What's a Payphone?

Remember pay phones? When you had to stand there and talk to someone. Usually with other people on the phones next to you. You had to have change or call collect.  Back when you had to gasp stand there and hold the phone and you couldn't walk around or comfortably sit down and talk.  I remember I would call friends on their home phones when I was out on pay phones. Only a few people had cell phones or car phones. It was such a pain to talk to someone when you were away. A lot of them were outside so in the summer you would be sweating while you chatted. You had to stop and make the call.  If it was wintertime you would be shivering at the other end. Most payphones didn't allow incoming calls, you had to make sure you hung up before it went to an answering machine or voice mail, or you would waste your change.

There aren't many pay phones anymore. I can't remember the last time I saw someone use one. I think the last time I used one was on my honeymoon eleven years ago to call my mom.  I remember when I was in jr high there was always a long line at the pay phone at the movies to be picked up on Friday nights. I remember being with my friends and thinking it was funny to call Hooked on Phonics and the Jerry Springer show and hang up before anyone was on the line.  When we were at Epcot, it was so weird to see a pay phone granted they were London pay phones or phone booths but Noah asked me what it was. Kids are so used to their parents having cell phones, it's hard for them to fathom what a pay phone is. I know that there are pay phones still some places but they are always deserted. There is no one waiting to use one impatiently.

When was the last time you used a pay phone?

Just Please Stop Calling Me Please!

I wanted to take some time to warn my readers about an issue I have encountered recently. I know that a lot of you sign up for deals and freebies, I wanted to warn you about two Laser removal companies, I am not sure if they are affiliated or two separate companies, but  one of them offers you a chance to win free laser hair removal. Most of the time, like 99% of the time when you enter a giveaway, sweepstakes or contest, you give your phone number and as long as you are not the winner you don’t get contacted. Sure, occasionally you agree to sign up for their newsletter via email.  With American Laser, if you sign up to win they call you over and over again. You never win anything. At least I never have, but I remember being called and called, even though I didn’t win.  My old best friend had laser hair removal so I was interested in it. My aunt does electrolysis, as in she performs the procedure and I hate shaving. 

The other one is Signature Forum, I actually wanted to contact them for another reason and thinking I could use the form to contact them and ask my question, I wasn’t able to. On Thursday, I went out with my son and my friend, there will be a post about that soon, because it was a fun time, we went to the mall and dinner and ran a couple errands. Today is Saturday.  So, in the last three days I received EIGHT calls from Signature Forums. I didn’t answer because I keep my phone on silent and honestly, if you are going to call me eight times in three days you better be related to me by blood or there is a serious emergency. I almost had my friend answer the phone and tell them to stop calling. 

Here is my call log from them:

Thursday October 6, 2011

#1  8:10 am

#2  8:55 am

#3  12:56 pm

#4  4:56 pm

Friday October 7, 2011

#5  8:32 am

#6  12:33 pm

#7  4:33 pm

Saturday October 8. 20011

#8 4:18 pm

They also sent me two emails.  I finally emailed them after the last call saying please stop calling.  I know that I gave the permission to call me, but not to harass me.  They left me a voice mail the first time. I would have called them back if I would have wanted laser, that bad.  I was curious until they called me a million times. Ok it was just eight, but it was seven times too many.

So, be aware when you see something to enter to win a contest for laser removal. I even tried to fill out the form without my phone number because well, I talking on my phone unless you are a good friend of mine is not one of my favorite things to do. I order pizza online so I don’t have to call.

On another note, if you are thinking about going to college or back to school, don’t give them your number unless you want called over and over again. I get that it is their job to call you, but once maybe twice will suffice.  20 calls is really not going to make me want to go to your school more, it is going to annoy me to the point where I don’t want anything to do with that place.  I watched and read something online about how people give out the number 867-5309 for this very reason, of course that wouldn’t work if you were entering a contest. I remember growing up 867-5309 was a real number. I think it was Pizza Hut.

My philosophy most of the time is if I don’t recognize the number I won’t answer it, unless I know someone is planning on calling me. They can leave me a message if it is important.