Sunday, January 6, 2008

Phone Phobia and DJ Done!

We met with the DJ from Chris Laich's company and Chris himself on Saturday. They both are really nice and what we love about them is their forwardness about price (as some other companies had some hidden costs) and the fact that they were so professional. You'd never guess these two guys were DJs. One of them looks like a dorky businessman and our DJ looks a little like a body guard or something.

I had only one compaint about them (which is better than how many complaints I had about other DJs we met with). They charge extra for extra speakers our location needs - $100 PER speaker. After discussing this we went onto talking about other stuff, but I interrupted and asked "I hope you don't mind, but why $100 per speaker?". I honestly don't think he had ever been asked this question. If he had, he should come up with a better answer. His answer was that it's more work for the DJ because it takes an extra 15 minutes per speaker to set up and take down. But meanwhile, earlier in the meeting he had said that one thing that sets them apart from some other companies is that they do not charge for their drive time, set-up or take-down time. I could understand that adding 2-3 more speakers would add more work and they are nicer speakers because they're wireless. But I think his explanation was not very well thought-through. My feeling is that they should charge an overall extra fee (like $100 total - not PER speaker). I shouldn't be paying $100 per 15 minutes that it takes our DJ to set up the 2-3 extra speakers!!

Despite our one complaint, I am happy to say that I've emailed him this morning to get the contract signed. DJ DONE:) I also was excited to see that in the new Washingtonian, Chris was voted the #1 DJ in the DC area.

Onto the title of my post. On several occasions, I've asked Ian to call someone (dogwalker, cable company, or more recently, possible wedding vendors and calling certain friends to get their mailing addresses). He inevitably takes his sweet precious time making these phone calls. After asking for about 3 weeks for him to call people for their mailing addresses, I finally got a tad frustrated with the procrastination. He won't even call his own hair place to make an appointment for a haircut (I have taken this over for him).

I finally talked to him about it last night to see what the deal is. He has a serious case of Phone Phobia. I looked up some information on it and it's not terribly uncommon. There are various causes of this phobia, but in Ian's case, he gets very anxious about calling all people except me, his parents and his brother. Otherwise, he must prepare for the call mentally by thinking of EXACTLY what he wants to say, questions he wants to ask, and prepare for questions that might be asked of him, or comments that are said to him. He said it's an issue for him because he's afraid people can't understand him, or that on several occasions, he has trouble understanding people over the phone because of the accent difference. His accent is not THAT different, but I am guessing his accent was much more accentuated when he first moved to the states, and that he probably developed this phobia when he first moved here (12 years ago). He mentioned that Kim has this phobia, but anyone else hate making phone calls or answering unknown numbers? Sorry to call you out Kim, but what is yours like? I am trying to find out information about it because I find it so ODD!! And the selfish part of me would love to find a solution so that I don't have to make his phone calls or call all these vendors!

5 comments:

  1. Haha! Yes, I totally have this problem. Its so lame and I could get into lots of details but here's everything listed out because I just like to write lists:

    I have a Phone Phobia that includes:

    - Answering unknown numbers. You never know who its going to be! And sometimes I'm just not prepared to talk to my long-lost cousin in California.

    - Understanding the other person. Despite growing up in a multicultural home, I have a fear of not being able to understand the person on the other end of the phone call. It actually doesn't matter if they are American, Korean, Mexican, etc. If someone pronounces something strangely, they totally lose me.

    - I have a short attention span and am easily distracted. This causes me to miss lots of convos over the phone and it was why I didn't want to talk to vendors. Who knew what I'd agree to when I wasn't paying attention!

    - I can never seem to really hear the other person and spend a lot of time saying, "What?!" like I'm 80 yrs old.

    I don't have to thoroughly prepare for phone calls. Most of my not wanting to talk on the phone is because I just don't like it.

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  2. Hi, I'm a psychologist who works with people who have fears and phobias. As you say, this problem of phone phobia is more common than you might suppose. People who really need to get over it can usually benefit from many of the same techniques that help with panic attacks and phobias, i.e., practicing with the feared situation while using a variety of calming responses.

    Dave Carbonell
    www.anxietycoach.com

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  3. First, congrats on signing the area's best DJ! Im sure you feel great after having checked this off of your list and it must be even more of a relief to know that the DJ is a hit. Nothing is worse than a horrible DJ!

    I've heard of Phone Phobia before... I think I dated a guy with a major case of this ;)

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  4. So, this is totally random, but I am currently planning my wedding, and I'm looking at Ray from Chris Laich. How did you like him?

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  5. Nichole - I did a review of all of my vendors this month so check it out. In short - I absolutely loved Ray - we had an amazing time and danced until 1am!

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