Odd phonecall

[cdd]

Only services where confidentially is needed, such as a gp practice, hospital, and charities offering councilling etc etc should be allowed to hide their number, it pisses me off when people call me from their mobiles and they have their numbers hidden - it's annoying to the point where i won't answer the call anymore if i don't know whos calling me.

I'd argue it the other way around. I don't like the idea that people can be so shallow as to want to know that it's me calling. What benefit do they get?

My mobile is set to routinely disable own-number sending.

Agreed, the service can be misused, but, frankly, if someone you know wants to misuse this service on you, they're probably misusing other services on you in "real life".

[Buerkmania]

I used to work in a Vodafone shop and I don't remember there being a customer service dept in Middlesbrough, so that's a bit odd. There might however be one in nearby Hartlepool, who might share the same code as Boro.
Did they go through all the security correctly?

[Dr Lobster*]

I used to work in a Vodafone shop and I don't remember there being a customer service dept in Middlesbrough, so that's a bit odd. There might however be one in nearby Hartlepool, who might share the same code as Boro.
Did they go through all the security correctly?

yeah, they asked me to confirm my name, the first line of my address and maybe my post code. they reckon they're sending me a new handset out today, the proof will be if it arrives of course!

[tillyoshea]

I always refuse to answer "Withheld" numbers on my mobile phone. Unless I'm expecting a call from a bank, company etc. that day, I won't answer them.

A lot of people are doing this now, and it's causing increasing problems for hospitals trying to get hold of people following accidents etc. I was in a meeting a few weeks back with some people from the various A&E departments round here who are desperately trying to convince the Trust to stop witholding the A&E number, but apparently it's just not that simple (is anything?)

[Boughton]

Same where I work, no matter what phone extention you phone out from it says "Private" number, so I always have to answer in case it's work.

You're obviously a lot more conscientious than me then - I never answer a "Private" number precisely because it might well be work!

Don't let your company exploit you by treating you as always being on-call - they will only take advantage, and it probably won't do you much good in the end!!

[cwathen]

to be honest, i dont think any regular consumers should be able to hide the number they dial from.

I did agree with that, until I realised that there are legitimate reasons for a standard consumer wanting to withhold their number.

As my part time job, I deliver Pizzas. Occasionally, there is occasion to have to call the customer whilst out on the road.

Some customers are complete and utters c*nts. On one particular occasion, I called a customer to ask when I couldn't find their house because there were no numbers (the number of people in Plymouth who don't have a number on their front door, or who don't have one clearly visible from the road, is amazing). The 'customer' (by which term I mean 'some little swillyite twat who should have been shot at birth') became extremely abusive, and him and his buddies thought it great fun to continually ring me in the middle of the night for about a week afterwards (and of course the police, as ever, couldn't possibly get involved despite me having the number they dialled from, that number corresponding to the one they ordered a pizza from, and me having some of the calls recorded on my answering machine).

Only then did I realise that I'd been dishing my personal phone number out without thinking to countless people that I didn't know, and was leaving myself wide open to this sort of thing.

Ever since then, I've witheld my number when dialling customers, and no way should my right to do that be taken away.

That said, I don't understand people who set their phones to permanently withhold their number. There is no conceivable reason to do that if you are calling someone you know.