BS: How many phone rings are polite ?

Subject: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: gnu
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 03:51 PM

Trivial ? Perhaps. But I am so pissed off at people who call and don't give me enough time to get to the phone. It wastes MY time getting to the phone only to find a dial tone. I was taught to let the phone ring at least six times as a matter of courtesey. Am I wrong ? How many times do you let it ring ?

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: GUEST,ISTRUM
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 03:58 PM

At least four rings is polite, however if the situation warrants it six would be acceptable.

I Strum
"number unlisted"

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: curmudgeon
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 03:59 PM

IMO, six or seven rings is polite, and there's nothing awfully wrong with going for ten. If the party you're calling has an answering machine, it will pick up before any of the above have been completed.

The odds are very good that a hang-up after three or four rings was a telemarketer. Twice in my life, extreme poverty has compelled me to ply that trade. The rule at the last company was to hang up after three rings. If the party has dashed to the phone after four or five rings only to be sold something, he/she will be so angry as to make the pitch futile before it begins, thus wasting valuable (minimum wage) time -- Tom

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: gnu
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 04:04 PM

BTW, approximately five seconds per ring where I am.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 04:14 PM

It throws me a little if somone picks up the phone straight away so I will leave it ring twice before answering. If I am phoning someone else, I usually hang up after 10 rings. I may dial for longer but I think it would need one of the following:

1. I know the person I'm calling has trouble getting to or hearing the phone.

2. The call is important and I feel the person the other end is choosing not to answer. I've done the same myself from the other side as well as the answerphone trick where you wait to hear who speaks before deciding to answer.

3. I'm trying to contact something like a local authority. Similar in a way to my #2 but I feel some of the sods just like to keep people waiting on principle.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: open mike
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 04:30 PM

in these days of answering machines, last number re-dial, caller i.d.
etc. it is rare that a phone will ring more than 5-6 times. I get tired of having people hang up when they hear my answering mach. ans. and they do not leave a message...i wish they would leave a message even if it is
"sorry-wrong number..."
i ususlaly let it ring 10 times, and usually leave a detailed message
on a machine-not just "I called'; or "call me" but " i am want to talk to you about...." or " how about going to that concert on sat." or the
specifics of my call...i wish people would leave a message that actually says something instead of very little info...

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 04:31 PM

back when everyone had only one phone, hardwired to the wall in one room, the phone company advised 10 rings....but now, most answering machines are set to grab it after 4 rings or so.... and now, I have phones at 6 or 7 locations in the house, so it seldom takes more than 3 for me to get there.

I tend to wait till the beginning of the 2nd ring, even if I am sitting right beside it.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: gnu
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 04:43 PM

Bill D said... it seldom takes more than 3 for me to get there.

C'mon, Bill... you can stop, wipe, pull up your pants, and get there in 3 ? Or are you on a forwarded cell ? Hell, I can't even get the next clue in the crossword in less than 3.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 04:47 PM

Due to hip problems, I can't walk very fast. My answering machine is off when I am home, so my phone will ring about 12 - 13 times before the machine turns on. I like it when folks let my phone ring many times as I have trouble getting to it. I also let a phone ring quite awhile if I am calling someone else as I want to give them time to answer.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Allan C.
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 04:55 PM

"*Snort* One ringy-dingy. Two ringy-dingys. A gracious good morning to you. Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?" - Lily Tomlin

Sorry, I felt no discussion of this sort would be complete without this.

I still allow seven rings.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 06:20 PM

My machine is set for about five rings worth of time before it intercepts. Also remember that intervals are not the same from country to country and that the ring you hear is not the same one heard at the other end. They are not synchronous.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Don Firth
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 06:55 PM

Our machine is set for four rings and we leave it on all the time. But more often than not, I have our cordless phone with me and I catch it on the first or second ring. When I call someone, though, I let it ring at least ten times, sometimes twelve. Whoever I'm calling might not have an answering machine or cordless phone. There is nothing more aggravating than to be in the middle of something, have to put it down, make a run for the phone, and pick it up just in time to hear the "click" of someone hanging up.

