Well why shouldnt he ask, you were on the line.  he called, you picked up... why should he go to the effort of getting to another phone if your jsut going to say your not available anyway.  you either answer with held numbers or you dont.  And as on this occasion you did,  I think you made a drama out of something that was unessasary thats all.

There is a time to tell callers to sod off and there are other times when you have to accept that you over reacted, this is one of them in my opinion.

Can you believe what this guy asked me? Perhaps if I told you so, you'd hang up on him also! He told me he was looking for someone to f*ck his partner! I know bs when I hear it. This was it.

If he was genuinely serious,oh well. But he wasnt because he didnt contact me back from a regular number. Dont stand up for him, we all know private callers are full of shit...and on a bad day we are entitled to go off! If they're blocking a number, they are hiding something. Happens everytime. I'll be happy to talk business when they decide to not screw around with me.

And if they call private when it says on my profile, private calls not accepted...they are only asking to get barked at.

I didnt answer private calls in the begining after reading that every other WG doesnt answer them and then one day i picked up before realising.  the guy wanted to book so i told him he would have to call from a number that wasnt hidden.  he had used the hotel phone not realising it wouldnt show up, he called me back a few mins later from his mobile and everything was ok.  Now i answer them and if they are timewasters i get rid of them.

Everyone knows one or two that just made a silly mistake like this and called back afterwards, made a booking, left a ?1000 tip etc etc, just as everyone knows someone who smoked 40 black-lungers a day from the age of nine and was still breakdancing at 85 - the exceptions prove the rule.

UA, if you are going to put that you won't answer withheld numbers on your prolfile then stick to your guns and don't answer them. If the caller is genuine he will get the idea and call back, and if not then no loss! It sounds like you could really do with sorting out your working hours too - do you actually intend to be 'on call' 24 hours a day? It's up to you but I don't see how anyone could keep that up for long without first their service suffering and then their health.

I do answer withheld numbers during office hours; I never say anything first (in case of it being a suspicious other half), and as soon as they have spoken, I tell them politely that they have the correct number, but if they want to discuss anything with me they will have to ring me back from a visible number. I think it has happenened twice - I am even given to saying before I hang up that I won't hold my breath, and to be honest if I didn't answer them at all it would make virtually no difference to my business.

I have far more trouble with people ringing at ridiculous hours of the night - I put my phone on silent (so the missed calls are registered and I can blacklist the numbers) but if I leave it the right way up, the screen lights up so bloody brightly it wakes me up anyway!

I can sympathize with UA on this one. It's not that it's unreasonable of the client to just quickly check that it's worth calling straight back, but I do find that once you answer one question, they don't stop. All of a sudden it's "wait, wait, wait, just one more question

HELLO! exactly. I made that mistake enough. First, I answered one question. Then two. Then somehow we ended up having phone sex before I realized this guy was a nut and told him Im walking into the store and gotta go!

I have taken 2 bookings from a private number. Both times I demanded they call me back because I told them I cant be sure you're serious if you dont. They did call me back. The others....if they are playing around, Im entitled to pick that phone up and tell them off to the highest degree. Its like me knocking at a strangers door. They can choose to ignore me or call the police, But If I keep knocking, someone's going to come out with a shotgun eventually!

uh oh..looks like I took the 'no more mr nice guy' persona a bit too far. Lately I've been a bitch!