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AIBU?

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Original poster

To HATE the landline?!

57 replies

shutthefeckup · 30/05/2013 09:57

Seriously. I hate it. It's such an intrusion. You'll be in the middle of doing something, and off it goes.
It's always somebody selling windows or conducting research, but most of the time it's MIL.
Her record so far is 4 times in the space of half an hour. (Each time I've answered by the way, so not like she's ringing back as no-one's answered!)
The kids go to bed between 7 and 8. She KNOWS it's not a good time to ring, but without fail she'll ring at something like 7.45pm right in the middle of bathtime.
She knows she's not going to get an answer. So shouldn't really moan if no-one answers. Hmm
WIBU to turn the landline off every now and again when we want some peace? (We still have our mobiles turned on, we're not completely uncontactable!)

OP posts:
Startail · 30/05/2013 10:43

I only give my mobile number to people I might need to talk to in an emergency. I never hear the damn thing, coverage at home is crap and 1/2 the time it's on silent anyway.

I'm perfectly happy to have people ring the land line, it's got a decent answer phone that's easy to replay and loud enough to hear.

It's spam calls that need fixing not landlines themselves.

mrstigs · 30/05/2013 10:48

Ours has been unplugged for years. Was a waste of electricity sitting there unused and unanswered. The only people who used it wanted to sell us something so eventually even the sound of it ringing put my teeth on edge. We only have the line for broadband now. Unplug it and enjoy the peace. Smile

loofet · 30/05/2013 10:58

Yanbu! I want ours cut off fully but Dh says you can't have internet without it? I don't know if he's right. It's a waste of money because I unplugged the phone about a year and a half ago and won't be putting it back in Grin.

I'm pretty awkward in person as it is so phone calls are a nightmare for me and I really hate the ringer going off because as you say it always rings at stupid times. For me it was always just as i'd got baby to nap or as I was changing a shitty nappy Grin. My nan, as much as I adore her, has a habit of ringing like 5 times in an hour TO TELL YOU THE SAME THING. So mainly it's because of her as awful as that sounds. She's just the type to go on about how much she misses DC and never sees them everytime she rings when she lives a 10 min taxi journey away and could come at any time (we can't go to hers because she has a dog that isn't safe around small children and she thinks its cruel to put it in another room whilst we visit Hmm).

I use the excuse, which actually is true but still, that the DC pull the phone down and play with it because the only place it can be plugged in is on the windowsill which they have easy access to, can't change that. It works, only now my nan has free calls to mobiles on weekends so she's going to start ringing me that way now Grin.

But yes, landline is a PITA.

ToysRLuv · 30/05/2013 10:59

Our landline phone has had its ringer turned off and never gets answered. The machine (turned on quiet) gets it and we then check once a day if there is anything important there. Usually spammy twats of the kind you can't stop with the preference service, because they're located abroad. We have far fewer of them now than when we first put the phone on silent. Someone's slowly getting the message..

We do use it to call out, though. And I, being sort of phone-phobic, tend to use texting or e-mail instead.

marciaoverstrand · 30/05/2013 11:06

We have just unplugged ours, I work from home and it literally rings 6/7 a day with spam calls.
Answer phone has ten missed messages at the moment, it will all be crap!
My mum texts me to see if I'm in so I know to answer that call or not

Hamwidge · 30/05/2013 11:11

Absolutely 100% YANBU! The landline is the spawn of Satan. Everytime it rings I want to smash the fecking thing to pieces.

I would, if I didn't live with my parents so it's not actually mine. Nobody has called ME on the thing since 1998. It's always cold callers, PPI, payday loan sharks looking for people I've never heard of. Or worse, it's an elderly friend of my mothers that launches into a 5 minute diatribe about their next door neighbours hip replacement whilst I try to get a word in edgeways to explain that no, its not hamwidges mum, its hamwidge. And I don't care!!!!

Ban the fecking things

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 30/05/2013 11:41

What do those of you without landlines do when your DCs are old enough to be left home alone but not old enough to have their own mobile? I leave DS (9) at home for short periods but would not do so if he wasn't fully capable of using the landline to call me, DH and the emergency services.

PigletJohn · 30/05/2013 11:52

our latest cordless allows you to define different ringtones for callers in your address book, to go "silent" for anonymous (inclding overseas) calls so they go to the answerphone. Anonymous calls are almost invariably overseas spammers here. Occasionally they might be a company or police though. They will show as "withheld" but overseas show as "not available."

