No I don't want to call you. I prefer to email.

[ViviPru]

I appreciate that some conversations require face-to-face meeting, and on occasion, some conversations are better over the phone than via email.

BUT, if I want to engage you as a service provider or supplier, I have contacted you in the first instance via email, then that means that I would prefer a response to my initial query via email. Not a reply from you saying 'please call me.' GAH. Perhaps I have not provided enough information for you to adequately respond, but if that is the case, let me know. Via EMAIL.

Jesus wept. Urgh - totally pointless AIBU but I feel better now.

YANBU. I have a phone phobia and hate calling anyone. I can only answer the phone is someone has made an appointment with me I know I'm nuts

"There are so many variables you have to verbally list them and the pros and cons unless you want to be emailing for days."

That sounds like precisely the situation where I would want to have everything in writing so I can mull it over for as long as I need (under no pressure of silence on the line) before coming to a conclusion, or asking a question that would not have occurred to me under the pressure of a real-time conversation.

I don't understand why "emailing for days" is a problem, if there no particular deadline. (As in the tyre-fitter case.)

It doesn't take me (materially) longer to type something than say it, so I don't understand the concept that the phone takes less of my time than email. Email only takes longer overall because the replies happen at the covenience of the communicator, which is a good thing. In an era where email exists, it is rude help yourself to control of someones time by phoning, them unless an immediate reply is absolutely required.

"TBH I don't understand why anyone would want to avoid talking. The opportunity for personal contact and socialising is a big part of what attracts people to my job and many others I expect."

I hate talking to people at any time, especially on the phone.

yanbu. drives me demented sometimes.

It does depend a bit on the job.

I am an instinctive emailer anyway, but the job that really drove home to me how effective it is was accountancy. You charge your time in 10 minute increments to a given client, and everything has to be written down, every decision, every fact, whether it's an external or internal conversation.

In those circumstances, it is pure selfishness and lazyness to use the phone except for the briefest of queries or arrangements, because you are interrupting someone else's clock, which they might have running on a completely different client to you. And nobody gains any time from the phone call, because someone usually muggins here has to note down the content of the call for the file anyway.

Chargeable time is an extreme example, but it did rather drive home to me the fact that picking up the phone is really a way of saying "My priorities and my work plan are more important than yours."

YANBU! I had exactly the same this week...filled out interwebular form with extremely anal explicit details of my requirements for a new front door. Chatty Kathy (actually a man) phones me back immediately and I then have to listen to an in-depth analysis of all the different doors he's done, the merits of different materials blah, blah, blah....Bloody people ....

It's funny because I used to LOVE the telephone. Now it's like this annoying intrusion into my personal space.

lisianthus that's a very good point about vendors wanting to avoid committing to things in writing...

Depends on the circumstance, but in my office it would be YABU.

It drives me nuts when the (mostly young) members of the department seem to use every excuse possible to send an email rather than pick up the phone to resolve an issue quickly. Especially when dealing with different timezones, I can phone India first thing in the morning and get an issue resolved (or at least agree actions) over the phone immediately.

Because they have no phone skills they send an email, then get one back with a suggested solution, they reply with a question, by then India have gone home for the evening and we have to wait 24hr for the next commuincation.

I fix it in one phone call and I get asked to fix their problems for them when they have been taking too long to resolve. I'm not blowing my own trumpet here, its not rocket science work. They see this happening and say that's great it got fixed so quickly, but they still won't pick up the bloody phone themselves. They have no phone skills or confidence to carry out a conversation on the phone without the breathing space email gives, so they hide behind it.

In my environment I see a generation coming through that are hiding behind email and not building skills to collaborate, negotiate and build relationships with customers/suppliers and colleagues.

(and India send me a lovely box of the most delicous mangoes you have every tasted every year when they are in season because I am the only one who talks to them! )

YANBU YANBU YANBU and feeling all vindicated by this thread i have just emailed my oven cleaning/repair man to let him know that if he wants my business he can let me know his availability by email rather than expecting me to call him (politely of course). Not least because the first time I remembered that I need to progress this (after receiving his email yesterday evening was 10.15 tonight which is hardly an appropriate time to call!

