Tag Archives: phone

Calling Me On The Telephone.

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When calling me on the telephone, please remember that before I answer my phone, I always check my Caller I.D. screen first. If my Caller I.D. screen does not identify the caller, or if it tells me that the call is from ‘Private Caller’, ‘Unknown Name’, ‘Blocked Number’, ‘Unavailable’, ‘Toll Free Number’, ‘Out of Area’, etc.; I will not answer the call. If you are calling me from a telephone that does not identify the caller or if you have Caller I.D. blocking, just leave a message on my voice mail. Do not hang up and call me back later. That won’t do any good. I check my messages frequently, and I will reply to legitimate voice mail messages. I am sorry if this seems rude, but I get too many robocalls and calls from phony charities, crooks, and scammers, and this is the only way I can control the problem.

You should do the same thing that I do about this. When you answer a telephone call from a robocaller, you are telling the computer that called you that your phone ​number is active and that you answer robocalls. Doing that just gets your name put on their sucker list, and crooks sell their sucker lists to other crooks!

P.S. – I am writing this because 2 days ago I got a voice mail message from “the awards committee” saying that I had “just won a free all-expense paid vacation to Bermuda, including the airfare.” The caller was a man. He spoke with an accent that sounded to me like he was from the British West Indies, but I’m not sure. He said that in order for me to claim my prize, I had to call him back within 24 hours with my credit card number and security code to “verify” my identity. The call came from the 234 Area Code. That’s the Area Code for Nigeria. I didn’t call him back because this didn’t smell entirely kosher to me. Several people have told me that I have a suspicious nature, and I think that’s true. Anyway, it’s been more than 24 hours since I got this message, so I guess I’ve lost my free Bermuda vacation.

Calling Me On The Telephone.

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When calling me on the telephone, please remember that before I answer my phone, I always check the Caller I.D. screen first. If my Caller I.D. screen does not identify the caller, or if it tells me that the call is from ‘Private Caller’, ‘Out of Area’, ‘Unknown Name’, ‘Toll Free Caller’, ‘Name Not Found,’ ‘Blocked’, ‘Unavailable’, etc.; I will not answer the call. If you are calling me from a telephone that does not identify you as the caller or you have caller I.D. blocking, just leave a message on my voice mail. Do not hang up without leaving a message or call back later. That won’t do you any good. I check my messages frequently, and I will reply to legitimate voice mail messages. I am sorry if this seems rude, but I get a lot of robocalls and calls from crooks and scammers, and this is the only way I can control this problem.

You should do the same thing I do about this. When you answer a telephone call from a robocaller, you are informing the computer that called you that your phone ​number is live and active and that you answer your phone when calls come in from robocallers. Doing that gets your name put on the robocaller’s sucker list, and they sell their sucker lists to other robocallers.

Mark’s Job Hunting Tip #5: Have a Professional Sounding Voice Mail Message.

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When was the last time you listened to your outgoing phone message? Have you ever listened to it? Most people have no idea what their outgoing message sounds like. Call your own phone number from another phone and listen. You might be surprised by what you hear. When you are looking for a job, your outgoing phone message isn’t going to get you a job, but it could cost you one. Quite often, an employer will call an applicant, listen to his message, and then just hang up because he didn’t like what he heard. I have done that myself when calling applicants for apartments. I once called an applicant for an apartment and while I was listening to the guy’s outgoing message, I could hear the sound of vicious dogs barking in the background and a woman cursing at them. I hung up without leaving a message and rented the place to somebody else. Here is my advice:

  1. 1. Record your outgoing message in a quiet room where there is no background noise at all. It is unprofessional to have an outgoing phone message with the sound of a TV or music or anything else in the background.
  2. When recording your outgoing message, be brief, and keep it simple.
  3. Don’t be funny. High school and college students often have humorous or bizarre phone messages, but unless you are looking for a job working as a stand-up comic, you should have a straightforward, humorous, businesslike message.
  4. Speak slowly and enunciate. State your name, say that you are unavailable, and ask the caller to leave a message. If you have an unusual name, state your full name and speak slowly so that employers and human resource reps will know how to pronounce it.
  5. Check your voice mail frequently and return messages promptly.
  6. When you return a message from a prospective employer, call from a quiet place. You may be anxious to return a call immediately, but you could do yourself more harm than good by calling from a noisy restaurant or a subway station.