Panic attack. - helen-louise

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			Panic attack. - helen-louise




			23:24 10th October 2009

baratron


	Panic attack.
	Argh! Someone just rang the home phone. It's 11.20 pm, an unreasonable time for prospective students or businesses to be calling. It's not an unreasonable time to phone me for a chat, but most of our friends don't even have our home number. We don't give it out because you have to pay for caller display on landlines, and I don't like answering the phone without knowing who it is first. Anyone I know well would call or text my mobile. Calls this late at night on the home phone must mean death or serious injury to family... Except whoever it was rang off by the time I got downstairs to answer it (5 rings, not THAT long). It's almost certainly a wrong number - I don't recognise it. Someone drunkenly trying to call a friend for a lift or something like that. And now my heart is thumping fit to burst and I'm trying to come down off the adrenaline jag. I'd have at least liked to know for certain that it was a wrong number and not some emergency call from a phone box. Tags: aargh, people are stupid Current Mood: stressed

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			Comment by Matthew

	From: emperor	Date: 11th October 2009 18:22 (UTC)		(Link)

I don't think we're paying extra for caller-id on our landline...

[sorry, I appreciate that's not really the point of your post]

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			Thread started by the hatter

From: hatter	Date: 11th October 2009 19:57 (UTC)		(Link)

I thought you were still had a BT line ? In which case you can get caller ID for free these days. Officially it's pay-for but quoting from their website

"Caller Display* shows you the number of the person calling, so you can decide whether to pick up the phone or leave it to your answering service. If you sign up for BT Privacy at Home**, Caller Display is included FREE."

I think you can sign up on their website, if that's the case.

I don't think it was being publicised as 'free caller id' when they first added the privacy at home thing, but I happened to read the mailshot and realised that's what it could be.

the hatter

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	From: baratron	Date: 13th October 2009 01:33 (UTC)		(Link)

We still have a BT line at the moment. Not sure we're keeping it forever, though.

What's the BT caller ID like? Is it just a number, or can you enter people's details so you get their names? Seeing a random phone number isn't *much* more helpful than answering the phone cold.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From: hatter	Date: 13th October 2009 11:19 (UTC)		(Link)

Generally, caller ID is just a number unless your handset lets you enter all your contacts, which I would think would be a pain. You (well, probably

wuzzie) could do clever things with a modem, some scripting and phonebook updates from your mobile.

I find just a number useful enough to distinguish numbers I know (a small number), numbers that look vaguely familiar, non-obvious geographic areas, mobile, call centre-y 0845/0800/etc, overseas, that sort of thing.

The caller ID mechanism on most phones will then actually show you purposely withheld (mine says 'secret'), number not available for some reason ('unavailable'), and people who've set up an actual name to report (mostly fake/fraudulent but possibly legit).

the hatter

the hatter

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User: baratron Name: helen-louise




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