Those with both a home phone and a cell phone...

[jenn-]

Which do you use when you are home?  Which do most people try to contact you on?

 

My DH is forever calling the house and starting the conversation out with "I tried you on your cell phone."  This annoys me to no end and this morning, it apparently showed more than normal (he was miffed that I mentioned it AGAIN).  I mean we have a HOME phone for while we are at home.  Why the heck would I keep the cell phone right on me?  Since I charge it sitting next to my bed, I always turn the sounds off and don't bother to turn it on until I either a) leave the house or b) think to go play Words with Friends.  It would be less annoying to me if the home phone didn't simultaneously ring the cell phone anyways so if he would just call the house, he would get me whether I am at home (where I would answer the ringing house phone) or on the cell if I happen to be out.  I find it much more comfortable to hold a traditional phone then the iPhone up to my head, not to mention the lack of signal in my house if I don't stay in one or two rooms.  We have unlimited cell to home minutes, so that is not a factor.

[Okra]

This would irritate me also!  

[Ethel Mertz]

We have both. Spouse and I share a cell. We only have it on when out of the house (and sometimes not even then, though we do carry it with us for emergencies). It is not a smart phone and we can't access the internet on it or text.

 

Most people call us on the house line because we have said, over and over again, that we don't use the cell much. Occasionally, a doctor's office will call the cell. I've stopped putting the cell phone number down on doctor's office forms as we don't use our cell like other people do.

 

And, yes, I would be annoyed like you were.

[Sara in AZ]

I prefer to use my land line at home. It's more comfortable, and in a weird way I feel more secure on it. Not secure as in safety, but maybe there's less extraneous noise and I can hear more clearly. However, most people that aren't telemarketers call my cell. DH isn't consistent in which phone he calls.

[milovany]

We use our cell phones mostly even when at home. It's what people call us on. I don't like people having to guess which number to use (and dont like having to do it either).

[MIch elle]

Some of my family calls me on my cell phone even though they know I prefer to be called on the house phone.  They do this to save on their cell minutes because if they call my home phone it uses up their minutes.  They don't have a home phone, only cell.

[zoobie]

Cell phone is usually with me. I can never find a charged handset to our house line, and only my dad, grandparents and telemarketers call that number.

[Hoot]

We never use our land line.  To be honest, we really only have it because DH doesn't want to give up his old number that he has had since college.  Excuse me a moment while I roll my eyes :rolleyes:.  So, when at home, pretty much everyone still calls us on our cells.  The only person who doesn't is my 80 yr. old grandmother who still can't figure it out even though I've given her my cell number about 47 times already... and telemarketers.

[marbel]

We have both. I generally pick up the house phone to make calls because I dislike talking cell to cell if I can help it.     People call me on either one.  Most younger people use the cell as they assume there is no house phone.  I give people both numbers and tell them I don't care which they call, but I don't carry my cell around the house with me so often miss calls on it.  Nothing is ever urgent anyway.  LOL I'm not that important.  If my kids are out,  now then I would keep the cell where I could hear it.

[momto10blessings]

We have both and use our cells 95% of the time. House phone is for emergencies and doesn't have voicemail or caller id.

[Lolly]

We have both. We only use cell phones for calls. I would get rid of the home phone, but we have to have it for the house alarm. Otherwise, it is strictly for telemarketers. And dh's aunt who doesn't understand why she never gets us on the phone. 

[gardenmom5]

I prefer my home phone when I'm home.  (I have phones all over the house - I don't have to carry a phone with me). I get annoyed when family members call me on my cell first.  If I'm home, I'm liable to not hear it and won't answer.  I also don't check messages.

 

 dh lives on his cell, but he uses it for work.  (he works from home.)

[PrincessMommy]

We have both and I prefer the land line for many of the same reasons Sara in AZ does.  I also don't like it when people call me on my cell when I'm at home... of course,  they may not realize I'm home, but I wish they'd try home first. 