So you could set a quiet, non-intrusive ring tone for MIL if you wanted.

Register with TPS as well to thin-out the UK spam callers.

Triumphoveradversity · 30/05/2013 13:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MarshaBrady · 30/05/2013 13:05

I love the landline, usually means an o/s call.

LondonMan · 30/05/2013 13:17

I'm waiting for delivery on a Truecall device to solve the landline spam problems.

One of its countermeasures is simply getting people to say their name before allowing the phone to ring, with the idea that the device will then play the recording of that back to you, and you can decide whether or not you want to speak to them before it connects you. Apparently most spammers simply give up when asked to record their name.

You can also give friends a 2 digit code to dial after the number so they get straight through.

For people who do show up in caller-id, you can obviously build a table of who you do/do not want to receive calls from.

Looking forward to it.

3Caramel · 30/05/2013 13:31

I totally agree! And am so happy that my DH & I aren't the only ones! We never answer our landline, and just dance around the room or ignore it when it goes off (have a seriously funny ringtone that only lasts a few seconds).

My Mum just can't understand why we don't ever check it/ answer it / think about it - must be a generational thing!

MrsRoss26 · 30/05/2013 13:32

We have a wifi dongle for internet so have no use whatsoever for a landline - get rid of it! Then you can screen calls whenever you want Smile

Ledkr · 30/05/2013 18:39

My pil ring sometimes at about ten pm! So annoying.
We have two young dds so obviously might be in bed or relaxing. I sometimes turn it off when dh not looking.

Hubb · 30/05/2013 18:47

I hate the landline too! I lived in flats for years and never had one, now ive moved into an actual house with a phone line I never use it or answer it. Same here its only ever MIL or the phone company. MIL and I text every day already so unlikely that i need to pick up...so I ignore it. And DH comes down stairs from his study in a huff to see who it was and I pretend I "just missed it". Would love to pull the wire out! I dont give the number out and don't even know it Hmm

Mrsrobertduvall · 30/05/2013 18:50

I never have my mobile on so if the landline rings it's usually for me.

samandi · 31/05/2013 00:17

think so too. {sad] She flat out refuses to go out and do anything about it though. She won't visit anywhere or go anywhere if it's not with us. We go out a lot on day trips and stuff with her, and visit lots -but what about the days we are busy doing something ourselves? We can't be available every single day to go out and 'do' something.
I guess I just don't understand how someone perfectly fit and able won't do things by themselves every now and again.
By 'things' I mean even visit anywhere by herself every now and again on the times we can't.

Is she agoraphobic?

BOF · 31/05/2013 00:22

The ringer on mine is broken- I don't miss it. I can call out, but I'm lazy and seldom do; I tend to only use my mobile.

fastyspeedyfast · 31/05/2013 00:26

We ditched the landline years ago. Haven't missed it.

AmandaCooper · 31/05/2013 06:31

We turn the ringer off on ours as well. If it was on every call would be a cold caller or one or other of our mothers. My own DM, who can't so much as use a cashpoint, was so frustrated by the situation that she not only worked out how to turn the ringer back on but also phoned her own house from ours to get our number from 1471. It hasn't done her any good though as we just turned the ringer off again.

DollyClothespeg · 31/05/2013 09:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Andcake · 31/05/2013 10:29

Hate it despite on tps just had a sales call waking me and a napping baby.
I would get rid of it in a heartbeat but my parents won't call my mobile. I should buy one with different tones but don't see why I should waste the money. It's part of my tv and bb deal so v cheap. My parents unlike mil (who is older) just won't use mobiles - maybe I should just tell them I'm scrapping it and see what happens but I would hate for one of them to get ill and not call because they worried about expense.

Scholes34 · 31/05/2013 10:51

Don't have a problem at all with the landline. I think we may have a caller preference whatsit to filter out the vast majority of cold callers. I remember not having a landline at homewhen i was younger and having to go to the local phone box to call friends, so was highly delighted when my parents finally got a phone.

I find mobiles far more intrusive than a landline, and mine's always stuck away in my handbag anyway, so no-one's going to get hold of me on that, when the bag's hung up in the cupboard when I'm at home.

Trills · 31/05/2013 11:06

A ringing telephone is an invitation, not a summons.

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