Can't use the phone...

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On the kind of phone calls we're talking about here, me too. Don't like them. I can if I have to, but I don't like it.

Personal phone calls I'm okay with, usually. Except I don't like them when I don't know who's going to answer. But I rarely have to make calls where that's an issue these days. The calls I make are usually to cell phones, except my parents, and I'm okay with either of them answering, since I'm gonna talk to both of them anyway.

But, even something simple like calling for an appointment (need to call the chiropracter) I'll procrastinate. I can do it, just don't like to. Thankfully, I usually don't have to call to do that.

Basically, the more unknowns, the more I dislike making a phone call. I'm okay getting phone calls, though.

You can get used to it. I have to call everyone I work with, which can be a dozen calls to releative strangers every day.

Tech support, I agree with Fnord...

"Thank you for waiting. Your call is important to us (just not important enough to be answered)

"Hi, I'm Andy (I bet there's a few more syllables after that, Andy-roo..."

Depending on the vendor, you can get downloads of manuals in PDF form. Have a gig or so of 'em... although they're all for printers...

I'm okay when it comes to calling family members. Strangers not so much, I also have a very low tolerance for the stupidity that tends to come from 411 operators and such. My dad had me call some people at his buisness, I was really terrible at knowing what to say for small talk. I also sent company e-mails with the Hello Kitty stamps from my Sanriotown adress, I found out later apperently the buisness people didn't find them as cute or amusing as I did. Heh, well I guess maybe some of the female office employees might've liked them.

I hate talking to people I can't understand. Like tech support in INDIA!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !

This is amazing! I never knew so many other people experienced this...
I am right there with many of you regarding telephone usage.
For almost 20 years, I had the hardest time using the phone. I dreaded it. Worked myself up into insane anxieties and eventually hit shutdown-mode. It could be about the most ordinary thing on earth. I could be calling my own mother. It did not matter. I was deathly afraid of the telephone.

As an adult, I was forced into enough situations where I HAD to use the phone... eventually I got somewhat used to it. Now, when I have to make a phone call (let me emphasize the HAVE TO; I never make casual, conversational calls) I am still anxious, but I do better when I plan out a script ahead of time, taking into account most likely responses, etc.

Once I am on the phone with someone (aside from immediate family) without adequate planning, my mind goes blank, I stammer, speak too quickly, say wrong things, try to end the call as quickly and politely as possible. Otherwise, I end up frozen on the line, wrought with anxiety, leaving long silences and more than likely embarrassing myself.

This is yet another reason I love the internet
Here I can actually COMMUNICATE WHAT I WANT TO SAY!! !! !! !! !!
such a rare thing for me when immersed in the social wave-pool.

I really dislike talking on the phone. I have difficulty understanding people, and I tend to stutter/slur my speech/lose my train of thought more frequently over the phone. Perhaps it is difficult to understand people due, in part, to the fact that telephones have a very narrow frequency response - they only reproduce the frequency range in which the consonant sounds in human speech are found. I find it plausible that folks like us who have unusually sensitive ears would find that the human voice sounds so different over the phone that it is difficult to understand.

What I hate more is having someone call me. I hate being interrupted by some obnoxious person trying to reach me... probably to talk about some nonsense or wanting to make further demands on my time. NT's don't seem to appreciate it that I categorically do not answer my phone.

Sorry about the rant.

This is how my last phone conversation went: "Well, she said... she said... she said... well uhm she said... -long pause- I can't talk on the phone I'm sorry!!"

Phones...

I hate using the phone! Especially when the person calling me has an accent I can barely make out what they are saying, It hard for me to understand them normallly as I find myself straining to understand them, but when they have an accent its worse.

I understand that it not their fault and that they need a jpb, but I wish people who were hard to understand would get jobs working on phones.

When ever I have to phone someone I'll leave as long as possible. Like right now I'm supposed to phone the hospital to make an appointment, but I just keep delaying it as I just can't deal with the interaction.

I think it has to do with the fact that I tend to only understand what people are saying when I'm staring at a person eyes. It's like English is a second language for me (though it's not) and I have to struggle to translate it if I'm not looking in someone eyes. Whcih is why phoning someone up is so hard.

I never have my phone turned on and rarely charge it. I can talk on the phone. I think I'm pretty easy going in conversation, that's not the problem. It's just that I don't like to be disturbed or caught off guard with a phone call. The internet is great because you can check emails at your leisure. The sound of the phone ringing just irritates me. It's a nuisance. When I do talk on the phone I make it quick. It hurts my ears and neck and augh...I'm irritated just thinking about it.

I also don't like people dropping by unexpected.