

I don't know either, but my best guess is that she spams the key to make the button tone (you know how even if you're on the phone if you start dialing both parties hear that touch-tone?) It might just annoy the hell out of the person on the other end of the line so much that they write them off.

[Lyse]

My best friend and I call that "phone slapping" someone :-)

[Merriweather]

My best friend and I call that "phone slapping" someone :-)

Anyone else here actually remember when phones with buttons were brand new (most were still dial)? It was such a novelty, I even remember having a silly little booklet that was a "push button phone song book", where it gave you the numbers to press so you could, say, call up someone and (sort of) beep "happy birthday to you", etc.

We were all so easily amused back then, sigh.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

We were all so easily amused back then, sigh.

Back then? That still amuses the hell out of me now. When someone is talking on and on I'll start beeping a song at them to make them STFU or wonder if my phone is shorting out.

Works amazing on those stupid political survey people when the decide my answer isn't good enough for them.

[Zellie Crescent]

WTF?!

I've got a good one for you guys. Last night 3 minutes before 9 me, D'andre, Jeff, Jackie, and Andrew were waiting at the courtesy counter since the time clock was right there and this guy comes up to the counter and we all notice he just doesn't look right. He just stands there for a minute looking at each of us then he asks Jackie if he could use the store phone to call somebody, she told him that the phone at the counter doesn't call out and that there was a payphone in the exit lobby. He didn't like that too much and he started to ask for our cells but I think he knew that wasn't going to work, then he actually said "come on I just got out of jail and I need to call somebody to pick me up" He took a look at our shocked/WTF expressions and said whatever and left. When we were sure he was gone we all wondered the same thing who the fuck would actually admit that?!

[EricKei]

Pressing "9" on many "talk to the computer" calls will get you put through to a human being without having to wade through quite as many menus. Is that what you meant?

Spoofed numbers -- possibly right, but the thing is, all of them WORK. If I call them back via the number displayed or *69 them, it really does go to that company and a live operator (the initial calls are always robocalls). If they're spoofing, they have3 the return calls rerouted, at least, until they stop using that number (trying to dial an "old" one gets me a "bad number" message)...

I'll start beeping a song at them to make them STFU or wonder if my phone is shorting out

I wanna say I recall seeing this on Mr Wizard's World (RIP) back in the day -- if you have a push-button real touchtone phone, you can hold multiple buttons at once, too. Holding all of the keys in a row or column will yield a note/tone/whatever for the column itself (it will sound like a squeal), and single buttons apparently are the combination of the tones for that specific intersection of keys. E.g., the sound for "1" is either the combination of the sounds for {123} and {147*} or the note halfway between the two, I'm not sure how best to describe it.

[sms001]

ah, if only OP's SC's premise worked across the board:

"Lend me your pants. I've soiled mine and feel uncomfortable in them."

"Can I borrow your car? I ran mine out of gas and need to get home. You must say yes."

"I want to borrow your child. I don't have a kid but want to give the PTA a piece of my mind."

SC's would probably call these ludicrous, not realizing that once you've crossed the line, the last is no odder than the original.

(I also considered this response: "Borrow my phone? Sure (enable number block), let me dial it for you (dial in number), 'Hello there big fella, your wife will be late, she's here flirting with me.'" (hang up, walk away.)

[Primer]

Which is exactly why I do still have a landline. Telemarketers are starting to ignore the DNC list, political calls are starting to ramp up.

Starting???

Political calls (sadly) are not blocked by DNC. As for telemarketers, if they call me in violation of DNC I just take it as a "the gloves are off" situation, as there's a 99% chance that they're a scammer (like the "Cardholder services with very important information about your account" guys who don't know what credit cards I have (none whatsoever, intentionally)...). Note that this particular company seems to change their phone # every 3-4 days or so, calls me at least twice a month for the last YEAR, and they invariably hang up the instant i begin speaking the phrase "remove me from your list".

Thankfully, those have slowed down a bit for me. For about 3 months, the credit card one was calling my cell phone at least once every day. They never could explain to me how I could pay less than 0%, though. Over the summer, I did not answer any calls that I did not recognize the area code. Now that school has started back up, I have to answer. I just kept hanging up as soon as I heard the recording.

They don't change their number; the number it shows on the ID is spoofed; it belongs to someone else. They're scammers who operate from outside the US, so they're really hard to go after.

I continue to press the 9 every time one comes in, and I rarely have a second instance of the same scam come back around.

