Do you have a problem with telephones?

Post Reply New Topic

a lot sometime i don't know when to talk in a phone convo and I hardly recognize the voices even of friends .

Oh I can never recognize anyone's voice. I can't find anything familiar in the noise that we try to interpret with those little toys.

I used to get called by people from work all the time so I had to leave the ringer on, back then. I would say, "Who is this?" when someone called. They would usually say "It's me, dumbass!", and yet I am the dumbass.

I'm pretty typical AS in that I generally don't like talking to people unless the topic is a common interest. I don't mind the phone if the call (incoming or outgoing) is relevant to something I'm interested in or concerned about at the moment.

Where I hate phones are cases where they are used in such a way that they interrupt me uncessarily. This could be a phone call to ask me to do some nonsense task at work. Even worse are 'communal phones' of the type I found at the government lab I used to work at. This is one phone sitting in a large room where several people are working. When it rang, someone had to answer it, and in my case it was usually for someone else, and just a big waste of time. With voice mail, etc., I suspect this arrangement is less common now, thank god.

Completely and utterly loathe phones.
Knowing that, you'd think I'd made a huge faux pas getting a series of jobs doing Tech. Support, but it actually turned out to be very easy for me.
1. No eye contact... I could stare at the ceiling, stare at my monitor, stare off into space... whatever, as long as I didn't sound bored.
2. "Normal" humans had to follow my instructions. Dance to my tune or no porn for you, Mr Lawyerpants!
3. The out-geeking factor. When I worked for (shudder) AOL, I'd regularly get people claiming to be various sysadmins of godonlyknows what. I'm sorry, but if you're the sysadmin of a SOHO-sized operation and you're using AOL for your connectivity, you have issues bigger than I can resolve for you. And more to the point, claiming to be a sysadmin does not even remotely impress me.
4. The whole point of tech support is to resolve their problems as quickly and efficiently as possible, not become their new best buddy. Fix them and move on to the next of 5 billion calls.
5. Tech companies seem (somewhat.. or at least they used to) to be more accepting of socially awkward, highly intelligent peoples' quirks.
6. Free 'net.

The main issues I ran into were voice pitch and cadence modulation ( I learned to... sing it, sort of...hard to explain), controlling my temper/frustration levels ("Why did you click on that? Did I specifically TELL you to do so? No. I didn't. Idiot." will get you fired) and dealing with co-workers. HR was the worst, as far as that went. I have yet to meet single HR person I didn't want to kill within seconds of meeting them.

That said, at home when the phone rings, half the time it freaks me right out. Just jangles my nerves. We have a large-ish house so we have to have the ringer up, but if you're within a 25-foot radius of it, it's pretty startling. Throw in the caller ID that works when it feels like it and then the whole 'store up interesting topics to "chitchat" about... which you've forgotten in the startlement of either a) getting a call or b) getting an answering machine. Answering machine messages from me typically sound like: It's (my name). I hate your answering machine. mumblemumblemumbleblurred.
My folks calling makes me feel guilty because I don't call them often enough. I can handle message calls for the kiddo, those're easy. Calls from the wife are easy as well (duh).
The biggest area I seem to differ in is telemarketers. I LOVE telemarketers. I look at it this way: This is my phone. I bought it, and I pay for the service. Now, add in the fact that YOU called ME. I am not at your mercy and I can hang up whenever I damned well please whether you like it or not. That said, it's time for me to have some fun with you.
<when I lived in an apartment> Aluminum siding? Hell yeah, I could use me some of that, come on by. Say Saturday at 1pm? Sure!
<selling me life insurance> I'm afraid I don't need it, actually. I'm very suicidal and it'd just take up your time an...why bother <click> (they actually tried to call back to make sure I was ok. It kinda backfired in that respect I guess... I just didn't answer. Remember: MY phone.)
<wanting me to subscribe to a newspaper> I can get more news faster and more accurately online than you can with your pathetic little "news" paper. Stupid outdated technology. You poor inferior little piece of crap. Begone. click.

It can actually be a lot of fun. The only drawbacks, really, are the ringing of the phone and the disruption.

The real issue for me at the moment is calling people. Like, the landlord wanted me to phone around about getting the blackberries in the backyard sprayed (yay chemical death) and, for the life of me, once I get one of those sprayerpeople on the phone, I have no idea what to say/ask. I mean, "Do you spray?" seems both obvious and somewhat insulting, but "How much do you charge for a spray?" sounds like I'm trying to pick up a hooker. And so I put it off... and put it off... and put it off. And now the blackberries are growing back.
Even worse is that this week or next I have to start calling around for an immigration lawyer ( I don't realistically think I can do the whole process myself... it's just too vast) and that's gonna be a nightmare. "Hi...um...how much?" "Pardon?" "Sorry. Um... how much for-" "Pervert! click" "-mmigr...dammit"
If I can get semi-mad (sharp mad, not explosive mad) and get myself pumped up for it, I can do ok, but when it comes to asking the smart questions (hidden fees, associated costs, anything extraneous) I either lock up or, more likely, it just doesn't occur to me.