to me it's a way of telling the person i am talking to that i am going to hang up the phone.
i guess it comes from just  being polite when back in the days of older dial type phones and if you hang up on someone and they have their ear to the phone it makes a noise that is loud enough to hurt.  so both people would say bye and give each other time to move the hand sets away from their ears before anyone drops the hand set back on the receiver.  

but this is not the problem.  some folks refuse to say the words "good bye".  they say "later" or "ok" or "um-hum".
it's kind of confusing because i don't know if they are talking to someone else in the room and maybe didn't know i was about to hang up on them.  


maybe i am being overly sensitive...  would not be the first time

I always perferred the "and we're done here...CLICK"  

no but I have a friend whgo does and it is the most irritating thing in the world

I always get stuck at, "Are you going to hang up first?  I'll wait.  YOU DIDN"T HANG UP!  Get out of here!  OK, now hang up first.  Still there?  WILL YOU JUST HANG UP!"

Maybe you're not a good communicator?

I've never had this problem myself and it's the first I've heard of it.

One person always says they have to go first.
The other person then starts the "byes" and then the person who first said they have to go says bye last.

I had a friend that used to call me up and the call would play out like this:

*Phone Rings*

Me: Hello?

Friend: Hey...

*long pause* (I'm not always good at telling who it is on the line unless they IDENTIFY THEMSELVES, so often I didn't know who was calling at this point)

Me: Ummm....yes?

Friend: What's up?

Me: Not much (Still trying to figure out who's calling me)

*long pause*

Me: Is this ________?


WTF? Who calls someone up and just says, "Hey" and nothing else? This guy would do this every time he called. You called me, asshat, so either speak up or quit wasting my time. And no, I don't want to just chat on the phone. Either say something relavant and important or leave me alone.

Usually when someone say "later" or "see ya later" or "talk to ya later" on the phone I understand that it's time to shut the hell up and hang up the phone.

I don't have a problem with it.

A former employee never said bye, he just hung the phone. Annoying as hell.

Thank God he's gone.  

Made me think of the infamous 'whipped friend everyone has who has problems hanging up with his girlfriend.

"I won't hang up until you do"

"No, I won't hang up until you do"

23:59:59 passes and the phone company goes "Fuck you two, I'll hang up!" <click>

My adios is later or alright. I hardly ever say bye.

Usually its "well....I'll let ya go....."....then, "aight, talk to ya later...."......."aight, see ya..... *click*

or

"I'm gonna take off....."  
"Aight, see ya"
"seeya, bye"

Nope, I'm pretty good at blowing folks off......

I say "alrightbye" and hand up before the other party knows what's going on. The phone call should be efficient and quick; if you want to stare into my eyes come over and meet FTF.