Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with phonecall

Should I ask her when would be a good time to call her for a date?

Basque13 — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:03:56 -0800

I (30) met this woman (35) at a work-related meeting ten days ago. We were in a small group (2 men, 2 women), and chatted briefly. Among a few other things, she asked me if I was married and had children (no to both). She is divorced and told us (most of the interaction was with the group) that she was on her own, and had to work really hard to support herself and her two young children. She seems a very loving mother, in addition to an attractive and easygoing person. Before leaving she asked me (and the other guy) for our email addresses and told me she would send me a facebook friend request. This didn´t mean much in itself, as we might conceivably need to get in touch for work-related issues. Later that evening I see and accept her fb friend request, and we chatted for a few minutes. Couple of days later I iniciate fb chat, and learn a little bit more about her life, and she learns something about mine. More or less same thing today. The interaction flowed nicely, with what for me was a good combination of humor and getting-to-know-each-other. We exchanged phone numbers.
I want to call her and set up a casual meeting for coffee, the problem is, as far as I remember, our 3 online interactions finished when she said she had to either pick up her children somewhere, or leave for work (at various times of the day). I know that her working hours are very irregular (she might be finishing as late as 11 PM one day, or starting at 8 Am another), and that raising children as a single parent is demanding.I don´t want to call at a bad time, which given her circumstances, I suspect it might be anytime.
Suggesting a meeting for coffee over fb or sms would be much more convenient, as she could answer whenever she could. On the other hand, I understand that adults interested in asking someone out are generally supposed to at least phone the potential date to set up a meeting. Somehow I feel that if I call her when she´s busy or unavailable, my second attempt will have lower chances of being well-received.

So: Do you think it's ok to ask her via fb or text if,e.g., she´ll be busy tomorrow afternoon to make sure my call doesn´t arrive at a bad time? Should I tell her (via fb or sms) in advance I want to call her to invite her for a drink?.
PS: Asking her face-to-face is not an option.
We are not at all likely to be bumping into each other at work, since our workplaces are miles away from each other.
I´ll appreciate your wisdom and/or common sense on this topic.

Outgoing phone call protocol - how does it work?

Feel the beat of the rhythm of the night — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:12:22 -0800

When you make a call to a service or business, say, you're calling because you have a problem or require a service -- what do /you/ say? Do you say "Hello" and get right down to details?

Do you say "Hello, how are you today?" and then get down to details?

Do you identify yourself "Hello, my name is Frank Smith with [business name or organization]" and get down to details?

Or something else entirely?

What way have you found makes people happiest? I want to make people happier even if I have stuff they need to do for me (which usually makes people sadder, quite understandably.)

stopping am phone calls

Mael Oui — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:36:14 -0800

Is it possible to stop unwanted phone calls when it seems no one is on the other end? The call is coming to our landline (home phone), and we don't have caller id, an answering machine, or any kind of special machine or service that can identify or filter out the calls. This has been an ongoing issue for a few weeks. We've been receiving morning phone calls around the same time every day for a few weeks. The phone calls wake us up daily, though, I suppose it's not really an unreasonable time (9:30-10:30 hour). When I've answered, no one has been on the line, but the call stays active for at least a minute before clicking off. We're on the Do Not Call list, but we've started to receive recorded messages to get around some kind of loophole in the past year. We've also been hounded by calls from an alleged charity that my Mom has contributed to in the past. When we get those calls, I've been put through to a real person, and I've declined donating and asked to have our number removed from their list. That hasn't happened, but I'm not sure if there's a connection between the AM calls and the charity. Our number definitely seems to be on a scheduled auto-dialer and either the recording isn't starting up when I answer or, perhaps, my call isn't being processed and sent to a live telemarketer.

My complaint mostly stems from the fact that it happens every day, that it wakes us up unnecessarily, and there's no foreseeable way to get the calls to stop. What I'm wondering is:
1) Does anyone have any insight into what this is (beyond my own guess)?
2) Is there any kind of hack or hint (like punching in a secret series of numbers that would make the recording start or transfer me to a/the person responsible for the call)? Any solutions beyond getting a paid service with the phone company, a machine to id or filter the call, or not answering the phone? Obviously, I'm aware of those options. Dropping the landline or turning off the phone/silencing the ringer are not options. What would you do (beyond those options listed above that I'm aware of or have ruled out)? As I said, if it weren't so early, I would just ignore it and not answer, but I'm getting irritated by the unwelcomed daily wake up call. Ultimately I would LIKE to get these phone calls to stop. Thanks in advance for any responses!

