Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

I think I always say 'hung up (the phone) on someone' eg just the other
day: "He was so furious he just about hung up on me".  But, writing in
this group...Ooops..newsgroup/forum one gets jittery and edits and
over-edits until confusion sets in. You can get hanged here, you know,
then hung, drawn and quartered..... But when harangued, even if not
harrassed, one can't get hung up about it all otherwise one can't hang
out with people or hang around them.   :-)

Thanks for pointing that out. It now looks funny.

That's a different case, in my opinion. I've met a few of those, and
even forced some of them to connect me to a human. (The trick is to
mumble, so that the robot can't understand you.) In every such case,
however, I was the one who initiated the call. It's scarier, in my
opinion, when the robot is the one who calls you.

I've been hanging up on the ones who offer me a free vacation in Florida
ever since I discovered that the offer didn't include a plane ticket to
the USA. That's the simple case. The ones that scare me are where
there's suddenly the sound of a US ring tone, which is distinctly
different from an Australian ring tone. That's when I hang up quickly.

On a related note, here's a useful tip. If you ever buy anything from
Dell, be careful not to reveal your fax number. To the best of my
knowledge there's no way to stop receiving their junk mail.

A rule is in my Telus phonebook, on page twenty-two, about ADAD
(automatic dialing and announcing devices). It says they're legal, but
only for public service announcements,
and what's more is that it has to identify the caller. Typically,
they're "prohibited" according to the rule about solicitation, that's
because they try to sell something by trying to tell me that I've just
won a trip, yada, yada, "to claim your prize, hit nine. If you're not
that stupid, hit eight." ...

If you hate fraud artists, call customer service and complain.
They should be able to block the number from calling anyone in Alberta
or B.C. if they can't do some snooping and prosecution. Once a spam
cop, always a spam cop.
_______
<a href="http://www.mynumo.com/SherLok">BrewJay's Babble Bin</a>

The R H Draney entity posted thusly:

IMHO, the bastards that encroach uninvited upon my relaxation time,
have forfeited any pretense of civility as soon as I determine who or
what they are. I am seriously considering an air horn for them.

Jeffrey, thank you for posting this sig.  I find that, though long, it
is very thought-provoking.

I'm familiar with that type even though somewhat iritated by it because
pressing a button is much faster than having to carefully say words,
however simple. You could also press buttons quite effectively even
when not in a state of emotional calm whereas you can't say words
succinctly after you've just had a row with a teenager, or a boy has
made you cry (just kiddin'). All such bill paying is now replaced by
internet banking, even more speedy. Money flies away faster and faster
these days!

What freaked me out this time was a telemaketing call by a voice that
made a pretence at conversation, asking you chatty or inquiring
questions, pausing at preset intervals, and carried on 'the
conversation' regardless of whether or how you answered. It was
rabbiting on about switching to a different ISP or phone company, I
think...

Being hounded recently by telemarketers is making me 'not answering
call', again for the first time, at least for a while, when seeing a
NSW (State of New South Wales) number which seems characteristic of the
call origin. Man, my castle is being invaded!

PS I put [OT?] before the topic in the subject line but it kind of
disappeared by itself -something The Omrud investigated recently but I
can't remember what the conclusion was.

Well, there's an obvious exception to that statement.

That's where robots don't quite manage to sound like human
telemarketers. In my experience, the robots haven't yet learnt to call
while you're in the middle of a meal.

If a telemarketer calls when I'm in the middle of cooking, that's
another matter. My response in such cases is to say "Just a minute, a
saucepan is boiling over", and then leave the phone off the hook for ten
or fifteen minutes before hanging up.