[rainbow.panda]

(Original post by Manitude)
I was supposed to call my bank to sort out online banking some time ago. 8 months later I still haven't called for this reason.

I'm afraid this kind of thing will happen to me eventually. I was forced to called Student Finance today when my mum shoved the phone in my hand. Had she not been there I wouldn't have called at all.

[rainbow.panda]

(Original post by LoveIt)
I'm not as bad answering the phone as it's in my own time, though not a fan of doing it if I don't know who's calling, so if it's a withheld or unknown number, or at home where the number doesn't show up, but I think that's my general nervousness of speaking to strangers, I get that in shops and other situations as well, and I don't like having to speak to the cold callers and tell them that we don't want whatever they think we need.

I'm better at answering the phone too, I think it's because I'm bad at starting conversations but once we're talking it's fine. And I don't answer withheld numbers, I hate not knowing who I'm going to be talking to, it could be anybody!

[Ra Ra Ra]

I hate talking on the phone. Even when I know a family member is phoning me, I can't pick it up. It's a really big problem, because I'm almost eighteen now and I still can't phone up the college to tell them I'm sick or whatever; I have to get my mum to do it for me

[Doskey]

(Original post by rainbow.panda)
For some reason I'm terrified of using the phone. I'm pretty shy but I'm usually okay in person but I get so scared when I have to speak to someone I don't know on the phone. It's especially annoying when I have to important things to sort out and they don't have an email address.

I never know what to say and I always think I'll explain something wrong and they won't have any clue what I'm on about and I'll get embarrassed. I'm supposed to call Student Finance today. I've been ordered to by my dad, neither he nor my mum understand why I'm scared of the phone. They just think I'm being awkward but I'm REALLY scared. I sent them a message on the SF facebook page but all they said was to talk to an advisor...yeh, thanks a lot! -_-

What's wrong with me?

I'm exactly like you. My dad lost his customer number for SF and asked me to phone up for him, I put it off for 2 months until one day I just thought if I don't do this then I won't actually be able to afford to go to uni, and to be honest it's the most pathetic excuse ever. For me it seems to come and go some days I can't make a phone call, other days I can. I think I'm slowly getting over it though, there's no other way to get over it apart from just doing it as it really does get worse the longer you leave it.

[marco_j11]

stick to texting

[Sky_Dream]

(Original post by mimx)
Get a job in a call centre. You'll conquer your fear in glorious fashion.

Or have a nervous breakdown but hey that's also entertaining.

This! Unfortunately I had the latter. It's bad enough getting slightly worried when talking on the phone, but combine that with so many regulations you need to meet whilst talking on the phone, and people ringing up shouting/getting frustrated with you and you have no idea what they are talking about because it's your second day on the phones...Just awful.

OP, I usually write down what I need to say on a piece of paper, and that usually gives me piece of mind because I know I won't trip up.Is this something you've thought about?

[jennifex]

I used to be a bit like that, unfortunately you don't really have the option to avoid phones when you get to your working life! (in the majority of jobs anyway) so I had to just get over it. 2 weeks temping as a secretary helped, I had to pick up the phone and deal with people's requests/ complaints. If it's important you just have to make yourself do it basically. I sometimes used to write down what I was going to say if I had to make a phone call, it can be a good way to start.

[mimx]

(Original post by Sky_Dream)
This! Unfortunately I had the latter. It's bad enough getting slightly worried when talking on the phone, but combine that with so many regulations you need to meet whilst talking on the phone, and people ringing up shouting/getting frustrated with you and you have no idea what they are talking about because it's your second day on the phones...Just awful.

Aw, you should have stuck it out and became a jaded statistics monkey. You learn the most effective way to be very unhelpful to the shouty people.

/worked in one and hated every second

After I quit I was afraid I was going to answer the phone at home and give my robotic greeting out of habit

[Vohamanah]

Lol I used to be the same, I always avoided using the phone whenever possible. Then I got a job working in an office, which cured it. Try answering the phone to a customer wanting to hire a van and trying to bull**** that you know anything at all about vans. That wasa fun job

Then I worked for a council doing bookings for town halls. After my (one and only) colleague in the department showed me the computer system, the first thing I had to do was "Phone the BBC, tell them we're cancelling their Bargain Hunt booking if they don't pay their deposit today"

Now I'm fine on the phone, and thought it was pretty hilarious when a fresh-out-of-uni new starter I was helping at work near had a panic attack the first time her phone rang. It was an internal call but she couldn't answer it, I had to pick up her phone. Bless her. She's also now a pro on the phone. Its definitely something you get over pretty quickly if you are on the phone all day.

[Sky_Dream]

(Original post by mimx)
Aw, you should have stuck it out and became a jaded statistics monkey. You learn the most effective way to be very unhelpful to the shouty people.

/worked in one and hated every second

After I quit I was afraid I was going to answer the phone at home and give my robotic greeting out of habit

I stuck it out for a month but decided to quit as I couldn't handle shaking in my bed every night before work and crying everytime I had to go in. My method of handling calls seemed to be just asking them if they mind being put on hold as soon as I've answered the phone and then getting a mentor to help me.

How come you hated it, did you not get used to it after a while?

[mimx]

(Original post by Sky_Dream)
I stuck it out for a month but decided to quit as I couldn't handle shaking in my bed every night before work and crying everytime I had to go in. My method of handling calls seemed to be just asking them if they mind being put on hold as soon as I've answered the phone and then getting a mentor to help me.

