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Landlines I know are used less and less these days but I found myself lifting the receiver to announce my exchange town name and the final three digits of our number. Our number became a six digit number back in the 1970s. Is this a sign of ageing or antiquated politeness?
It may have been an unconscious reaction to a persistent redialer trying to reach the Doctor's surgery who's number is a frequent misdial that reaches us.
Have they released the funds from your unexpected lottery win yet?
That takes me back to when we first got a phone, sometime in the early 70's. Hearing mum answer the phone in her best BBC newsreader accent in order to sound posh.
These days I can't even remember my landline number - that's probably more of a signs of ageing!
I bet the indian teleworker trying to scam you would love to hear your LL number. 😐
The only people who genuinely ring people's landlines these days are mums!
Answering your landline is a sign of ageing. How many PPI claims can a person make?
why even have a phone plugged into the landline, they're for routers surely?
Ring Ring
"Hello 1089" - childhood memories like the registration of my parent's cars UMS 30T
I was dismayed some years back when a shark* from a telecoms company sold my mum a new contract and she accepted a change in telephone number.
Yesterday due to foreign mobile network errors my landline was dug out an plugged in so MiL could phone home to Spain.
*May have been a perfectly nice person but I am not yet willing 20years later to let it go...
I remember when my phone number was 4 numbers long. Thirty eight thirty three.
Never saw the point of answering the phone with your number. If the caller intended to call you then they already know your number, if it's a wrong number then you've just given your number to a complete stranger.
The only people who genuinely ring people's landlines these days are mums!
Certainly that's the case with ours.
It certainly does make it stick in the memory... "71438. Whaddayawant?"
I used to call my mates on three digit numbers.
MY M-I-L answer phone message is with the exchange name and then the full number, so if you're easily confused you'd think you were through to 77 773955 (not the real number)
Top Tip: your old landline number from 30 years ago is still stuck in your head - so use it as your PIN or online banking passcode. Or even better use the old landline number of a mate or ex-girlfriend. They are all in there somewhere so you might as well put them to use 🙂
Some relatives used to state the name of the local exchange, then the 3-digit individual house number, when answering. Why? Because to them, it was a way of getting some sort of weird one-upmanship thing over other family members, who lived in large towns and cities, who couldn't do this. 'Oh look, we live in such a rural idyll, that our 'phone number is 'place xxx'. Aren't we wonderful?'
Remind me how [s]fast[/s] shit your broadband is, cos you're still on crappy copper wire to the cabinet, many miles from the local exchange? 😆
*Downloads some video, at 70Mbps, just, because*
[i]so use it as your PIN or online banking passcode.[/i]
Yes! I shall do that. 😛
On this subject, if you haven't listened to Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang Ups on R4, you should 🙂
Top Tip: your old landline number from 30 years ago is still stuck in your head - so use it as your PIN or online banking passcode. Or even better use the old landline number of a mate or ex-girlfriend. They are all in there somewhere so you might as well put them to use
I did that, phoned that friend up when I was back in town and it turned out that all those years I'd miss remembered it and it was actually a random stranger who's phone number was the first 3 digits of one friends and the last three of another. Even ore confusing, they had the same name so the conversation actually went on for a couple of minutes with us both getting more and more confused!
Allô !
In County Clare, Ireland in the 70s you still couldn't dial a number and had to ask the operator who then told you how much cash to put in. Unless it's changed recently you still don't need more than the last few digits for local calls.
Remind me how fast shit your broadband is, cos you're still on crappy copper wire to the cabinet, many miles from the local exchange?*Downloads some video, at 70Mbps, just, because*
Obviously not a Virgin Media customer 🙁
My MiL answers with the exchange name and 4 digit number.
Sometimes when she call my mobile I answer with [b][i]"Middleton Crematorium, you kill 'em we grill 'em"[/b][/i] and she hangs up.
Can anyone remember which old British coins worked in German phone boxes and made calls much cheaper?
somewhatslightlydazed - MemberHearing mum answer the phone in her best BBC newsreader accent in order to sound posh.
My mum still does this....she even does it if she's calling the Chinese Takeaway or speaking to a PPI person....
