h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I hope the book contained the official telephone greeting.

What I find these days is that increasingly, people don't answer their phones if they don't recognise the number calling. I often have to phone students, but I'd say only a third of students ever answer their phones, even though they carry mobiles with them everywhere. I know that at home I don't answer the phone if someone I don't know is calling and screen calls, listening in to what message they're leaving to decide whether to pick the phone up or not. I also tend to assume that anyone claiming to be calling from a company that I wasn't expecting a call from is lying and attempting to commit fraud.

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I just got a call from some young woman who started nattering about my 'vehicle warranty', vehicle not specified...she wouldn't be interrupted, just kept talking...so I said, 'not interested', didn't wait for her to answer, hung up, and added the number to the blocked list.

These robo-dialled calls contribute to the decline of telephone courtesy. They're taught to keep talking, no matter what you say.

Ahoy-Hoy

Sadly, the original greeting wasn't included in the book - 'Hello' seemed to suffice, although 'Good morning/afternoon' was recommended as a longer phrase that helps people to 'tune in'...

"I also tend to assume that anyone claiming to be calling from a company that I wasn't expecting a call from is lying and attempting to commit fraud."

Yeah - I think that is a sound attitude to have... Sometimes they sound very plausible, like one recently who told me details about my television - when the person then asked me to confirm my identity, I became rather suspicious and ended the call...

Robo dialled calls are a nuisance indeed - I kind of know what to expect when there is a call at a random time, then I pick it up and there's no sound for a few seconds, but I answer anyway and wait for someone to speak just in case... I feel a bit rude putting the phone down, but when they start reading from the script and you can't get a word in edgeways there's no other option...

It's a shame people don't open with 'Ahoy-hoy' as I think it would make the person the other end more likely to listen if they're getting an unexpected start to the conversation. Or they're more likely to hang up sooner.
I don't feel any guilt about hanging up on unexpected phone calls on the grounds that if there's a fair chance whoever is phoning is actually attempting to commit fraud, I don't have to uphold the social niceties.
It's not as if call centres haven't hung up on me when I've tried to phone them.

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