Saying your number is unlisted is the polite way to go. I do that at Best Buy every time I’m there. No hassles.
Geez, guys, why do so many people give out their phone numbers? Does your cashier look like this:
Or this?
No, actually. My wife has seen me do this. If she’s standing next to me, sometimes I’ll gesture to her as I say “nix” in pig Latin to the clerk. It’s always good for a chuckle.
I tried to be funny one time. I managed a straight face while saying my number was 867-5309. Apparently someone had beaten me to the punch though, because the oblivious clerk entered it and it came up with the names for whoever else had used it, she said something like “Are you Reggie?” and I panicked and mumbled about how it was a joke, haha, and, yeah, no, that’s not my number. She didn’t seem to care either way, but I felt dumb.
Word of warning, though – my understanding is that nonprofit companies (including charities and pollsters) are allowed to mine the DNC list. So if you don’t have a problem with unsolicited calls, putting your number on that list may do more harm than good.
It did more good than harm for us. We started getting a whole slurry of marketing calls after we bought our house (I understand that’s pretty common). After we put our number on the DNC list, it got a LOT better. We do get political calls sometimes, but it’s pretty infrequent.
I just give them the number of a pizza chain.
That seems very strange to me that you’d rather give a business your number than simply call them when you need something. I mean, the act of giving out your number says “You may call me”.
I love EB, for the very fact some of my favorite threads are attributed to them.
I’m a big fan of awkward silence between strangers.
I prefer awkward singing among strangers.