Z reaches the end of her tether, so just removes it. Easy.

Whatever that thought was, I didn’t write it down last night and I’ve no idea what I had in mind.  It would have been trivial, as this whole blog is – I’m not damning it, darlings, I rather love the trivial.  It’s a respite from too much worry.

I’ve had it up to here *gestures* with cold callers.  The recorded ones are the worst, but I can’t put up with real people and their set spiel either.  I’m simply not going to answer the phone any longer, unless the person calling me is expected, or announces themselves on the answerphone.  I’ve changed my message to explain that.  I know about caller recognition and all, but I’m doing it my way, with my voice on the message.  And, while I’m about it, I’m only taking business calls when it suits me.  I’ve been without a tenant in my London flat for a few months while depressingly expensive work has been done and the letting agent is clearly anxious not to lose me as a client, so phones every week or two, usually on my mobile.  And I’ve taken to declining the call.  I will contact them, along with other agents, but it’s got to the stage of being counter-productive and i’m actually less likely to use them again because they keep bothering me.

At least I finally managed to open the letter from my accountant today that I’ve been ignoring, except for baleful glances, for several days.  It was a reminder to pay my income tax, the second instalment.  Yup.  Done that.  I did it three weeks early, taking it that the poor wretched country needs the money more than my bank does, it making no difference to me, in practical terms.  I’m out of debt and like it that way.

I’m not really feeling stroppy but I did start to feel nagged and bothered, which is never pleasant.  But doing something about it puts things right, and it’s such a pleasure to listen to the phone ring and feel no obligation to answer the damn thing.  Of course, on the rare occasions a real friend is ringing, then it’s even more of a pleasure to pick up and speak to them.

Changing the subject entirely, it’s my lovely husband’s birthday today.  Five years ago tonight was the second time I met him, when I went to his birthday party which was a few weeks after the blog party.  Gosh.  We’ve all passed a lot of water since then, as someone once said….

4 comments on “Z reaches the end of her tether, so just removes it. Easy.

  1. Beryl Ament

    Happy birthday to Tim. And I know what you mean about cold callers, who seem to have alarming methods of disguising their numbers to defeat even the best caller ID system. At least I know now that a number with 441 in it is my brother in Cambridge and Private Caller is our friend John in NZ.

    Reply
  2. Blue Witch

    I’m heartened that you are as sick of the spam calls as I am. I’ve actually turned off all the answerphones on every line now and mostly just ignore the phone. I’ve actually reached the point of feeling threatened by/scared of ringing phones.

    If it’s a number I don’t recognise (and most spammers are putting false numbers in to beat the caller ID systems most comms companies have now provided), IF I’m inclined to pick up, I simply say, “Speak!” (the equivalent of the VIP’s “Come!” when dealing with a knock on the office door) and if it’s junk I suggest to them that their mother and/or Allah (depending on the accent) might not be too pleased about how they conspire to make money. With slightly fruitier choice of language.

    Belated HB to Tim. Hope you enjoyed however you spent your day.

    Reply
  3. Z Post author

    Tim says he enjoyed his birthday – I just took him out to lunch, made chocolate cake for tea and cooked some particularly nice fish in the evening: a food-based birthday! – and is now playing with his presents.

    There was an article in the paper yesterday about cold calls, as it happens (I’d recorded the message etc the day before, so it was just coincidence) and it says that Britain has the worst problem in Europe and they’ve increased by 180% in ten months. America has more than double per household and India’s problem is worst of all. Call centres bulk buy numbers and split their calls between them so that none is used enough to trigger enough complaints for action. I can only conclude that the phone companies should be made legally responsible – they must know there’s a problem if British numbers are used for calls coming from abroad. And premium rates for calls should simply be banned. A few hefty fines would magically bring about an answer.

    It does feel strangely threatening, I dreaded answering the phone. Yet it’s not as if they’re rude (usually, that is) so I’m not sure why – just the invasion of privacy and the feeling of being hassled, I suppose. The last time I picked up the phone to an Indian voice on behalf of “Boilers on Benefits” (a firm I can’t find on the internet), I simply put it down again. I do have unknown people phoning on business sometimes and callers such as the doctor don’t register a number, so I don’t feel I can entirely ignore it.

    Lovely to hear from you, BW, I can’t blame you for not blogging at present, given the subject of your last posts. Gets worse.

    Reply

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