[stripe]

I prefer my cell phone. I carry it around close to me and it has caller ID. On my home phone, I mostly get calls from doctor's offices or businesses or telemarketers. I also leave the house to do things (errands, appointments, walk around the block, trip to the park, sit on the patio), most of which I wouldn't expect my husband to know about and where I would have my cell phone handy but not the house phone.

 

My grandma, on the other hand, regularly has her cell phone switched off, which drives everyone bonkers. She even had an emergency where she'd turn it on to call someone, not find them, leave a voice mail, and then...turn her phone off. It was really stressful trying to find her. She even called me -- and I am across the country from the location she was stuck in. 

[GailV]

We use the home phone.  Some people call us on our cells.  I'm unlikely to hear the cell phone ring, though, so I'm unlikely to answer it.  Also, my cell is somehow messed up so you can't leave a voice message -- apparently it isn't always obvious that you aren't really leaving a message.

 

The cell phone is great for texts.  Other than that I'd prefer not to use it.

[hillfarm]

I have both, although my cell doesn't work well at home due to bad reception.

 

However, I would never give up my land line, even if my cell did work well here. I have never heard a cell phone sound as clear as a land line. To be honest, half of the people I talk to who use a cell as their home phone can barely be understood. Perhaps it is just our area, but IME the sound quality is very inferior on a cell phone.

 

Not to mention that my land line works even when the power is out, which happens often around here. I have a few hours with my cell, but eventually it runs out of battery power and I won't power up the generator just to juice up my cell.

[Stacia]

I hate using a phone in general (lol), & often ignore calls equally on both landlines & cellphones. :lol:

 

Generally speaking, though, I prefer the landline. I don't keep my cellphone on me when I'm at home -- it's usually in my purse or charging. Plus, I almost always keep it on vibrate, so unless I'm near to it, I don't realize it is ringing. I hate the noise of ringing phones so most of our landline phones also have the ringers turned off -- I've got it down to the minimum for me to hear the phone ringing in the house.

 

I know some who use only their cellphones but I think that would drive me crazy. I hate dialing on them, plus I find the sound quality bad (tinny) vs. a landline. If I must be tortured by being on the phone, give me a landline.

[Ottakee]

I prefer that people call my cell phone.  I use that number for things where I want people to be able to reach me.  I am outside a lot working in the barn, riding the horses, etc. and would miss a lot of calls if they called the house phone.  Basically the only one that calls the house phone is my MIL or telemarketers.......or me if I am trying to get a family member to pick up the phone while I am gone.

 

Dh does use the home phone for job interviews, etc. as well.

[Butter]

I almost always use my home phone when I am at home.  There are occasional times I don't (like the schools always call on my cell phone which is what I said to do on the forms I filled out), but 99.9% of the time, it's the home phone.  My husband always calls on our home phone unless he is calling me back and I tried to call him in the car (so was calling through the cell phone) and he doesn't know I am home yet.  My cell phone is really more for texting than anything else to be honest.  And most of those texts are with my daughter.

[Lanny]

On the desk to my right, there is a Black phone, for our landline number here in Colombia. There is White phone for our new magicJack landline number in the USA. We have 3 dumb cell phones. When we are in the house, usually, the cell phones are nowhere near to us. I prefer to talk on regular phones. It's rare that the cell phones are near us when we are in the house.

 

However...  Banks and other companies here in Colombia seem to believe that everyone in Colombia has their cell phone on them, at all times, and that is usually the number they will call... We hate that, but that's the way they operate.

 

  

[shawthorne44]

I give people my google number and have it simultaneously ring both.  

It irritates me when people automatically call the cell.  Often I just leave it in the car.  

I don't give out the cell number, but it pops up on caller ID

[sbgrace]

It would annoy me if hubby couldn't  remember to call the landline. Is his cell programmed so that your name is the cell? If he changes it to the home number, it sounds like he'll reach you whether home or not. I'd program the phone to call you at home and take out the cell if that one is programmed anywhere.

[Tap]

When we had both, we used them interchangeably but neither of us prefer one or the other.  If one number didn't reach the person, then the other phone did, no biggie to redial.