When I worked for the phone company (as an operator), they kept telling us to ask the customer right after the fourth ring if they wanted to continue letting it ring. If so, "challenge" them again after the seventh ring. The idea here was not good service, but to get the customer off the line if it looked like there might not be a answer so you could move on to the next customer. AWT--Average Work Time--(the average number of seconds you spent with each customer) was a crucial number in your monthly performance evaluation. Too high an AWT could get you a reprimand. Nice.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 07:06 PM

".... you can stop, wipe, pull up your pants, and get there in 3 "

nope....technology... I said "6 OR 7" phones...I have a cheap phone with a long cord that I can run under the bathroom door if I am alone in the house and expect a call...otherwise I let the machine get it.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 07:39 PM

Our answering machine is set (as Tom/Curmudgeon said earlier) at 6 rings. Sometimes, if I'm outside or down in the cellar or on the far side of the chaserai in the guest room, I don't make it to the phone in time. Less than 6 is probably a telemarketer. (I wish ALL of them hung up before; the ones "saving" me from credit card debt -- we don't HAVE any credit cards -- are driving me crazy.)

And we've got 3 phones in a fairly small house -- cordless at base downstairs, attached to the fax machine in my office (at the other side of the downstairs), and the corded one upstairs.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: CarolC
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 07:55 PM

(*thread creep*)

I Strum, are you the same I Strum who showed Rob and me around New York City during the Acoustic Guitar gathering last August?

(*end thread creep*)

To answer your question, gnu, I tend to wait for 7 or 8 rings if the answering machine of the person I'm calling doesn't pick up first.

We got a "Tele-Zapper" for the telemarketer problem. It works pretty well. We used to get several telemarketer calls every day. Now we only get a small handful per week.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 09:18 PM

I think 8 rings is best. I often sit outside (without a mobile phone in hand) so if I hear my kitchen phone ring and make a mad dash up the stairs and in the back door, it's at least 4-6 rings. I HATE people who hang up after 4 rings. As a matter of fact, it happens so much that I often don't even bother to run to the phone if I'm outside.

One thing most folks probably don't know - and since I have two different phones (numbers) in my kitchen, and have used one phone to call the other - there is a 2 or 3 second delay between hearing the phone ring in your receiver and the actual phone you are calling ringing. In other words, when you think you let it ring 4 times, if you hang up immediately, it has only rung 3 times.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Homeless
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 11:00 PM

Maybe it's because I'm from a younger generation, but I think that anything MORE than four rings is too much. No matter where I am in the house, I can get to the phone by the 4th ring, and I have only one phone in the house.
Then again, I don't have the compulsion to answer the phone that seems to plague everyone else in civilization. I answer when I feel like it and let it ring when I don't. After all, the phone is there for my convenience, not everyone else's. And especially not telemarketers. If I decide not to answer, anything past the fourth ring is just annoying. Ten is downright rude. (And to be a guest in someone's house and they stop a conversation to answer the phone seems really rude to me, too).
At work OTOH, I always try to answer between the second and third rings

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 04:52 AM

I suppose it all depends on your 'race':

"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for mortal men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 05:09 AM

Dunno where you are but I have 'call minder' provided by BT and it's minimum rings are 7 before the polite 'awfully english' voice takes over.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 05:32 AM

Or, a paraphrase I heard of the above quote:

(TTTO Colonel Bogey)
"Sauron, he's only got nine rings
Three are with the Elven-kings
Seven in Dwarvish heaven
And poor old Frodo's got hold o' The One!"

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 06:41 AM

6 if its not an important call. 12 if I dearly want to get hold of the person. Then usually I'll follow that by a 6-ring call a minute or so later (in case they just picked up as I put down....).

Kris

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:29 AM

my machine cuts in after 6 rings. And I often monitor calls, too.

One of my friends has a machine that cuts in after 12 or 15 rings, & I hav another friend with mobility problems & let his phone ring about 20 times.

At work (Info Services of a Govt agency) we are supposed to answer within 3 rings.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 09:33 AM

Our machine cuts in after four rings and since 99% of calls are for my 16 year old son and the other 1% from people trying to sell me stuff I leave it on all the time and never answer until I know who it is. If I am in the kitchen it is often three or four rings before I even hear the phone so when I ring someone I leave it at least ten before giving up.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: JennyO
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 10:38 AM

"One of my friends has a machine that cuts in after 12 or 15 rings...."

Would that be me, Sandra? Actually it was Messagebank, and you can set the number of rings in seconds, so it was a bit experimental. I made it really long to start with, because I was sick of running for the phone from outside, only to hear someone hanging up just as I got there. At that stage it was 13. In some ways it was good, because the telemarketers and so on gave up in disgust and didn't leave messages, but some of the people I wanted to talk to who hadn't been warned were hanging up too, so I finally settled on 6 or 7, and that seems to work.

