8 ms·

You're sold to on a daily basis by people who you've never had the faintest communication with... Therefore, if an app owner genuinely felt that his app was go

You're sold to on a daily basis by people who you've never had the faintest communication with... Therefore, if an app owner genuinely felt that his app was going to fix your problem, and you have displayed an interest in having your problem fixed by signing up to his app, why wouldn't you want the app owner to understand more about why his app didn't work for you? Hypothetically let's say that the 5 minute conversation he had with you then led to a change to the app that actually solved your headache - would that make the phone call acceptable? I completely understand that we all hate cold calls, me included, I'm just trying to understand why you would be so upset.

Zikes 13y ago
I'm personally rather sensitive to unsolicited phone calls because they are both interruptive and unexpected. There are only a few windows in my day when I would be interested in talking to someone on the phone, and if I need to communicate with someone outside of those windows of availability I generally need to take some special actions to make myself available. I have made it a point to put myself on the national Do Not Call registry, so I know that any phone calls I would receive during the day are generally important enough to justify the interruption and I will try to answer rather than let it go to voicemail. You know that junk mail you'll get sometimes that has no sender information, but is made to look in some way important or personal? Maybe it looks like a bill, or it's in a greeting card envelope. So you have to open it up to find out what's in there, and lo and behold it's an offer for 50% off six months of DirecTV and three months of free HBO to boot. Maybe it's just me, but that's the sort of thing that drives me crazy, and I look at those sorts of phone calls the same way.
- msrpotus 13y ago
  So then just don't answer the phone.
  - snowwrestler 13y ago
    Why is this being downvoted? If it's important that you not be interrupted by the phone, there are a variety of easy ways to make the phone not interrupt you. - Unplug it/turn it off - set to silent and turn off vibrate - "Do Not Disturb" setting - "Send all calls to voicemail" - etc.
    - dangrossman 13y ago
      Because he's replying to someone that explained, explicitly, why he answers the phone even when he doesn't want to be interrupted.
      - snowwrestler 13y ago
        I'll expand on my previous comment to make this more clear: the grandparent's approach is terribly flawed because the Do Not Call registry only covers a narrow range of annoying phone calls. Calls that are not covered by the Do Not Call registry include: - Any survey by telephone (even if they are being conducted by a for-profit company) - Any charity - Any political campaign, candidate, or committee - Any company with whom you have had contact in the last 3 months, or done business within the last 18 months In short, saying let's always answer phone calls because of the Do Not Call registry is like saying let's open every email because of the CAN-SPAM Act. The only way to reliably manage telephone interruptions is on the client side, i.e. the phone itself. When I don't want to be interrupted I send all calls on the landline to voicemail, and put my cell phone on vibrate--only picking up numbers I recognize, like family or friends, in case it is an emergency.
        deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
    - MereInterest 13y ago
      Because phone calls are already very high up on the "This could be important." scale. Email is usually low priority, to be answered when there is a free moment. Next comes texting and IMing, to be used for organizing day-to-day things, such as where people are meeting for lunch. Above that is people stopping by in person to ask a question. The highest priority is receiving a phone call, because it means that someone wants to talk to me in particular, can't find me, and can't wait for an email response. Because all the other methods of communication have been bypassed, it must be rather important, and so I will answer it. If it is not important, I will then be annoyed.
- tptacek 13y ago
  Every once in awhile you call someone and they have exactly your attitude. So you politely get off the phone and move on. That's all there is to it.
- tomkinstinch 13y ago
  FWIW, the opt-out process for junk mail seems to be reasonably effective. Since adding my name to DMAChoice I receive very little junk mail (spam drives me crazy too). This FTC page has a list of places to go to opt-out: http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicit...
pyrocat 13y ago
Because it's a shocking invasion of privacy.
- tptacek 13y ago
  Words mean things. Nobody in America is shocked to get an unsolicited commercial phone call.
  - andrewflnr 13y ago
    Let's say, "depressingly unshocking", then.

Zikes 13y ago

I'm personally rather sensitive to unsolicited phone calls because they are both interruptive and unexpected. There are only a few windows in my day when I would be interested in talking to someone on the phone, and if I need to communicate with someone outside of those windows of availability I generally need to take some special actions to make myself available. I have made it a point to put myself on the national Do Not Call registry, so I know that any phone calls I would receive during the day are generally important enough to justify the interruption and I will try to answer rather than let it go to voicemail. You know that junk mail you'll get sometimes that has no sender information, but is made to look in some way important or personal? Maybe it looks like a bill, or it's in a greeting card envelope. So you have to open it up to find out what's in there, and lo and behold it's an offer for 50% off six months of DirecTV and three months of free HBO to boot. Maybe it's just me, but that's the sort of thing that drives me crazy, and I look at those sorts of phone calls the same way.

msrpotus 13y ago
So then just don't answer the phone.
- snowwrestler 13y ago
  Why is this being downvoted? If it's important that you not be interrupted by the phone, there are a variety of easy ways to make the phone not interrupt you. - Unplug it/turn it off - set to silent and turn off vibrate - "Do Not Disturb" setting - "Send all calls to voicemail" - etc.
  - dangrossman 13y ago
    Because he's replying to someone that explained, explicitly, why he answers the phone even when he doesn't want to be interrupted.
    - snowwrestler 13y ago
      I'll expand on my previous comment to make this more clear: the grandparent's approach is terribly flawed because the Do Not Call registry only covers a narrow range of annoying phone calls. Calls that are not covered by the Do Not Call registry include: - Any survey by telephone (even if they are being conducted by a for-profit company) - Any charity - Any political campaign, candidate, or committee - Any company with whom you have had contact in the last 3 months, or done business within the last 18 months In short, saying let's always answer phone calls because of the Do Not Call registry is like saying let's open every email because of the CAN-SPAM Act. The only way to reliably manage telephone interruptions is on the client side, i.e. the phone itself. When I don't want to be interrupted I send all calls on the landline to voicemail, and put my cell phone on vibrate--only picking up numbers I recognize, like family or friends, in case it is an emergency.
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
  - MereInterest 13y ago
    Because phone calls are already very high up on the "This could be important." scale. Email is usually low priority, to be answered when there is a free moment. Next comes texting and IMing, to be used for organizing day-to-day things, such as where people are meeting for lunch. Above that is people stopping by in person to ask a question. The highest priority is receiving a phone call, because it means that someone wants to talk to me in particular, can't find me, and can't wait for an email response. Because all the other methods of communication have been bypassed, it must be rather important, and so I will answer it. If it is not important, I will then be annoyed.
tptacek 13y ago
Every once in awhile you call someone and they have exactly your attitude. So you politely get off the phone and move on. That's all there is to it.
tomkinstinch 13y ago
FWIW, the opt-out process for junk mail seems to be reasonably effective. Since adding my name to DMAChoice I receive very little junk mail (spam drives me crazy too). This FTC page has a list of places to go to opt-out: http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicit...

pyrocat 13y ago

Because it's a shocking invasion of privacy.

tptacek 13y ago
Words mean things. Nobody in America is shocked to get an unsolicited commercial phone call.
- andrewflnr 13y ago
  Let's say, "depressingly unshocking", then.