I quite like the number calling - it's quaint or something....might start doing it on my mobile....
Surely having a Land Line is a sign of age?
Been mobile only for 10+ years.....
I quite like the number calling - it's quaint or something....might start doing it on my mobile....
Me too.
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"Ello, T Mobile 1234"
I use a terse, somewhat irritated, "Yes?"
Binners answers the phone thusly:
"Ello? Rammy 3.1415927" 😀
Can anyone remember which old British coins worked in German phone boxes and made calls much cheaper?
I am not sure about German coins but some campsite arcade machines in France would accept 2p insted of 10 Francs. So the kids would tap up every British family on the site and have them rummaging around their cars, caravans and purses for 2p coins 🙂 Eventually we'd use every single one.
Is walking with one hand behind your back (think Prince Charles), also a sign of aging?
I've noticed I seem to do this a lot nowadays!
(the-muffin-man aged 48)
I'd struggle to recall when I last picked up the landline before the caller has announced who they are on the 24/7 answering machine, we've been plagued for years with cold callers despite being on the farcical TPS scheme.
my father does this, however since ohhh, I don't know, the mid 80's maybe, there's been an extra couple of digits added to his number when the exchanges all changed. He refuses, still, to say these numbers...
Upper Coscombe used to be 'Stanton 227' ......Now number tooo long!
After seeing it on Horrible Histories, we've started answering our land line, A-hoy-hoy!! Apparently Hello used to be a word associated with surprise.
I love horrible histories....
We had to share a line with the old lady across the road.
Yeah - when you used to answer the phone with a name and three digits, that was old fashioned.
My home number wasn't like this, but my Grandma's was - I guess it must have been mid-exchange changes. "Billesdon 527" - brings back memories.
A place in the Marlborough Sounds that I used to stay in had a party line, it rang all the phones in the bay and a specific ring tone meant it was for you but everybody could listen in !
My mother trained my sister and me to answer the phone "Hello 076", with the zero pronounced "oh".
We always sounded like we had a a stutter as we tried - in our best BBC voices - to enunciate clearly the end of "hello" and the start of "oh-seven-six"
Since the only people who use our landline now are our in-laws (my mother in law was very narked at me the other day announcing "I called you more than once!" And wasn't very impressed when I replied "there were no missed calls on my mobile, which I had with me as I wasn't in the house."), I am often surprised when the house phone rings.
I was trying to explain to my six year old daughter only the other day that it was within my lifetime that people have changed from calling buildings in the hope of speaking with someone, to calling that person directly, to dispensing with speaking and sending them short written messages. Just like personal telegrams....
Imagine my surprise the other day when, having the ignominy of having to visit a branch of Staples, I discovered that fax machines are still being made and sold..!
I was asked to send a fax yesterday and I failed to find a connected and working fax machine in my office !
Can anyone remember which old British coins worked in German phone boxes and made calls much cheaper?
Yes; the old 5p coin (pre 1990) was the size of a one DM coin. Ideal when it was 3+ DM to the £.
For unknown numbers, I favour either "moshi moshi " or "ahoy-hoy".
Ahoy hoy
Never saw the point of answering the phone with your number. If the caller intended to call you then they already know your number, if it's a wrong number then you've just given your number to a complete stranger.
Comes from the days of old telephone exchanges doesn't it? The days of exchange girls sat in front of plug boards or early electro-mechanical exchanges when wrong numbers or cross connections were far more common.
So you'd dialled Hendon 336, but got through to Hendon 633. When the person that picked the phone up at the other end rattled off their exchange and number, you instantly knew if you had the right connection.
I was amused when my 7 year old nephew was doing something on his tablet that required a pin. The number he came out with was my alarm code - the phone number i and my sister had as kids (the 4 digit version before they added another 2 numbers). I'm not sure what else she uses it but guess that he's picked it up from her at some point.
I was on holiday a few years ago, sharing a hotel room with my brother. I went to open the safe and he told me the code number - was the 1st 4 of our old phone number and it's exactly what I would have put in.
The number he came out with was my alarm code - the phone number i and my sister had as kids
The number to my tablet and phone is part of my wife's ex-boyfriend's old landline number from at least 25 years ago. 😆
(before she met me, I hasten to add)
"Answering your landline is a sign of ageing."
