Time Difference

[kendo]

Myself and the wife keep getting woken up by friends and family in Thailand phoning us in the middle of the night for un important reasons, it does not matter how much mrs kendo tells the person not to call before the afternoon they just don't seem to grasp this or the 6 hour time difference. last week woken up 3 times and again last, night any idea's on how we can get them to understand this, short of putting a clock on the village water tower or buying loads of cheap watches and handing them out to the people in qestion, up in the villages everyone is up very early so i do understand to a point not knowing exactly when to phone....idea's please or a laugh...i cant see the funny side to being woken up anymore it's wearing very thin, i can not switch my phone's off because my mum is on her own and also because of work.

[Guess]

.....idea's please or a laugh...i cant see the funny side to being woken up anymore it's wearing very thin, i can not switch my phone's off because my mum is on her own and also because off work.

I know the feeling. Get a cheap second phone and only give the number to mum or get a more expensive phone and put on silent at night except for mum who would be in a group of her own with a special load ring. (Assuming she always call from the same number).

[JD]

You call them back at 9.00 pm UK time, then ask them what the time is in Thailand. They might understand what the time difference is then.

[kendo]

Guess, thanks for that didden't think about a posh phone with caller groups, thing is the wife does not want to put the phones on silent because of her mum is quite old,and other family also a number of people have our land line and mobile numbers and if they can't grasp the time difference trying to get them to call different numbers will be a challenging task.

[The understudy]

Well as I can understand this problem too as I had been victim of this phone too. Well I use to call em freinds around and sit and explain with a Big Asrse watch like a teacher I teach em not call me @ this Thai Time and this time. And Viola the get It! For those who still call me I simply rfuse to pick up the Phone!

Your's The understuddy

[kendo]

You call them back at 9.00 pm UK time, then ask them what the time is in Thailand. They might understand what the time difference is then.

Now there's an idea.......that's put a smile on my face ....thing is if i pull a prank like that i think i will get a swift elbow in the ribs, and no bacon and eggs in the morning.

[ste860]

used to piss me off too,but now its friends in england phoning here,thier excuse oh sorry i forgot ,now i just ignore the phone they will soon learn

[DawnHRD]

OK, this won't stop the ringing & waking, but will stop the conversations. I assume you know your work number or have it under a title. So if that comes up, answer. On my phone, an international number comes up as 'not known' or 'private number'. I'm assuming yours is the same & this is why you have the problem (not knowing who it is). Tell her mum to ring three times, put down the phone & ring straight back. Do not tell anyone else this. So, if you get three rings - nothing - ringing on a 'number witheld' you know it's her mum. If you get continuous ringing put the phone under the pillow till it stops & go back to sleep.

Alternatively, keep a whistle next to the phone. If it's an unwanted late night call, blow the whistle right into the mouthpiece & put the phone down. A few times of that & they'll get the message.

[chelsea]

Had the same problem here in Aus and is easily fixed. Set up call transfer on your home phone through to your mobile and then turn down the sound to silent or turn it off. You will then have many nights with sleep as all they will be able to hear is your mobile voice box when they ring.

Dawn Wrote

Alternatively, keep a whistle next to the phone. If it's an unwanted late night call, blow the whistle right into the mouthpiece & put the phone down. A few times of that & they'll get the message. Smile

Dawn I do that with the whistle when I get the Indian Call Centres ringing me wanting to sell things, they still ring back but is fun blasting the crap out of their eardrums. Also another good thing to do with those pests is to just put them on hold, and if you want some real fun on speaker. Because until you hang up your end then cannot make any outgoing calls.

We did it in the shop one day and this Indian was tearing his hair out the other end because he could not make any calls, shouting, swearing, and banging on his desk, was so funny.

[Big Boy]

I had been reading this thread with some amusement, knowing that we had managed to train the Thais we know many years ago. Yes, we've been there.

Then at 4 o'clock this morning the phone rang! One of my wife's friends holidaying in Thailand was phoning to wish my wife a happy birthday

[kendo]

The thing is, once i am awake i can't get back to sleep unless i have had a skin full of beer i just start thinking about lots of things. The last phone call, some man got our land line number off a friend and called to ask if we wanted to buy some land, the wife asked me, i said tell him "no and definitely not at 2.00 am in the bloody morning", when i pick the phone up i don't know if it is family or not so i have to pass the phone over. It's o.k for the wife like most Thai's she has this amazing ability to fall a sleep in 2 minutes she even falls to sleep doing the 15 minute drive into Southampton.
Chelsea i like your idea about the Indian call centers i absolutely loathe them i will give that a go for sure, its so painfull when you have to deal with them, and i try to avoid these company's as a one man crusade for british jobs.

[DawnHRD]

Off-topic slightly, but this reminded me of when we were living in Hong Kong & trying to rent out our house in UK. The estate agent's receptionist kept phoning us (me, hubby was working nights) at ridiculous times. Eventually, I got a little bit fed-up & told her, very politely, that the firm were only to ring me between set times.
'oooh, why's that then?'
'Because it's night here'
'Oooh, is it dark?'
'Eeerm, yes'
'oooh, ain't that weird?'

Didn't have the heart to try to educate the Pompey pineapple-head in the concept of the earth's rotation & the fact to be light in one place it had to be dark on the opposite side of the globe!

[lindosfan1]

My answer to call centre calls was to ask them to tell me all about it and put the phone down and walk away leave them talking to themselves. If they were persistant call I had a small ships horn about 200 decibels so I would state they were being a nuisance then blast them with the horn go back and say next time it will be louder got loads of swear words over that,

[margaretcarnes]

Similar idea to Chelseas but the other way round. Put your mobile on divert to the landline and get an answerphone. Turn the ringer off the landline. You will still get your wakeup alarm on the mobile.
Attach answerphone to your main instrument - not bedroom phone!
Thais hate answerphons but if Mum in law is desperate she might get a word or two out. Otherwise use 1471. Tell your Mum to shout very loud while leaving a message, or link her to a seperate mobile - and tell work to take a hike - or send someone round if it won't wait. Sorry, but IMO the only reason for out of hours work calls are 1. If you are on a call out system or 2. if you are a keyholder.

[Guess]

..............Put your mobile on divert to the landline and get an answerphone..............

Reminds me of a prank we used to do at work When people went into meetings we would switch on their phone and redirect all call to their wives or girlfriends.

What could be done in a circumstance where a company is ringing you and has more than one number or an individual where you know the number of a spouse or someone who will be with them much of the time:

Redirect your mobile to the other number, meaning the company or individual will effectively be calling themselves. l do not advise doing this with an international call. You will be picking up the redirection charges.