Waiting by the phone...for my landlord?

Marinara — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:52:25 -0800

How do I keep my sanity while waiting for a phone call from my maybe future landlord about whether or not I get to rent her house? There's this house I want unbelievably badly in the basement of an awesome mansion. We viewed it two days ago, faxed the application off the day after (because she emailed it to us that day) and then later dropped off a better copy at her office. She said she hoped to know her decision by yesterday but was waiting on a couple more applicants. We seem to get along fine except I think that maybe she is hoping to rent to someone with the same collegiate affiliation.

It's the day after. I'm making ulcers in my stomach lining. What do I do? Should I call her? Should I email her? Or do I just wait and start sending out more applications? Will she call me even if I don't get it?

Scammy call or wife with gall?

smirkyfodder — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:10:05 -0800

A man might be cheating on his wife, but it definitely isn't with me. His wife says my number is on his phone records as having incoming and outgoing calls with his phone. Is it possible for my phone number to show up on phone records for a phone I've never called? Also, is it possible this is somehow connected with the fact that my debit card has been compromised? Over the course of a week or so, I received several calls from an unknown number. Because it wasn't a number I knew, I didn't answer and just hoped they would leave a message, but they never did. Well, they sort of did. They would apparently listen to my message and then after the beep they would just hang up.

After getting tired of wasting cell phone minutes checking voice mail messages that provided no incite, I finally picked up when I saw the number calling again. The woman calling asked if I knew a certain person (she said his name) and I said I was sorry but I didn't and I asked what the call was in reference to. She asked if I had bought a car from the fellow and I said no. She asked me again if I knew him and I said no again. The call ended when I said I was sorry I couldn't help and she said "Ok, thank you." I hung up.

So then that night I got another call from the number. I answered and the same person asked if I knew that same fellow. Again I answered that I didn't know him. She told me she thought I was lying and that I did know him. She said he was her husband and she had his phone records and my phone number was all over them during February and March. Back and forth. I told her I was completely confused how my number got on his call records but I assured her it wasn't me who was calling her husband. She said he was a used car salesman and asked if I had bought a car from him, to which I replied that I hadn't but I was shopping for a car last year. She told me the calls were more recent than that.

Eventually she told me she believed that I hadn't been calling her husband but went on to tell me that this man had a history of cheating and verbal abuse. She said they have a one year old child and her father died a few months back. I felt so bad for her that I really just listened to her talk for a while, asked her to try to get help from a local agency if she felt unsafe and encouraged her to be strong. She was crying and seemed very emotional. The call ended with my wishing her luck and her thanking me for listening.

But then today I got an alert from my bank saying that my debit card has been compromised. When I called the bank, they said someone had my card information but hadn't used it yet, though they aren't sure how it was obtained.

So, #1) Is it possible that my phone number showed up on this husband's phone records even though I hadn't been calling him and he hadn't been calling me? and #2) Is there a chance that this is a scam for my debit card information?

I have no idea how they could be connected but I thought I'd ask. I appreciate your help!

Why did my bank call me about a wire transfer?

medusa — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:22:00 -0800

Why did my bank call me and ask if I'm expecting a wire transfer? Today my bank (Schwab bank) called me and asked if I was expecting an incoming wire transfer to my account. I'm not, and I told them that. Then I asked why they were calling me about this, and they refused to tell me, "for security reasons." They wouldn't give me any information. I got a bit paranoid and asked if someone was trying to take money from my account; they said no, there are no problems.

Is there anyone with inside knowledge of how banks work that could tell me what was going on?

Too good to be true?

Phire — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:33:37 -0800

How sketchy is MagicJack? Can I trust it to forward calls to my cellphone? I'm in Canada. Currently, the only service I have is a cellphone through SoloMobile with unlimited North American long distance--expensive, but necessary. Trust me when I say that I make enough calls to the States that getting a calling card would actually be more expensive.

