Does ANYONE follow instructions anymore?? (rant)

[cassiesmom]

My mom and dad's caller ID shows on the TV screen when they have their TV on -- so now when the phone rings at their house, they look at the TV, even when it's not on.

How nice of you to hunt down the contractor's business card in order to return his call! He's fortunate to have such a thoughtful customer.

[Taz_Zoee]

I would leave a number regardless if the person I was calling instructed me to. Especially if I am calling from work. I never assume they have caller ID and know the number. You know what assume means.....

The fast talking message just happened to a co-worker of mine. She had to listen 5 times. It didn't help the person had an accent so it was even more difficult to understand. I listened to it the 6th time and actually caught a name that she didn't catch the other 5 times.

But the obvious answer to your question.............NO.

[Freedom]

I don't get it - why does every one spend money on caller ID? We did fine without it for years, and the cost ($3 per month, here) adds up over the years.

Same thing with paying for voice mail on a home line ( Quite different w/ a cell, of course). You can buy an answering machine and use that. You pay for it in a year of voice mail. Just not a money saver, in my mind.

Oh, the contractor, nothing major, just a handyman type, to clean my gutters.

[Pinot's Mom]

I don't exactly PAY for caller ID. We were one of the last holdout dinosaurs; no caller ID, no call waiting (which I think I have and still refuse to use; I find it rude), no extras on the home phone. The last time I reviewed and revamped my service, I got a package deal that included some of these things, caller ID included. Thought...ah, we'll never use it....WRONG!! Any "877", "800", or "caller unknown" does not get answered. Period. End of telemarketers. We never got many, but now we get none. We have also considered dinner time sacred and don't answer calls. This way, we can look at the number to see if it's important (mostly not).

You might want to check - you can probably get caller ID free.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I used to have my home phone through AT&T but I kept on having crackling sounds/connection problems so I switched over to Comcast voice. I already have comcast internet and cable. I also used to pay for call waiting every month with AT&T. Now I get free caller ID, call waiting and several other features and I'm paying less than I did per month with my old AT&T service. I get so many survey and other bothersome calls that it's great to be able to see who's calling you before you decide to answer the phone. Some of these calls happen as late as 9pm or even later. I can also see what calls I've missed during the day if the person didn't leave a message. Now that I have caller ID, things are much better.