^-.-^

Is that holding down the 9 key, or repeatedly pressing the 9 key? and what exactly is it supposed to do??

Spoofed numbers -- possibly right, but the thing is, all of them WORK. If I call them back via the number displayed or *69 them, it really does go to that company and a live operator (the initial calls are always robocalls).

I ALWAYS get a full voicemail box.

[EricKei]

"Can I borrow your car? I ran mine out of gas and need to get home. You must say yes."

YES
|> NO

"But Thou Must."
YES
|> NO

"But Thou Must."
YES
|> NO



Cookies for the reference.

[Zoom]

"But Thou Must."
YES
|> NO

I hated her. The dragon should've eaten her.

[Jester]

People occasionally will come into the bar and ask to borrow a staffer's cell phone. Most of my coworkers and myself simply say no. The few times people have pushed me on this with a "Why not?" I simply tell them that it's my phone, and I don't lend it out. Period. I don't think I have to point out to them that, from behind the bar, if they took off with my phone, I might have trouble catching them. PLUS I need to tend to my bar guests, and can't be looking over every few seconds to see that my phone is fine. PLUS these strangers may have germs, and while I have to serve them, I don't have to allow them to cough and breath on my phone that I use every day. I'm not a germophobe, but no. Just no.

We had one lady come in one day and ask to use the business phone. When we asked her who she needed to call, she said she just needed to call her friend/relative....in Boston. The bar is in Key West, Florida. Yes, she wanted to use our business phone to make a long distance call. Needless to say, we refused. She persisted, giving us all these sob stories about this and that and whatever (it was very random and very stupid), but we were unmoved and unbudging. The more she talked, the less chance she had of using our phone. And she didn't have much to begin with. Yes, by all means, use our business phone to make a personal long-distance call. The kicker was that she wasn't even a customer--she had merely come in from off the street with the idea that we would have no problem with this favor she was asking.

We were disinclined to acquiesce to her request.

cos like it or not, once a boss starts dictating to you that you're obliged to give your personal items to customers while you're off the clock... that's something the labor board will have a field day with.

I'd like to see how a boss could dictate that you'd be obligated to give customers your personal items even when you were ON the clock. What a load of hooey that is!

[Cia]

She did not even try. Claiming she can not demand such from close relatives. And yes this sort thing has happen before.

While not looking forward to the event, I know my relatives are in for a big shock when my mom dies and they try to hit me up for items/money from her estate. My mom is a soft-touch, I am a hammer hand!

Wow. I think your Mom and my Aunt might be related. Aunt is a soft touch when it comes to my cousin Katie (not her real name). Aunt knows Katie is full of it and will do her best never to pay anything back yet she listened to Katie's crying about needing a cellphone. Katie couldn't get a cellphone cause her credit is crap - compeltely, utterly and entirely. I don't feel sorry for her at all.

Anyways - Aunt co-signed for a cellphone. Can you see where this is going? Thought so. Katie racks up a $500 dollar phone bill and refuses to pay it, naturally, so Aunt is up the creek w/o a paddle. She can't afford the bill and asks my Dad for help. Aunt doesn't have a good track record for paying back loans but scarily enough she's actually paying Dad back for this one. Dad knows he most likely won't get his money back from her so he's happily surprised.

[Brojekk]

YES
|> NO

"But Thou Must."
YES
|> NO

"But Thou Must."
YES
|> NO



Cookies for the reference.

Is that from Dragon Warrior for the gameboy?

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Pressing "9" on many "talk to the computer" calls will get you put through to a human being without having to wade through quite as many menus. Is that what you meant?

I thought that was zero. Or, at least all the computer directory BS I have to deal with every work day it is zero.

[EricKei]

I thought that was zero. Or, at least all the computer directory BS I have to deal with every work day it is zero.

On some, zero, on some nine ^_^

I hated her. The dragon should've eaten her.

Heehee. Zoom has it...8-bit avatar and all.

Is that from Dragon Warrior for the gameboy?

Yup. Ok, now I feel old...er Dragon Warrior was originally on the NES/classic Nintendo. This is the game series that caused Japan to actually pass a law forbidding the publisher to release new ones on work/school days because of its popularity. And you thought people obsessed over FInal Fantasy and Star Wars >_>

For those unfamiliar -- anytime a NPC/townsperson asked you a yes/no question in the game to which the only answer was effectively "yes", selecting "no" would make the respond "But Thou Must."...over and over again until you complied with their wishes.