The most annoying household appliance

[geezer68]

The most annoying household appliance goes out to the telephone. I have always hated phones. They always ring at a bad time, and 98% of the time they are either a fu##ing telemarketer, or someone wanting money, or another annoyance. A couple years ago I finally had enough. I got on the "do not call list". Then I quit answering the damn phone and let my answering machine take all calls.

While the telemarketing calls did drop quite a lot, and I am no longer annoyed by having to answer the damn thing when I am busy, I now have morons filling my machine with useless junk. For example, I was gone on vacation for 5 days. I come home to a full machine, 30 some messages, and have to listen to a half hour of all garbage. One person alone called 14 times wanting the $10 I owe him and spending several minutes giving me a big sob story how badly he needs that $10 because his car is broke. Good grief, I planned to pay the asshole, but after 14 calls, I think he owes me money for wasting 15 minutes of my time listening to his crap, not to mention filling my machine which means that someone who really needed to leave an important message could not do because the machine was full. In all honesty, I will not intentionally delay paying this asshole much longer just because of his abuse of my machine. If one of my elderly relatives needed to contact me, they could not have been able to leave a message.

If it wasn't for these elderly people possibly needing my help, I'd get rid of the phone entirely, or at least have it as an outgoing calls only phone.

There are days I just unplug the damn thing, or I go online (on dialup) and leave the internet connected all day just so the phone does not work.

And then someone recently told me I need to catch up with the times and get a cellphone. Yeah, right!!!! Like I need this annoyance following me everywhere I go, so I can not get away from it ever. NO THANKS !!!!

Anyhow, my vote goes out for the telephone as the most annoying household appliance. What is yours?

[bob haller]

it always bugs me that people gp on vacation while owing others money.

i now classify you as one of those annoying people:)

[Phisherman]

I wouldn't consider a phone as an appliance, It becomes less bothersome when the ringer is disconnected rather than using caller ID. I prefer email.

[The Daring Dufas]

I have a pager, same number for 20 years, and a prepaid cellphone. The paging service has voice mail and I keep my cellphone turned off until I wish to make a call. It works well for me because someone who needs to get in touch with me can and I don't have to talk to those I don't want to. I also have several VOIP options that work well too.

TDD

[norminn]

The phone doesn't do anything but what it is supposed to do. Callers are annoying :o)

My newest irritant is a new elcheepo Kenmore washer. Damn thing has four temp settings: tap cool, cool, warm, hot. Our hot water is just a tad warmer than one would want to shower with, not very hot. In order to protect us from ourselves, the Kenmore alternates hot with cold when set to "hot" so, apparently, we don't burn up our laundry. Damndest idiotic thing I've seen in a long time. The sound of water going on and off rapidly is irritating and probably shaking pipes and hoses loose. I don't often do laundry in hottest water, but when I want "hot", I don't mean "warmish". Ugh!

[Frank]

Yes and add attached fax machine. I need one for part time consulting but all it gets are junk faxes. I always call any 800 number they supply to tie them up.

[Red Green]

[e-mail] wrote in news:qul355det2o61i5rfmiav6qsl86guu8mg3@

4ax.com: [snip]

People - people who borrow shit, including money, and think they own it until you ask for it back then act as if you're a PITA reminding them.

So for:

Money:

Oh man, I just paid my xx bill. Do you know what that costs? Yea you must know. How much is yours? [At this point they do not want to hear about your bag of shit and gotta go.]

Stuff:

[they don't know if I have] No, I don't have one. Been thinking about getting one. Maybe when you get one I can borrow it to test before I get one. Lemme know when you get one. [they know if I have]

a) Yea but it's broke b) Yea but I'm going to be using it here real shortly. I should be done in a few days/week. Give me a hollar then and we'll see if I'm done. [They need it now and will most likely never get back to you.] b.1) They actually do get back to you then: Damn thing broke while I was using it. Would you like to get it fixed for me in exchange for using it?

[Mark Lloyd]

I'm on the "Do Not Call" list too. It reduces, but does not stop, annoying calls.

I look at the Caller ID, and it it's one of the following:

1. a toll-free number with an unfamiliar name
2. a toll-free number with unknown name
3. blocked
4. unknown
5. no Caller ID

I let the answering machine get it. There's almost never a message.

Recently, there's been a lot of calls with no caller ID at all. I answered one of those just to see what it was. It was the local cable company (Suddenlink) advertising their phone service. I now want that even less.

[snip]

Last night I spent a couple of hours on a "queep hunt". SOMETHING here was omitting an occasional, short high-frequency tone. The shortness of the burst, and the time between bursts made it really hard to locate. After trying both smoke alarms, both CO alarms, and several computers, I found it was my cell phone. The Bluetooth link (to a device that connects the cell phone to a home phone) was dropping every minute or so, leading to the offending noise.

[geezer68]

It does what its supposed to do, but I am never near the phone. I live alone, work outdoors on my farm, and leave my ans machine get calls. But here are just a few recent most annoying calls.

