On 10/9/2010 2:16 AM, SMS wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:53 PM, The Daring Dufas wrote:
On 10/8/2010 9:44 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
George wrote:
On 10/7/2010 9:34 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:

Same here. They're much handier than the business band radios of
old. We
can leave voice mail for each other with the phone which is a big
advantage over the radios. We can call our farmer customers if we need
to. They can't call us. Our phones don't broadcast our numbers, a very
handy feature.

I simply don't answer if the CID is blocked. That idea is something
from the past when cell phones were a lot more expensive to use and
not as common. Some people thought it was a big deal if they had your
cell # and would sometimes abuse the privilege. Now all you do is
annoy someone if you block CID.

We're pretty fortunate from that standpoint. Only one of our customers
blocks our calls. Most agree with our reasoning if we explain it. I ask
"Do you want to pay my boss XX $/hour for me to talk to Farmer Blue on
the phone about his problems?"
I don't see how guys in welding/repair shops track their time. It
seems like they are always being interrupted. I doubt there is such a
thing as flat rate for most of their work.
Our office can handle most of the questions and the scheduling. We
need to concentrate on our repair work. We're like most farm related
businesses. Things get pretty hectic during the growing season. It's
better organized if farmers call the office to schedule work instead of
trying to track us down.


I have a pager and instruct people to call that number and leave a
message, I keep my cellphone turned off.

Why would you do that? Set your ringer to silent and let them leave a
message on the cell phone. No need to pay for a pager or carry it around.


I've had the same pager number for more than 20 years. I haven't had the
same cell, POTS or VOIP phone number for longer than three. If someone
needs to get in touch with me, they call my pager, leave a voice message
which is kept on a company server or they punch in their number,
preceded by 911 if it's an emergency. I have a combination voice and
numeric paging service which has served me well for many years. I've
been with the same paging company through several owners
since 1984. I've been using a pager for 35 years and it works for me
which is why I will never get rid of it, it just works. My average
cellphone conversation lasts 60 seconds so I don't need to jabber. I
get a message, call the customer back and confirm a time to be there.
I don't spend hours on the cellphone blabbering about this and that.
I get calls to my pager from folks I haven't spoken to in years because
that number is on stickers on equipment, in someone's paperwork or on
an invoice from the time I did work for them.

TDD