Appropriate Times to Telephone

[richalisoviejo]

I am a lark. Even though I am up at the crack of dawn, I would not dream of phoning someone before 9 A.M., or after 9:30 p.m., unless I knew the person very well, and knew that they were up and about before or after those times. I also won't call anyone between 6 & 7 p.m., as most people are eating dinner at that time.

I called a neighbor last night. He returned the call.....................at 5:05 this morning. He explained that he turns off his phone at night when he went to bed. (I called him about 8:30)

Even though I was up, the phone ringing at 5:05 A.M. scared the crap out of me. I have a very elderly grandmother, and had a couple of seconds of high anxiety before I realized who was on the phone. A call at that hour, in the past, usually meant TROUBLE.

Do you have times when you think that calling friends and/or relatives is appropriate? What are they? Do you consider that any time is the right time for people to call?

 

[Isa]

Rich,
5h05AM, wow that is so early to call someone, I would never call someone (exept my parents and my sister ) before 10AM or after 8 or 9PM.
In my opinion, usually, when the phone ring at an unusual hour, it is not a good sign. Everytime my phone rings before 7AM or after 10PM I am always a bit scared that something bad happened to someone.
When you answered your phone, did he say GOOD MORNING at least ?

 

[Laura]

9am to 9pm and if i know the person that can vary a bit..

 

[Candy]

Ditto with Laura. If it's family or a really good friend it could range earlier or later. Or if I've possibly had too much to drink it could be anytime.

 

[richalisoviejo]

When you answered your phone, did he say GOOD MORNING at least ?

Nope but I was still very cordial

 

[tortoisenerd]

I think the 5am was uncalled for. That said, I do turn off my phone--to avoid things like that! A lot of people have no sense in calling people at appropriate times. Add in time zones and it is a mess. I do have some friends (actually I'm in this category too) who tend to sleep until the afternoon on weekends. It's tough to find a time to call them. If I did have an older close relative I might think about turning my phone on at night though. I seem to get more calls in the middle on the night than any other time, and use my phone as more of an answering machine. I hate talking on the phone!

 

[ZippyButter]

That's why we have phone ID. We get a lot of junk calls from you know whom we are talking about. We ask our family members to talk to our answering machine, when we hear their voices, we pick up the phone and talk to them. If we don't see any names nor numbers on the screen, we never answer those calls. We bring our cell phones and car alarm remote controls to our bedroom at night in case of an emergency. Sometimes, we just decide to have fun by picking up the phone, and the persons on the other side trying to sell us something, we start speaking in different languages ( not English, of course) to them, you can hear they start cursing

Minh

 

[Yvonne G]

Just don't call me from 8-9p on Tuesdays! I have a standing date with Mark Harmon at that time.

Yvonne

 

[BigBiscuit]

The majority of my in-laws struggle with the whole time-zone thing. I am Central, and they are all West coast or mountain, so they will call really late and do the whole "gee, I totally forgot about the time zone" thing.

 

[Stazz]

Sheesh, I'd throw my toys if someone called me at 5am haha. I have had a few friends calling be at 3 or 4am before, asking me to fetch them and I say...."can't you catch a cab?" "Oh yeah, theres a cab. Thanks Stace" Haha, classic. Had a quiet chuckle.