I had an old car that has been in my yard for years. I told a guy who is a backyard mechanic to look at it. He towed it to his house several months ago, and has not touched it since. I did not much care because I was going to junk it anyhow, but I did call him a few times to find out what was going on. This weekend when I was on a weekend vacation (which he knew about), he called 8 times about the car, and filled up my machine with long messages amounting to at least 20 minutes....... WHY? He could have waited till I get home.

Then there was the guy who wanted his $10 for helping me last week, and he knows damn well he will get paid, but insisted on filling the rest of the space on my machine with whining. ONE reminder should have been enough, not 14 calls in one weekend, particularly when I told him I would be away for the weekend.

And last but not least, I had a item for sale. Some guy called and left me a "call me" message. I called the guy trying to leave a message and got a message saying "I'm sorry, the answering limit has been reached". Five minutes after I called him, he must have checked his caller ID and called me again, leaving another message saying he just missed my call, pleaase call back. So I call back and once again his answering machine was filled. This went on 5 or 6 times, and the moron never caught on that his answering machine was full...... What an idiot..... I never did call the guy back. That bullshit had already wasted enough of my time as well as 5 long distance calls.

I absolutely can not tolerate phone tag. I normally have a 3 times and you're out limit. After that, I give up.

I much prefer email, but some people just can not catch on and insist on calling. Like the guy calling about my ad. In the ad, I said "I prefer email replies".

So, YES .... callers are annoying...... as well as idiots !

You got water hammer, which can damage pipes. You really need to install some air chambers (plumbing shock absorbers) at both the hot and cold faucets. You do not even need to do any plumbing work, you can buy ones that screw between the hose and faucet.

[Frank Warner]

I do not understand people who can't figure out that a ringing telephone is an indication, not a summons. Not that you are one of those people, but I'm sure you know one or more of them: Morons who can't NOT pick up the phone when it rings.

The most annoying time this happens is when I'm doing business with someone in person and their phone rings, and they tell ME to stop what we're doing so they can answer it.

Otherwise, the most annoying appliance in my household is the XBox 360 in my wife's kid's room, especially when he's playing some cops & robbers game. Sounds like the entire SWAT team is camped out on my lawn.

-Frank

[Ed Pawlowski]

Explain that to my wife. I have to almost physically restrain her at the dinner table when the phone rings.

We have an answering machine, caller ID, and chances are, the call is for my grandson and chances are he is not home anyway. Sit and enjoy your meal.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Wed 08 Jul 2009 07:30:16p, Ed Pawlowski told us...

Our land line is used only by our fax machine and security system; there is no phone attached. The fax machine is set to answer on the first ring and the internal ringer is set to off. The security system has its own internal communication device, so we would definitely know if there was a security issue. We each use a cell phone (common account) for voice communication, but if we're otherwise occupied, we never answer them unless we're expecting a call. Of course the cell phones have both Caller ID and voicemail, as well as the option to block selected numbers (the phone doesn't even ring for the blocked numbers).

I have ALWAYS considered having a phone to be solely for my convenience and my choice to answer it or not.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I once called a friend (long distance) and he put me on hold three times because his call waiting beeped. The last time I hung up on him and I've not called back yet. That was 15 years ago.

[Jon Danniken]

You are far more generous with your time than myself. I say goodbye and walk away when they answer the damn thing.

Jon

[George]

Unfortunately lots of folks don't know one of the common uses of voicemail. One friend did the "someone is on the other line routine" a few times and I politely asked if his voicemail wasn't working. He never did it again. If someone calls I look at the CID. If it is really important I excuse myself and offer to call back. If not the second call goes to voicemail.

[Stormin Mormon]

You could have quietly made notes of all the confidential information for blackmail.

Did you get the job? I doubt it.....

[Ralph Mowery]

All depends on how good the person is and how much in demand.

I know of a small carpet business where the owner sent his 19 year old son out to a house in the country club to install some floor covering. The woman told him he was not old enough and sent him back to the store. The woman told her friends about it and they told her that he had installed their carpet and did a great job. That boy had been following his dad around on jobs from the time he could walk and had much experiance. The woman called the store back and wanted the boy. The owner said he was only 2 weeks older and still would not be old enough for her. Seems that at the time he had more business than he could handle.

I have waited 5 minuits for a table , but unless it was something special I have never waited longer than 10 minuits for a table. Just too many food places around. If I see a line of people outside a restrurant I keep on driving.

I was going to buy my wife a diamond ring for Christmas one year. Walked in a store and the only salesman was talking on a phone. Stayed in for 5 minuits and left. That may have cost him a good sale. Bought one from another store in the same mall.

[Ed Pawlowski]

But the interview also showed the company does not care about employees, only their self centered selves. I'd not want to work with people like that.

YMWV with the job market.

[Red Green]

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in news:_v2dnTOkF80RI8jXnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

So, are you still friends? :-)

[Ed Pawlowski]

My wife talks to his wife once in a while. I've not seen or talked to him since. I don't feel much of a loss either.