More Stories About Voice-mail Hell

[JDoors]

[rant]

So I have to deal with the state government. I'm given a day to call, and the hours I can call on that day. I call. It's busy. I call every fifteen, twenty or thirty minutes ALL DAY LONG and it's busy every single time. The next day (buried in the paperwork it says I can call on two other days) I call. It's busy. I call again and again, it's busy. I finally hit redial, busy signal, hang-up-hit-redial, busy, hang-up-hit-redail, busy, hang-up-hit-redial -- and I get through!

No wonder it's always busy, the voice-prompts go through about a GAJILLION instructions that are irrelevant to my call.

Another one: I have to call a business office. NO ONE EVER ANSWERS. Ever. It goes straight to voicemail or a message stating they're with someone else. No rings whatsoever, they're obviously never gonna pick up their phones. I assume they expect me to leave a message so they can call me back, but unless I sit around the house waiting for the call I'M NOT GOING TO BE HERE TO ANSWER IT. So if I do that anyway, they'll leave a message, I'll return the call and leave a message, etc.

Isn't it THEIR JOB to answer their phones? Am I being naive? Old-fashioned? Stupid? Impatient? Should I just bite the bullet and sit by the phone all day in case they return my call that day?

I know businesses save money by not paying someone to be there to answer the phone, but ... is it GOOD business?

[/rant]

[Pete_C]

My voice mail is simple

"If you reached this I did not answer my phone. I do not check voicemail so do not bother to leave a message. I have caller ID so if you do not have your number blocked I will know you called me and when. If I know you or get bored I will call you. If it is 2AM I will return the favor in 12 hours when you are asleep."

[mikex]

Mine: If you expect me to return your call I expect you to leave a message.

So many people kept complaining that I would not call them back. I pay for vmail so I use it. There are many time I call someone and if they don't answer no biggie, if I want them to return my call I wait through the vmail intro and leave my message.

M

[JDoors]

My message used to be, "We screen all our calls, if you wish to get ahold of us please leave your name and number," <beep!>.

That was apparently too aggressive, too antagonistic, and thus ticked off too many people (though my friends and family loved it BECAUSE it was so aggressive). Now I just go with the built in message.

The difference is, IT'S NOT OUR JOB TO ANSWER THE PHONE.

Since I got through to the gub'ment but not the business, I'm thinking of going to their office -- but I know, I just KNOW, I'll have to wait ... and wait and wait ...

[Pete_C]

Ah, I only have voice mail on my cell and that is because it is free and I can't get it disabled.

I used to have an answering machine and the message was something to the extent of

"You have reached (my number). If you have done this accidentally your apology is accepted so it is unnecessary. If you have done it intentionally your mission is to leave your name number and a short message. If you fail to complete this mission this machine will deny any knowledge of your existence or that you have been attempting to reach me."

Then they came out with caller ID; much more useful.

I can just come home and either scroll through the log on the caller id machine or bring up my computer and run my UgotCall callerID software to read the caller ID log off the UgotCall callerID machine . I don't think they make them any more, and it has an old fashioned serial port connector (Yep not even USB) but hey it works great.

[JDoors]

I'll try not to go on a related rant about Caller ID, but, I cancelled it once the phone company started allowing businesses to pick whatever message they wanted to use. I'd guess over 50% of the calls I received didn't "ID" anybody. There was information, but it was useless for identifying exactly who it was that called, which is kinda the whole point of Caller ID.