[redsquirrel]

People are going to do different things. I prefer to use my land line at home to make calls because the quality of sound is so much better. I feel like I am spending all my time trying to understand someone when I talk on the cell. It isn't much better if I am on a land line and  I am speaking to a person on a cell, but it is a little bit better. If we are both on a cell, forget it, I can't understand anything.

 

I much prefer texting. DH and I text each other many times during the day. I have had the phone for a couple years and I just looked at my stats and it seems in all this time I have received about 8 total phone calls on my phone. My friends, family and I all just seem to prefer texting. 

 

Two weekends ago I got a phone call on my phone and no one knew what the ringing was. No one in the family, including me, knew the sound of my phone ringing. We looked like idiots looking around saying "What is that noise? Where is it coming from?" :lol:

 

But it doesn't seem difficult to tell your dh that if he calls when you are expected to be home he will have better luck calling the land line. Then the next time he starts off with, "I tried you on your cell..." you can reply, "That is because I am home. You will always have better luck reaching me at this number when I am at home."  A few times of that and he might get the point. You just need to train him. A little positive reinforcement "Oh, thanks for calling me on the home phone. I am so glad I didn't miss your call," won't go amiss either. 

[73349]

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Edited October 29, 2022 by 73349

[HelenNotOfTroy]

I only use the cell if I am out and really have to talk to someone. Otherwise, I have a home phone and an answering machine. I don't give out the cell number and if I have called someone on it, it is because we were in the process of meeting up somewhere.

[vonfirmath]

Which do you use when you are home?  Which do most people try to contact you on?

 

My DH is forever calling the house and starting the conversation out with "I tried you on your cell phone."  This annoys me to no end and this morning, it apparently showed more than normal (he was miffed that I mentioned it AGAIN).  I mean we have a HOME phone for while we are at home.  Why the heck would I keep the cell phone right on me?  Since I charge it sitting next to my bed, I always turn the sounds off and don't bother to turn it on until I either a) leave the house or B) think to go play Words with Friends.  It would be less annoying to me if the home phone didn't simultaneously ring the cell phone anyways so if he would just call the house, he would get me whether I am at home (where I would answer the ringing house phone) or on the cell if I happen to be out.  I find it much more comfortable to hold a traditional phone then the iPhone up to my head, not to mention the lack of signal in my house if I don't stay in one or two rooms.  We have unlimited cell to home minutes, so that is not a factor.

 

The REASON we have a home phone is to be able to get in contact with each other if the cell phone is left in another room/the car/a purse/at work/mute and we can't hear it ring.

 

We still consider our cell phones our main contact points and do not give out the home phone number. It is for my peace of mind (mostly) that we have the home number.

[milovany]

We never use our land line.  To be honest, we really only have it because DH doesn't want to give up his old number that he has had since college. 

 

Haha, this is me, too.  We've had our landline number since our early days of marriage and I'm a little attached to it.  :D  We even moved away for five years and when we knew we were coming back, I called the local phone company to see if it was still available.  It was!  So we got the same number again.  It was meant to be.  ;-)

 

Actually, I think you can have it set up that the landline number be forwarded to the cell phone for a much smaller cost than maintaining an actual line.  I'm going to check into that. 

 

[Amy in NH]

There is no cell service where we live, so even if they tried to call me on my cell when I'm at home it wouldn't ring.  After five years, I've finally set up my cell phone voicemail, but most people know not to bother calling me on it unless I am away from home for an extended period.

[jenn-]

I think I would be less annoyed if it would actually require him to dial twice if he called home and I didn't answer.  The the two phones ringing simultaneously (home and my cell) that isn't the case.  It is only when he calls the cell first that he then has to redial for the house.  Maybe if he would just quit stopping all the phone calls with "I tried your cell," I would be less annoyed.  I have routinely told him to call the house, but he never can remember.  I am sure he has to tell Siri to call Jenn's cell vs call Jenn's home so it really isn't any harder to dial the house.  PMS and other annoyances probably made me react worse this morning then most times, but come on!  How hard is it to remember when it is his own house?!?  I could forgive a dear aunt sally or something, but not my husband who lives here.

[SABE]

Our cell phones get horrible reception inside our house, so we only use them when we're away from home.