I may be in a position in the near future of not only making a lot of calls TO the States, but also fielding a lot of calls FROM the States...and while I have no problem paying for the long distance costs, I imagine not everyone I'll be dealing with feels the same.

This would be a non-issue if Google Voice were available in Canada. I'd just give out the GV number and have that forward to my cellphone. That's unfortunately not an option.

I came across the Magic Jack, which is a VoIP dongle that you can plug into your laptop, and you can plug a regular analog phone into said dongle. Ostensibly you can pick a random US number and have people call that number to reach you. If your computer is turned off, the call either goes to voicemail or it can be forwarded. This seems like the perfect solution for me, especially since it seems like I don't have to leave my computer on all the time and I could still get transferred calls wherever I am on my cellphone.

The reviews have been pretty mixed. PC Mag's primary issue with it seems to be lack of tech support, which I'm personally not too concerned about, but BoingBoing seems to be concerned about spyware as well. There was a question about it from 2008, with only three answers, so I thought I'd try again.

Does anyone have experience with MagicJack, either in Canada or in the State? Alternatively, does anyone have any better suggestions for how to make it easy for US contacts to get in touch with me?

Online dating mysteries explained (hopefully)

kenoshakid — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:42:00 -0800

This question is for women who have used online dating : What are your most common reasons for breaking off an email exchange with a man who you met through online dating? Also, once you have given the man your phone number, and he calls you, what are your most common reasons for not returning the phone call? My question about breaking off email exchanges pertains to the following situations :

1) Where you sent the initial email, but eventually stopped returning his emails.
2) Where the man sent the initial email, but you responded at least once.

My question about not returning phone calls pertains to the following situation - you've emailed back and forth a few times (or IMed with each other), and you've given him your phone number. He calls you, but you do not call him back.

Both of these situations are pretty confounding, because, as the man, you never get any explanation of what you did wrong, and don't know what to do in the future to avoid the same fate.

However, the unreturned phone call is probably the most confounding situation of all. If she likes me enough to give me her number, why wouldn't she call me back when I call her? Are my voicemail messages really that bad? Or are women just fickle like that? Should I even bother trying to contact her again, or should I just give up?

So . . . many . . . phone calls . . .

schroedinger — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 10:51:52 -0800

How do I keep track of my business phone calls? I'm looking for a program, preferably freeware or open source, that will help me keep track of the people calling/emailing/contacting me, why they're contacting me, when they contacted me, how to contact them, when I should contact them, and if I've contacted them. Preferably it would allow for multiple call-backs in case we get into an extended game of phone tag. Right now I'm using a notebook, but something on the computer would allow easier changes. Googling's failed me, since I'm not even sure of the right phrasing to use.

incoming cell calls

mr_crash_davis — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 15:08:07 -0800

When receiving an incoming phone call on a cellular phone, is there any way to differentiate between in-network and out-of-network?

Find a prank call -- someone referenced star-69

Ljubljana — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 03:04:23 -0800

I need help finding a specific prank call. [More inside] I think (but am not sure) that it's a celebrity prank call (Schwarzenegger, Hartmann?) or possibly one by the Jerky Boys.

Here's what I know for sure:

* The victim is a male with a Southern accent
* He says the words: "You don't know who you're talking to!!"
* He also says: "Did ya ever hear of star 69?"

This has been driving me crazy for a long time. I've searched around but can't find it, nor can I seem to remember anything else about it. If someone can hope me, I'd be very grateful!

One Phone Call

kahboom — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 07:45:30 -0800

"I want my phonecall!" In movies and on TV shows, the protagonist/antagonist always asks his jailers for his "one phonecall" to a lawyer. Do you really only get one phonecall? Do regular people really have a lawyer's number on them? How's this all work? (I'm not in trouble, promise)

Phone Call Recorders

inksyndicate — Thu, 01 Apr 2004 13:22:29 -0800

Bzzzzz. You know those Radio Shack devices for recording phone calls? When I hook one up to a tape recorder, it works fine. But it's the damndest thing: hooked up to my computer, it buzzes. Is this an electric grounding issue, or is there something I'm doing wrong?