You Know You Are Old When

[MossRoad]

I disconnected my landline a couple of years ago. Reception and service was declining and the phone company didn’t make upgrades to the lines. I’m assuming that the phone company is going to milk their old infrastructure until it no longer works, then go out of the landline business.

AT&T ran fiber in our neighborhood and told us we have until the end of August to convert from copper. It's now September and they are still hooking people up. I think they want to ditch the copper as it's too expensive to maintain for the number of customers still on it.

 

[Jstpssng]

I never answer a number I don't know.

Ditto here. Last fall I was thinking about getting a weekend job, to morph into retirement income next spring. I applied to Lowe's and got a message saying somebody would call me.
At 7:30 the next morning as I was joining a "Zoom" meeting at my real job, the phone rang with some unknown number. I declined, only to have them call twice more in rapid succession. It wasn't until declining the third call that I realized it probably was Lowe's... they never called back.
If they need somebody to drop what they are doing like that than it wouldn't have worked anyways.

 

[LouNY]

I still answer most calls, maybe a throwback to land lines and having kids that were out running around before cell phones. No caller ID on most phones back then and you would have no idea who's phone someone could be using.
Now if my cell phone shows it as spam I likely won't answer it unless I'm expecting a call.

 

[Oaktree]

At 7:30 the next morning as I was joining a "Zoom" meeting at my real job, the phone rang with some unknown number. I declined, only to have them call twice more in rapid succession. It wasn't until declining the third call that I realized it probably was Lowe's... they never called back.

That seems to be the latest thing for the scammers. I've gotten those too...they'll disconnect when they get the answering machine, then immediately call back. Several times, same # in the caller ID. Couple times I was home, and added that # to the call block list right then & there.

 

[Jstpssng]

That seems to be the latest thing for the scammers. I've gotten those too...they'll disconnect when they get the answering machine, then immediately call back. Several times, same # in the caller ID. Couple times I was home, and added that # to the call block list right then & there.

I believe this was about a job I'd applied for the night before. It just seemed odd that caller ID didn't show who it was.
Very similar thing happened today, except the calls showed as Spam. Turns out it likely was UHaul calling about my reserved truck/trailer tomorrow. So WTF didn't it come up as "UHaul" on my caller ID?

They dropped the ball 2 weeks ago and didn't have the trailer I reserved... plus told me I'd have to wait until midday rather than when I wanted it.
They better have it right as there won't be a strike 3...

 

[jyoutz]

I believe this was about a job I'd applied for the night before. It just seemed odd that caller ID didn't show who it was.
Very similar thing happened today, except the calls showed as Spam. Turns out it likely was UHaul calling about my reserved truck/trailer tomorrow. So WTF didn't it come up as "UHaul" on my caller ID?

They dropped the ball 2 weeks ago and didn't have the trailer I reserved... plus told me I'd have to wait until midday rather than when I wanted it.
They better have it right as there won't be a strike 3...

I had a call earlier this week that came up as probable spam on my screen. Turns out it was my doctor’s office. I answer all calls and then deal with genuine spam appropriately.

 

[goeduck]

AT&T ran fiber in our neighborhood and told us we have until the end of August to convert from copper. It's now September and they are still hooking people up. I think they want to ditch the copper as it's too expensive to maintain for the number of customers still on it.

I am testing out a 5G home internet connection (over the air to a local tower). I set it up 2 weeks ago and so far, so good. The modem unit sits in a window and costs $55 a month. I went with Ooma to get a landline (VOIP actually) connection that my wife likes to talk to her friends on with her old house phone instead of a cell phone. I went for the Ooma $10/mo. app service, to view messages, etc. when we are not home. But you can go with the $0/mo. (after buying the unit and porting the number) basic service and just use your own voice mail/phone. 5G download where I am at happens to be good. 500 Mbps at the high, 75 Mbps at the low and an average of about 180 Mbps. I am giving it 2 months, then decide to cut the copper connect internet goodbye or not. Upload is slower, but I don't upload much. I did need to add my own router since the 5G unit cannot do VPN, port forwarding, etc. but that is a 1 time cost. The copper connection was going up in price every 6 months or so. With a 5G unit in the window, you can switch to another 5G carrier (assuming you have one) real easy. We have 2 or 3.

 

[MossRoad]

I am testing out a 5G home internet connection (over the air to a local tower). I set it up 2 weeks ago and so far, so good. The modem unit sits in a window and costs $55 a month. I went with Ooma to get a landline (VOIP actually) connection that my wife likes to talk to her friends on with her old house phone instead of a cell phone. I went for the Ooma $10/mo. app service, to view messages, etc. when we are not home. But you can go with the $0/mo. (after buying the unit and porting the number) basic service and just use your own voice mail/phone. 5G download where I am at happens to be good. 500 Mbps at the high, 75 Mbps at the low and an average of about 180 Mbps. I am giving it 2 months, then decide to cut the copper connect internet goodbye or not. Upload is slower, but I don't upload much. I did need to add my own router since the 5G unit cannot do VPN, port forwarding, etc. but that is a 1 time cost. The copper connection was going up in price every 6 months or so. With a 5G unit in the window, you can switch to another 5G carrier (assuming you have one) real easy. We have 2 or 3.

We had a landline with multiple cordless handsets around the house. It was bluetooth capable, so we transferred the phone number to an old cell phone, disconnected the land line and synched it to the cell phone which sat on a small table in the corner of our dining room. If someone called that number, it would ring on all of the cordless phones around the house; dining room, bedroom, basement and garage.

Similarly, if you wanted to make a call, you just picked up any of the handsets and started dialing. It would go out over the cell phone.

The additional cell line was only $5 a month. We had that for about 10 years. Only two people call that number anymore... mother in-law and one of our kids for nostalgia's sake. So we finally just ditched the cordless handsets and forwarded the old number to my cell and turned off the one in the dining room.

For what it was at the time, it was pretty nice.