Silly boy.
Why have a mobile phone switched on when you have a land line? There are still plenty of us who fail to see the need to have a mobile communication device surgically attached to us. We can go a whole hour without checking to see if the world wants us. I do own a mobile. Why? God knows. I can't use it in the car, its wrong to use it in someone else's time, if I am late home so what? I reckon I actually make a call or send a SMS perhaps once a month and that's to keep the account going sometimes. Even the numbers are too long.
I genuinely cannot see the need for a mobile for most people.. Even those who say is essential forget that the world did run without them 🙄
Edukator - Reformed Troll
Allô !In County Clare, Ireland in the 70s you still couldn't dial a number and had to ask the operator who then told you how much cash to put in. Unless it's changed recently you still don't need more than the last few digits for local calls.
5 digits and I'm less than an hour from dublin.
A sign of aging is answering your home line 🙂
Why have a mobile phone switched on when you have a land line? Here at the nursing home there are still plenty of us who fail to see the need to have a mobile..
FTFY grandad 😉
I'm quite sure that a century ago there were people saying [i]"Why would a chap need Mr Bell's Telephonic Apparatus in the home when there is a perfectly good telegram service just a few miles away?"[/i] 😆
mattsccm - Member
I genuinely cannot see the need for a mobile for most people.. Even those who say is essential forget that the world did run without them
You are not someone who is on call then, I've been on call since the days of pagers!
Being able to instruct/direct people via a mobile phone is a joy compared to hoiking yourself into work to give them 2 mins of instruction where they then say "can you show us" which involves you basically doing the job for them. VS if you ****ing look in the right place its as plain as day so get on with it.
It'd be nice to have the choice! No mobile signal where we are, so the landline gets a fair bit of use.
Binners answers the phone thusly:"Ello? Rammy 3.1415927
I'd like to think he'd have more precision than that.
I discovered that fax machines are still being made and sold..!
You'd be surprised (oh wait, you were). We sell a lot of MFDs (copier / scanner / fax / teasmaid etc) and the fax is still alive and kicking for those who want a fall-back for when other comms fail, or industries which still require a written signature (cos a scribble on a bit of paper is totally more secure than public key encryption).
Why have a mobile phone switched on when you have a land line?
Why have a landline at all when you have a mobile phone? I don't want to speak to a house.
There are still plenty of us who fail to see the need to have a mobile communication device surgically attached to us.
Because you're doing it wrong. I carry a mobile for my benefit, not everyone else's. If you leap up like a scalded cat when it rings, that's the problem. I get a call on my mobile, I'll answer if it's convenient. If not, they can talk to the voicemail or call back.
How is an audible mobile device sat on a shelf any more intrusive than a fixed device sat on the same shelf?
Used to do it as a family in the 70s but I never liked doing it anyway. Preferred to answer "what?" or just a barely audible grunt (though more in my teens in the 80s).
mcmoonter - Member
Landlines I know are used less and less these days
Which annoys me no end. Everyone calls me from their mobile and the quality is always bloody awful. Breaks up, cuts out, then they're using them hands free at times which is even worse. Problem is the encoding is always a low quality on mobiles anyway and then on top people using mobiles in their own house are using it in the worst place for a mobile signal. Another thing is often you can't talk/interrupt while the other person is talking without the sound cutting out, and there's often a delay.
Sure they're convenient, but for a proper phone call they're crap. Landline quality is way better. If I call someone I call from the landline and I prefer to call the other person's landline number.
Also the side of my head gets warm if I use my own mobile for more than a 10 minute call, which worries me (likely due to the poor signal in a house, so the phone cranks up the power).
This is a running joke with my mate, only he or my mum ring our land line, I always answer with the name of the village where our exchange is followed by 293 in my best old man voice. My Grandad always answered with just 556.
Because you're doing it wrong. I carry a mobile for my benefit, not everyone else's.
+1
Call filtering is brilliant, if you call me in the evening and you're not in my favourites list it's straight to VM. Any number starting 0207 gets barred automatically.
I'd like to think he'd have more precision than that.