And yes, it does start ringing from the sender's end about one ring before it rings from the receiver's end. I noticed that when I was using my mobile phone to try out how many rings I had set.

And this might be a little bit of thread drift, but it is about phones at least - there are some people (not you Sandra) who, even though they know both my home and mobile numbers, insist on ringing me ONLY on my mobile, and don't even try my number at home. I usually only have my mobile on when I'm out (and these days when I'm online), to save the battery, and so I don't know they have rung until the next time I turn it on. Then I have to pay to retrieve the messages and ring them back, when all along I was sitting at home where they could have rung me. I've told them too, but they keep doing it anyway.

That's my grumble for the day, anyway.

Jenny (with not much to grumble about, really)

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Mooh
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 11:04 AM

I was taught ten rings but nowadays with cordless phones, cellphones, answering machines and what have you, I figure 6 or 7 are ample unless I know the party might have trouble getting to the phone. As for mine own, the machine gets it in 3 or the kids (teenage girls) hear it before it rings.

Phones have a strange place in society I think, instant and accepted excuse to interupt another's life, or be interupted. However. I have a home based business (private music instruction) which depends on the phone so I accept the thing. I have no qualms about screening calls with the answering machine, I won't sprint the steep cellar stairs to answer the phone, and if I'm out in the yard I might be there to get away from the phone.

I confess to being irritated by the phone, but it saves lives too.

A few months ago my mother and my sister, in two distant hospitals, exchanged their last goodbyes over the phone. Mom's speech was severely damaged by a stroke, and Barb couldn't form words at all from her cancer ravaged body. Holding the receiver for Barb that day was the hardest thing I ever had to do, for I also heard Mom's heartbreaking farewell. At least the phone can bring people together, unlike some other contemporary technology...like the war machine.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 11:26 AM

When I am calling someone, I still let the phone ring a minimum of 10 times as in the old days.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Schantieman
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 11:41 AM

I usually let it ring plenty - but I don't count 'em. It is REALLY annoying to dash for the 'phone - especially if you're in the bog - only to find it stops when you get there.

Almost as bad as some (expletive deleted coz there are one or two reading this) trying to sell me something I don't want. Remember those notices people used to have at their front gates saying 'No Hawkers, No Circulars'? - we could do with a telephone equivalent.

Grrr


Steve

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 11:53 AM

Here you go, Schantieman -

TeleZapper: Keeps Telemarketers Out

As I said before, ours works pretty well.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Pushkin
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 06:05 PM

500.....

LOL

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 06:32 PM

My earlier post didn't go through. Nice story, Mooh. Very sad, but nice.

My use varies according to the recipient. Mom needed a lot of rings to reach the phone, Dad caught it pretty quickly. After a while you get accustomed to what system is in place for people you call regularly. No hard and fast rule here.

Beggars can't be choosers when calling some businesses these days, though. My ex works in the federal building with a revolving system of goofy messages and methods of contact. You take whatever you can get and hope to leave a message a human will receive. Some agencies are untouchable as far as the phone. It has been years since I was able to call my local post office. You're routed through someplace else that places no importance on local questions being asked of local carriers. It's the global answer or no answer.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Neighmond
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 06:48 PM

Used to be that it rang ten times and the operator came on and said "your party deos not answer, please try again later"

If I am going to answer it i get it in the first four rings. Sometimes I am in no humor to talk and it goes and hangs. I have a machine that identifies my house as the Labor Temple for the Loafers and Loiterers' Union Local #1. If it's someone legit they know what to do.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 07:22 PM

Ring, Ring...Ring,Ring...
"Hello, this is the Cardif lunatic asylum...But we haven't got a phone..." (hangs up...)

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: gnu
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 06:05 AM

Or... it's your dime, start talkin... City morgue, you stab em we slab em...

Thanks to all who took the time to answer... pun intended.

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: JennyO
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 11:05 AM

My dad's sister was a surgeon. Unfortunately her number was very similar to one of the local shops.

They used to regularly get people ringing up and saying "Hello, is that the butcher?"

She didn't think she was THAT bad!

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: How many phone rings are polite ?
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 12:00 PM

4 rings on my machine, so that we can pick up or screen w/out inconveniencing our callers. 10 when I am calling others, particularly if they are elderly.

best,

bbc