I've read that people not answering their phones is the number one reason that COVID contact tracing doesn't work.
But your comment makes me think that you've never had food delivered. Never used an Uber. Never owned a business. Never bought or sold real estate. Never rented a place to live. Never went to a restaurant with a wait list. Never done a lot of things that are perfectly ordinary, and require allowing people to contact you when they have questions.
For all those other things, though, I'm not sure why you need to answer unknown numbers. I've never owned my own business, but did manage a small business and we had dedicated business lines. No one needed to call my personal phone. For buying and selling real estate, there are agents that act as go-betweens and you can put their number on your contacts list. For renting, put the management company on your contacts list.
I've used dozens and dozens of delivery companies over the years, and the only delivery company I've found that doesn't have its people calling on phones is DoorDash, and even that uses SMS. Plus, most of the best places don't use services, they have their own people.
we had dedicated business lines
Doesn't help you when someone needs to contact you in an emergency, like the alarm company, or the landlord, or security, or the police, thousand other things.
For buying and selling real estate, there are agents that act as go-betweens and you can put their number on your contacts list.
Sounds good in theory, but doesn't work in practice. There can be dozens and dozens of people and companies involved in such a transaction, and you can't predict who they all are.
For renting, put the management company on your contacts list.
When the management company sends a vendor over to fix something, you don't know what number they'll call from.
To "never" get an unexpected, important call sounds like a side effect of a quiet life. I envy you.
I know that we deserve something better than what we have now. I know we shouldn't have to put up with spammers calling constantly, but we don't live in a perfect world yet. We live in a messy world where sometimes people need to make a phone call and hope their loved ones pick up. I can think of a plethora of possible technical solutions, but that's besides the point. We need phone numbers to work. Let's focus on solving that problem, not trying to imagine it doesn't exist.