Nah,
He's the flighty, artistic type. He'd probably go for 22 over 7.
Everyone calls me from their mobile and the quality is always bloody awful.
...
Also the side of my head gets warm if I use my own mobile for more than a 10 minute call, which worries me (likely due to the poor signal in a house, so the phone cranks up the power).
How old's your handset, out of interest?
NZCol - Member
A place in the Marlborough Sounds that I used to stay in had a party line, it rang all the phones in the bay and a specific ring tone meant it was for you but everybody could listen in !
I'm from there, ours was a long ring & 2 shorts. BMW is using our phone number on one of their cars now, 123D.
Cougar - Moderator
How old's your handset, out of interest?
In terms of heating, same result on any. Current is a couple of years old. Had it with loads of Nokia, Samsung, Nokia/MS (current Win phone). As I say, low signal quality inside a building will cause the phone to crank up the power. I guess not everyone notices it though but being used to calling on a landline I easily notice how hot it's getting using a mobile for a while.
In terms of quality, that's purely down to the caller. They call me on my landline. Their end is shitty. Call my landline on your landline and all sounds excellent. Except for the few who like to use speaker phone on their landline phone, then we're back to the same problem.
It's the same with phone ins on the radio. So many times they have to give up with the caller because you can't hear them as they're on a mobile. Those on a landline are fine. Though those trying to use Skype or other VoIP services are also fairly crappy. Quality starts okay but then drops quality when bandwidth suffers and then breaks up, delays again. Packet services are rubbish for voice.
The only people who genuinely ring people's landlines these days are mums!
😆 so true
I always answer mine with "Menswear?" Most people that don't know me just hang up. 🙂
That reminds me - after the centre of manchester was blown up, the new flagship northwest M&S had virtually the same number as my parents place.
It wasn't too bad during the week but on a saturday morning you only answered the phone if you wanted to wind people up. I pity anyone working at M&S during that time called Gavin.
Caller: "hello, I bought the wrong sized pants, can I bring them back to exchange them?"
Me/My brothers: "no."
Caller: "err,, what? why not?"
Me: " We have your money now, **** off."
Caller: generally angry/disbelieving "what's your name, I'll talk to your manager" etc etc.
Me: Gavin. G.A.V.I.N.
phone down.
The batteries on our cordless landline phone are duff. Personally I don't see the point of going to the hassle of replacing them when Mrs aracer could just get her family to call her mobile (my family don't call me at all - mum hasn't used a phone of any type in years, but that's another story).
How old are you lot with 3 digit numbers though? The furthest back I can remember we had a 5 digit one.
The batteries on our cordless landline phone are duff.
Likewise. It's a side-effect of having cheap rechargeables on perma-charge.
How old are you lot with 3 digit numbers though?
It's not age, it's down to the size of the area code. My grandparents were early adopters on our exchange and have always had a six-digit number; a mate's parents in Dunsop Bridge had a three-digit well into the 90s and maybe beyond.
And what about those special telephone benches by the front door? Padded seat and a shelf for the phone book/yellow pages.
I remember saying 'hello, Sherburn Hill 203' back in the 70's.
Never saw the point of answering the phone with your number. If the caller intended to call you then they already know your number, if it's a wrong number then you've just given your number to a complete stranger.
Like the time I answered with '67030' (or whatever it was) & a woman with a very strong Irish accent said, 'is that Jim?' & I said 'yes' & she said 'is Margaret in?' & I said 'I don't know a Margaret' & she said 'is that Jim?' & I said 'yes' & she said 'well, where's Margaret?'... It went on for a while until it was established she's got the wrong code. Same number, wrong code.
Top Tip: your old landline number from 30 years ago is still stuck in your head - so use it as your PIN or online banking passcode. Or even better use the old landline number of a mate or ex-girlfriend. They are all in there somewhere so you might as well put them to use
Good idea! I'll use the l/line number that's been in use for the last forty-odd years I've lived in this house, then, shall I?
Seeing as how most such systems require an alphanumeric code with caps and l/case, I'm struggling to see how a series of numbers might have an advantage.
Far better is an old car registration with the model of car, one that was scrapped years ago.