If they want people to ring then WHY PUT A CONTACT FORM ON THEIR WEBSITE?!?! Just put "Please call us on XXXX for a quote"

I had this recently with my car. Their "online" quote consisted of me filling in their fucking form with all the technical info, and then receiving an email that said I should ring them to discuss my quote.

I emailed back that I didnt expect to have to pay to call them when they promised an online quote, but if they wanted to discuss it then they were welcome to call me on the number I had provided on the original form. I gave them times when it would be convenient to call and they didnt bother. So I emailed their head office a week later and said that I was very happy to inform them that the work had been done to a high standard and at a very competitive price.......by their main competitor :o

Oh don't get me started.. please, please, don't get me started! Too late..

I have three six and under, they don't understand the concept of quiet. I also have problems processing what people are saying without visual cues, so I spend all my time on the phone trying to decipher the actual words without having the time to then make sense out of them. I'm fine with me mum and sister, but that's because I know them and their patterns of speech. I get severe anxiety talking to anyone else. If the phone rings in the house I almost feel sick, obviously we're on all the TPS etc etc but apparently some types of market research calls are still allowed, and Sky and BT never leave us alone despite me demanding that they do so.

I have a photography business and I take great pride in NOT having a phone number on my website. Because if people call me, I can't remember what they said and which customer was which and if they later dispute it - where's the evidence? An email has it all written down, not to mention I don't sound totally unprofessional with a screaming child in the background.

Recently we decided to rent a house and the agent said he much preferred to be contacted over email. Sold.

WeAllHaveWings - totally agree with you, of course there is a time and place for emails etc but it is very scary how so many people seem to have lost the simple art of making and receiving telephone calls; there was an interesting article in today's newspaper about how so much social & business interaction is done via technology that inter personal skills are really lacking; I deal with a lot of young people in a voluntary capacity and the number that can't respond to a phone call, or even face to face communication is staggering. Yesterday I verbally asked a young man for his telephone number and you would have thought I'd asked him to write a disertation on Einstein .

This is like the FREAKS on here who won't a answer the door. Drive at night for no real reason apart from they're scaredy woo or answer the landline.

Utter weirdos

Oh, I don't answer doors unless it's the postman's time, or unless I'm expecting someone. It's always just door to door salesmen, why would I bother?

Just very very English.

And borderline nuts.

Maureen I answer the door. I drive at night without a second thought and happily answer the landline.

What I can't be doing with is being asked to make a phonecall on an occasion where I deem that the information could easily and conveniently be relayed over email. Simple as that.

Bogey - i agree - I hate calling people (i might have mentioned this), so if it's not for work, I will not ring.
if a website has no email contact details, I go elsewhere.

I hate the feeling that i might be inconveniencing someone if i call at the wrong time.
also, i deal with schools a lot, and my correspondence is usually "please remember i exist and buy stuff from me" - not really the kind of stuff you can do over the phone!

Me Too! I hate talking on the phone. Email is so much more convenient, you have a record and less chance of confusion

i always answer the door.
won't answer the phone at home, and DH also has to vet the calls because i can't stand smalltalk on the phone.

but i don't mind smalltalk in person. (i can't do it, but i can listen to it)
I suppose I know a couple of deaf people who have added to this - when I say something to them on the phone, I end up having to repeat myself 8 times before they've understood me. yet they still insist on ringing!
at least in person i can angle myself so they can see what i'm saying.

I hate the phone. It's so intrusive. I don't want to speak to some random sales person/ energy company or even piano pupil whilst I'm eating my dinner or trying to chill out for a rare minute.

I check my emails a good few times a day and can answer them when it suits me. I can also contact people without feeling I am intruding on them. I'm happy to email at the weekend because no one has to answer it until Monday. I don't mind getting emails on a Sunday as I don't have to deal with them then. But I get very cross when people phone me at the weekend over work matters.

Email is better all round. I hope eventually the phone will become obselete except for speaking to family and friends.

Its not weird of borderline nuts! Its the simple fact that if you submit the required information that a company requests via email, why cant they respond by email? And why ask the potential customer to bear the cost of the call if you want to speak to them?

If they want to do business over the phone, that's fine but dont put email or contact forms on your website!

chris481 I do work to extremely tight deadlines. I expect people to understand once I've explained. If they miss the deadline I may go ahead without them. I also explain that. If they don't like it then tough.