How do respond on the phone?

[Guest]

Funny, back in the days, when a wee lad, when I lived with my folks, I used to respond with our full number as I picked up the phone.

26 33 92!

Like people didn’t know which number they’d just dialled.

It was very common, for people to respond with their own phone number blurted out. I don’t think anyone does nowadays. Another common version was to exclaim your last name as you answered the phone.

Larsson, you could hear from the other end.
Like you didn’t know which family you called.

Once reaching my teens, I dropped the blurting out of own phone number and simply uttered a “Yes!”, in English, not Swedish.

Thinking about it, I don’t hear either phone numbers being replied with, or last names. It’s a simple “hello”, now. I think it all went that way with the mobile boom.
How about you, what’s passing your lips as you pick up the phone?

[Gangster Octopus]

How do respond on the phone?

Ahoy hoy.

[Wyatt Earp]

How do respond on the phone?

I have a two-syllable surname beginning with R, so I always half-wanted a job where I could pick up the phone and snarl my surname into it the way Regan did in the Sweeney. I think it would work really well. But I bet not even the coppers do that now.

[Guest]

How do respond on the phone?

I'm sure the practice of answering your phone with your number here was discouraged since men making dirty phone calls apparently did often punch in some random numbers until a woman answered, and giving out your number could result in the victim being targeted again.

On that point, do dirty phone calls still happen, or have they been made obsolete by sex lines/the internet?

[sw2borshch]

How do respond on the phone?

I was reading a thread on this in the archive the other week & my favourite now is "it's your dime".

[Guest]

How do respond on the phone?

Wa ayat al Urbi wrote:

I have a two-syllable surname beginning with R, so I always half-wanted a job where I could pick up the phone and snarl my surname into it the way Regan did in the Sweeney

Rogin?

[Bruno]

How do respond on the phone?

That's what Bugs Bunny said: "Ehhhhh, start talkin, it's your nickel!"

[Ginger Yellow]

How do respond on the phone?

I'm sure the practice of answering your phone with your number here was discouraged since men making dirty phone calls apparently did often punch in some random numbers until a woman answered, and giving out your number could result in the victim being targeted again.

Couldn't they just use redial?

Anyway, at work I respond with "Hello, [publication name]". On my mobile it's usually "Hey" or "Yello".

[Guest]

How do respond on the phone?

This is why I don't like talking on the phone. Brrr.

If forced to answer a phone I will usually still go Good morning/afternoon/evening, [company name], Lyra speaking, how can I help? because I wasn't allowed to ignore it at work.

[G-Man]

How do respond on the phone?

Depending on my mood, you'll get a grunt which might approximate a "hello" if you are charitably inclined in your interpretation of grunts, or a quizzical hello. Anything too friendly might suggest that I actually welcome being disturbed in the middle of writing a post on OTF.

[matt j]

How do respond on the phone?

Hey, how ya doing? Sorry, you can't get through, why don't you leave your name, and your number, and I'll get back to you.

[Guest]

How do respond on the phone?

GY, having tracked down the source of this advice to the 1986 Readers Digest What to do in an Emergency (which, bizarrely, I read obsessively as a child), I suspect it was from the days before new-fangled push button phones with redial functions etc.

[Furtho]

How do respond on the phone?

At home or on the mobile, hello.*

External calls at work, [organisation name] [my full name].

Internal calls at work, hello [my first name] speaking.

* Like anybody ever rings me up.

[Toby Gymshorts]

How do respond on the phone?

Gangster Octopus wrote:

Ahoy hoy.

I hope you do the voice.

[ian.64]

How do respond on the phone?

How do!

[Bored Of Education]

How do respond on the phone?

You realise it doesn't come from Mr Burns, don't you, Toby?

Sorry, I was trying to think of a less condescending way of putting that

[WOM]

How do respond on the phone?

Well, 'ahoy hoy' comes from Mr Burns.

'Ahoy' came from Mr Bell hisself.

My least favourite ever was the woman from our London counterpart agency who used to pick up with "Can I help?"

[hobbes]

How do respond on the phone?

I was reading a thread on this in the archive the other week & my favourite now is "it's your dime".

You're welcome.

[sw2borshch]

How do respond on the phone?

Yello, hobbes.

The fun thing is, this thread is almost an exact replay of the memory I have of the previous thread, except PPV (I think) started it all off going on about he answered the phone saying "yes" which caused more outrage last time.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

How do respond on the phone?

Well, I was going to post an outraged reply on that, but I suppose there no point now.

[Guest]

How do respond on the phone?

ian.64 wrote:

How do!

Yeah, I keep reading the thread title in Mel B's voice.

[wingco]

How do respond on the phone?

Usually, nowadays, I can tell who is ringing and therefore greet them with a "Hello (whoever). Otherwise, a suspicious "Hello?" like a bloke peeping out over the chain across a partially opened apartment door, addressing two health officials who are making door to door enquiries concerning complaints about a very strange smell coming from the building's drains.

[WOM]

How do respond on the phone?

Have you been dumping Stella down the drains again?

[Spearmint Rhino]

How do respond on the phone?

With audible suspicion and discomfort.

[SpanglyPrincess]

How do respond on the phone?

over here you have to respond 'pronto'(ready) which makes life simpler.

I never know what protocol to follow with caller display though... should you greet the caller by name or not? I often solve this problem by just not answering the phone at all, since it generally induces vague feelings of guilt and alarm.