Telephone etiquette

[desperance]

I am famously antagonistic towards telephones. We never had one till I was a teenager, and I've never been comfortable with them; I don't have a mobile, and rarely use the landline. I may be over-reacting, therefore, or misinterpreting a commonplace. But. I hate it, hate hate hate, when the phone rings and I answer it with my usual "Yes, hullo?" and the voice at the other end says "Who's that speaking, please?" or near equivalent. It seems to me extraordinarily rude: they called me, which means they should know who I am; they're the stranger in this relationship. Also, this is my home which they have chosen to invade, so ditto ditto. Either way, it's theirs to declare their own identity, rather than demanding mine. And I usually say so, quite sharpish.

It's almost always a wrong number, of course, which doesn't improve my temper. Of course it is; people who are intentionally phoning me tend to know who's going to be answering my phone, ie me. I don't mind them checking, "Hullo, is that Chaz?" or near equivalent; it's the blank stranger-to-stranger demands that really rile me. It's an extension of the inherent intrusion of making a phone-call in the first place, the assumption that it's okay to interrupt me unannounced; to heap Ossa upon Pelion by backing that with the assumption that it's okay to interrogate me before ever they identify themselves just enrages me.

Or am I being precious and mimsy...?

Comments

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I had a series of calls on my mobile from someone who refused to identify themselves until I provided personal information to identify myself to their satisfaction. I pointed out I wasn't providing any personal information until I knew who they were/what they were calling in connection with. They couldn't tell me that until I proved who I was... Eventually they stopped calling.

Since then I have come up with what I consider to be a brilliant plan, should this situation occur again, in which 'for security' I ask the caller to tell me their father's name, their favourite colour and the capital of Canada. Once they have answered the questions I shall tell them that not all the answers were correct and that 'for security reasons' I must terminate the conversation immediately. I almost hope I do get another of those calls.