I was thinking today about call waiting. It seems everyone has different opinions and ways of using their caller ID. I want to see how everyone here uses it, what their felings are.

I have a love/hate relationship with call waiting. I NEVER pick up call waiting. If I see its a call I've been waiting for, I'll say to whomever I'm speaking with "oops, so-and-so is on the line, I'll call you back." and hang up. I NEVER EVER put that person on hold to either leave them there for 10 minutes, or pick up the other line only to return to them to say "I'll call you back". Seems pointless either way -- either way I end up calling caller #1 back after I finish the conversation with caller #2.

My boss on the other hand drives me NUTS. She has caller ID, just like I do, KNOWS who is calling but ALWAYS puts me on hold to come back and say "oo, thats so-and-so on the line, I'll have to call you back." Half the time she puts me on hold and I just hang up... then she calls me back miffed that I didn't hold long enough!

The other day I was with her, and she had just placed a cold call to a potential client and said "Hi my name is XXX and I am from XXX company.... could you hold for a second?" she left this new client on hold just as she was introducing herself -- to answer the call waiting!!! OMG, how rude can she be? If *I* were the client, I'd have hung up on her and NOT taken the return phone call! And the call she picked up? Was EASILY one that could have left a message in voice mail or could have been called back in 5 minutes -- which is what she did, she told the guy "I have a client on the line, can I call you back in 5 minutes?"

So, whats your take on call waiting? Do you use it? Are you a call waiting junkie?