Why have a mobile phone switched on when you have a land line? There are still plenty of us who fail to see the need to have a mobile communication device surgically attached to us. We can go a whole hour without checking to see if the world wants us. I do own a mobile. Why? God knows. I can't use it in the car, its wrong to use it in someone else's time, if I am late home so what? I reckon I actually make a call or send a SMS perhaps once a month and that's to keep the account going sometimes. Even the numbers are too long.
I genuinely cannot see the need for a mobile for most people.. Even those who say is essential forget that the world did run without them
You embrace technology that was invented many years ago, yet refuse to accept modern technology? Why have a landline, when smoke signals will do a job? Being a luddite out of pure stubbornness impresses nobody, apart from your own skewed view on the modern world. Well done...
You embrace technology that was invented many years ago, yet refuse to accept modern technology? Why have a landline, when smoke signals will do a job? Being a luddite out of pure stubbornness impresses nobody, apart from your own skewed view on the modern world. Well done...
It quite impresses me, It means I'm not alone.
I bet your'e amongst those at the party who look at their mobies all night instead of mixing with the guests. 😉
[quote=Cougar ]The batteries on our cordless landline phone are duff.
Likewise. It's a side-effect of having cheap rechargeables on perma-charge.
It's not even anything to do with the quality of the batteries. The dumb trickle charging will happily kill even quality batteries - hence why despite having batteries which will fit I refuse to destroy more expensive, quality batteries (when I last replaced them I sourced NiCads on the theory they cope better with trickle charging).
[quote=esselgruntfuttock ]I bet your'e amongst those at the party who look at their mobies all night instead of mixing with the guests.
You do realise it is possible to embrace modern technology and make use of it when it's advantageous without being wedded to it? You don't need modern technology to be anti-social and TBH that assumption says more about you than it does about TAFKASTR. It has even already been pointed out on this thread how to make use of a mobile without it taking over your life.
It quite impresses me, It means I'm not alone.
I bet your'e amongst those at the party who look at their mobies all night instead of mixing with the guests
Nope, I'm amongst those that remember my boss 'paging' me and having to go and find a phone box for a nonsense call. Now, running my own businees, I can bother employees and contractors at will with nonsense calls, without it eating too far into their/my time that I'm paying them for. Oh, they are quite handy for keeping in touch with the daughter and Mrs too, who are both mostly not sat next to a phone socket.
Oh, and I'd be lost without Facebook 😉
You carry on being happy though, luddites. Chapeau!
Answering a ringing phone is a choice. Be that landline, mobile, work phone.
Fixating on a phone in a social situation, again, is a choice.
These aren't technological issues, they're social issues. They're self-control issues.
My mom and dad are 90. Still well and independent. But for years I've been saying "Dad, why is your mobile always switched off?" His answer- "Nobody ever calls me on it"
But like the Tom Wrigglesworth reference earlier he would probably answer " Hello Vodafone 07123 456 789"
Answering a ringing phone is a choice. Be that landline, mobile, work phone.
Very true. We seem to happy accept that it is ok to interrupt a conversion with someone (face to face) to answer a phone. Not many people would barge up to two people having a conversion and start talking, but that's what we expect to happen when the phone rings.
It's wrong. If no-ones answers after a few rings I hang up. If I'm talking to someone I let it ring.
When I were a lad, our number was Maidstone 28081. The speaking clock, at the time, was 8081.
We had a lot of wrong numbers. "Is that the speaking clock?"
"Er, no"
"Hello, your name here".
Good morning/evening etc.
079763689994 - what the heck, learn time management and social skills dammit!
My PAYG mobile has been playing up big time recently, been telling the very few people who try to call/text me on it not to and use landline/e-mail, then some get upset with me for not replying to the mobile! 😆
Regardless of it being landline or mobile, I just say hello.
It's up to the person calling to establish whether they've called the correct number or not, if not, I tell them so, and very rarely give either number to the caller.
I have asked the caller to recite the number they [i]thought[/i] they were calling, and pointed out any error, but I seldom, if ever give my number.
And as for having a landline, my 91 year-old step-father couldn't cope with a mobile, he has enough issues managing the remotes for the TV and Sky box!
CZ, likewise generally (unless I know who's calling).