How come you hated it, did you not get used to it after a while?

Eh, you get used to the stress so that it can get boring. The part I hated was just the stupid rules and management. I worked in a tech/customer support mix and I used to get told off when my call time would spike because I was walking e.g. an older person through the steps. Getting it sorted there and then is surely less of a waste of agent time than having them call up 10 times because nobody did it right for them, but they don't put that much thought into it.

Worst thing though was they basically made us lie to customers, that can be crappy when they're nice ones. I had one guy whose wife was in hospital and he was depending on his service coming back on ASAP, you could tell he was having a hard time, and I still had to lie to him about how long it would take. He was making me swear on it and everything, I felt so bad. I quit after that.

[Sky_Dream]

(Original post by mimx)
Eh, you get used to the stress so that it can get boring. The part I hated was just the stupid rules and management. I worked in a tech/customer support mix and I used to get told off when my call time would spike because I was walking e.g. an older person through the steps. Getting it sorted there and then is surely less of a waste of agent time than having them call up 10 times because nobody did it right for them, but they don't put that much thought into it.

Worst thing though was they basically made us lie to customers, that can be crappy when they're nice ones. I had one guy whose wife was in hospital and he was depending on his service coming back on ASAP, you could tell he was having a hard time, and I still had to lie to him about how long it would take. He was making me swear on it and everything, I felt so bad. I quit after that.

Oh that's awful, it sounds pretty soul destroying to be in a job where you're lying to customers day in, day out.

Luckily we didn't get penalised on time spent answering a call, only on after call work or transferring calls.

[Oreo Farley]

(Original post by najinaji)
Yep... It's such a direct way of communicating and so it's pretty difficult to deal with unless it's someone I feel really comfortable talking to.

One way to cope is to remember that they can't see you. An advantage of talking on the phone is that they can't see you being all jittery and nervous and so if you pretend to sound pretty normal on the phone, they'll be none the wiser.

This is funny, thanks for the laugh.

I thought Britain was full of men, not boys. Now I am not so sure.

[najinaji]

(Original post by Oreo Farley)
This is funny, thanks for the laugh.

I thought Britain was full of men, not boys. Now I am not so sure.

Says the person anonymously attempting to insult a stranger on the internet...

[Kage]

I get this with phones, and yet, I'm mostly fine when talking infront of crowds I don't know.
Yet, even hook me on the phone with a friend, and I'm useless, and it gets worse when it's people I don't know that I need to ring.

I don't know what causes it either, but it does get slightly better. I think it is certainly a confidence issue.

I've at times had to make a script when I ring a friend I haven't spoken to for a while to avoid awkward silences I hate on phones so much

[Oreo Farley]

(Original post by najinaji)
Says the person anonymously attempting to insult a stranger on the internet...

Says the person who cannot even read my name - yes thats my name!

I have no problem using a telephone or meeting in person - nor do most normal people. In fact, I've never met anyone scared of using the telephone.

[ArcadiaHouse]

(Original post by rainbow.panda)
For some reason I'm terrified of using the phone. I'm pretty shy but I'm usually okay in person but I get so scared when I have to speak to someone I don't know on the phone. It's especially annoying when I have to important things to sort out and they don't have an email address.

I never know what to say and I always think I'll explain something wrong and they won't have any clue what I'm on about and I'll get embarrassed. I'm supposed to call Student Finance today. I've been ordered to by my dad, neither he nor my mum understand why I'm scared of the phone. They just think I'm being awkward but I'm REALLY scared. I sent them a message on the SF facebook page but all they said was to talk to an advisor...yeh, thanks a lot! -_-

What's wrong with me?

First world problems.

[ArcadiaHouse]

(Original post by Oreo Farley)
This is funny, thanks for the laugh.

I thought Britain was full of men, not boys. Now I am not so sure.

I'm with you, this is pretty sad. There's a difference between being awkward and just being odd. How are you going to cope with normal, everyday adult life if you can't even cope with using a phone?

[hannahchan]

(Original post by rainbow.panda)
For some reason I'm terrified of using the phone. I'm pretty shy but I'm usually okay in person but I get so scared when I have to speak to someone I don't know on the phone. It's especially annoying when I have to important things to sort out and they don't have an email address.

I never know what to say and I always think I'll explain something wrong and they won't have any clue what I'm on about and I'll get embarrassed. I'm supposed to call Student Finance today. I've been ordered to by my dad, neither he nor my mum understand why I'm scared of the phone. They just think I'm being awkward but I'm REALLY scared. I sent them a message on the SF facebook page but all they said was to talk to an advisor...yeh, thanks a lot! -_-

What's wrong with me?

I do all the time.. it takes me three times to punch in the number before I actually hit the dial button. . So your not alone!

.. Just write it down and then it's really easy.

[Psyk]

I don't think I'm really scared of talking on the phone any more. But I still don't like it, in certain circumstances. Calling up my parents or my friends is fine obviously, but I don't like calling up people I don't know. If I have to I will though.

I find the phone an awkward middle ground. Emailing is easy since it's quite impersonal. Talking to someone face to face is the opposite. But the phone is this awkward middle ground where you can speak to them but not see them. I much prefer face to face, than talking on the phone. For example if I need to speak to someone at work, I'd much rather walk down to their office than call them.