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I hate telephones

jameshfisher.com

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Re: I hate telephones

#81

Post by programbreeding »

kemayo wrote: post #61
kibwen wrote: post #37

I receive about 20 spam calls per day. In contrast, I receive about 0.2 legitimate calls per day. Google itself suspects that these are spam calls, because it pops up a bright red "SUSPECTED SPAM CALLER" warning when the phone begins ringing. And yet, I have found no option to have the phone automatically decline the call. There's not even an option to silence the ringer for any call not from my contacts; I actually…

Strangely enough, given Android's comparatively-customizable nature, I think this is an area where iOS does it better? (Others might correct me.) iOS 10 added "call blocking" as an app-type, which lets you choose apps which can filter phone calls for you. They can flag calls as possible-spam, or completely block them. (See [1] for Hiya's options screen, as an example.) An "only ring for my friends" feature is sort of…

Hiya exists for Android as well and has very high ratings [1]. I have used Android since v3 and you have been able to change the dialer to a custom app for at least that long.

You have also been able to limit ringing while in Do Not Disturb to starred contacts only, or even just "contacts" to eliminate the need to manage it like you mentioned [2].

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.webascende...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15678075

Re: I hate telephones

#82

Post by Singletoned »

throw401 wrote: post #34

I hate telephones too, and I DON'T have an anxiety disorder please!!! I'm just not the guy always ready for a call. I rarely pick up the phone or open the door for a unknown call, and yes it can create stress. Quite often I am very focussed and balanced, one call can ruin that state. If you cannot find yourself in this, please don't create a disease out of it.

I used to hate them to a phobic degree, now I just hate them. I really dislike how much people are dismissing this. If I hated spiders, people wouldn't say "Oh you're just covering up an anxiety disorder".

Re: I hate telephones

#83

Post by jimbokun »

blfr wrote: post #33

Rarely can I get the same level of service out of companies over text that I can easily over the phone. Talking to a human over the phone is by far the most customer friendly medium of communication. I can do it without physically going anywhere, yet I get almost all the benefits of visiting the business. Online chats on websites are usually undermanned and overall useless. On the phone I am sure I have at least one…

Hahaha, like "using the phone" means "talking to a human", that's a good one.

Using the phone means

1. Listening to a long list of automated selections, none of which are ever useful (pretty much information more easily available over the Internet). 2. Getting placed on hold for tens of minutes or an hour or more. 3. Talking to someone who will ignore your question and ask if you have tried some obvious or irrelevant option. 4. Forwarded to someone else who might be able to help you with your problem. 5. Maybe getting cut off, needing to start the entire process over again from the beginning.

In short, without massive increases in staffing and training, using the phone for customer support is almost always worse than an equivalent text, web, or email based solution.

The article went into even more detail about these shortcomings than I did, by the way.

Re: I hate telephones

#84

Post by ghaff »

brightsize wrote: post #70
hnarn wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiousity, when were you born? I was born in the 80's, and among my friends literally noone has a landline, not even the older ones. There's simply no argument for it. I'm in northern Europe by the way.

There IS an argument for it. Around a year ago we had a freak windstorm here. It was an amazing experience - took down trees and tore apart roofs all over. I'd never seen houses crushed by trees before. The power was out for days in some places, including mine. My phone battery died after a day, ditto the laptop's battery. My landline continued to function throughout. As I recall the service was also extremely inexpe…

You also have E911 with a landline that you don't get with the same accuracy/resolution with cellular service.

AFAIK, it's not super-cheap with Comcast especially as it uses a different modem than my Internet service.

One of the reasons that landlines are more of a spam magnet is that a lot of call types are exempted from the do not call list on landlines but not cell phones. There may be other reasons as well.

Re: I hate telephones

#85

Post by projektir »

I recently had to spend a lot of time on the phone to set something important up. It was a very frustrating experience.

I would call them, and be met with a robocall. The robocall would not really have a section for what I actually needed to do, so I would stumble around and often end up at the wrong person. Often we were both confused and it wasn't clear what was going on.

Every time I called, it's a different person. I have to tell them my contact information and details every time. There's no continuity from previous discussions.

Sometimes, the phone would cut out, for a reason I still haven't figured out. Often in the middle of me talking to someone, and since there's no continuity, all that time is now lost.

I had different people tell me different things at the same phone number.

I end up with no record of my conversations, so it's hard to go back later and say: "Hey, they told me to do X, but it didn't work".

Holds, holds, holds. When I finally did a phone call that fixed everything, I spent about an hour and I was bounced between 5 different departments, including one case of being bounced in a cycle. Overall, I had to call this company about 5 times.

I don't hate phones per se, I like talking to people on the phone if it's a productive conversation for both of us. But I absolutely hate the idea of figuring out something important or receiving a service via a phone.

Re: I hate telephones

#86

Post by [deleted] »

superflyguy wrote: post #25

"Last year, I received a series of 3am calls. At the dial tone, which is set to a horrifically unadjustable volume, I was woken from deep sleep to deep panic. " That would be the ringtone. ( I suppose there are a large number of people who have never heard a dial tone.)

[deleted]

Re: I hate telephones

#87

Post by kyberias »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #57
Tharkun wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered not diagnosing mental illnesses in HN comments? Let alone offering "treatment advice" on a case you know nothing about, without having spoken to the person in question?

He spent the best part of a day compiling a spreadsheet of possible answers to a conversation, the wrote a lengthy blog post telling us about it. That is not normal.

Quit categorizing people into normal and not normal. It's not normal.

Re: I hate telephones

#88

Post by albertgoeswoof »

Tharkun wrote: post #38
albertgoeswoof wrote: post #13

Unsolicited or unexpected phone calls are annoying, but this guy has an anxiety disorder and should probably attend CBT or psychotherapy as it is obviously significantly impacting his life in a negative way. Also, text is not always a the best way of communicating- a lot of information is conveyed in someone’s voice which is often difficult to put on paper. It can also be way faster to speak to someone, particularly…

Have you considered not diagnosing mental illnesses in HN comments? Let alone offering "treatment advice" on a case you know nothing about, without having spoken to the person in question?

Yes this isn’t the place for diagnoses, merely speculation and advice. That said, I am certain that if he repeated his post verbatim or in summary to his GP they would refer him to a therapy service.

Its ironic that his anxiety prevents him from getting diagnosed / treated for it. Probably quite common in mental health.

Re: I hate telephones

#89

Post by albertgoeswoof »

kyberias wrote: post #87
monk_e_boy wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He spent the best part of a day compiling a spreadsheet of possible answers to a conversation, the wrote a lengthy blog post telling us about it. That is not normal.

Quit categorizing people into normal and not normal. It's not normal.

It’s not healthy would be a better assessment

Re: I hate telephones

#90

Post by Trav5 »

kemayo wrote: post #68
izacus wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20 spam calls per day? That sounds like torture... is there really no body in USA that would prevent that from happening? (I've never received a spam call on my now 20 year old phone number.)

In theory there's the national do not call registry: https://www.donotcall.gov/ In practice... there's some groups who are still allowed to call you even if you're on the registry. Others will just ignore it, and filing a complaint is difficult.

I added all my numbers to this list a year or two ago and shortly after the spam calls started. Even on numbers that are not publicly used. (I have Google voice as my primary number and it calls my mobile number and a voip desk phone. Now all three get spam calls. I had them for years and the voip and mobile numbers were previously clean. )
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