Voicemail/Answering Machine Messages

[Uborrow-Upay]

Does anyone here get annoyed when people leave messages like these? 

"Hey...I'm back!  What's up?  Give me a call when you get a chance.  Later!"  (click)

OR

"Mr. XXXX, this is Suzanne from XYZ & Company.  Please give us a call at blahohblah,twofufduhohsetfiveblah" (said really fast, with a sandwich(?) or something in her mouth).

Is it just me that gets unidentifiable/unintelligible messages?  The first one, I had no idea who was calling, turned out to be a friend I hadn't seen/spoken to in two years, who wondered why I didn't get back to him.  I listened to the second message six times before I finally figured out what the d*mn phone number was.

What a waste of my time.  You'd think that if someone wants a return call, they'd at least leave the number clearly...

Just venting...

[haulingthescoreup]

Our phone number is one digit different from that of an auto-parts store. We get so many wrong numbers and dumb messages on VM/AM that I finally recorded this message:

"Hi, you've reached the Haulings. This number is XXX-XXXX. If you're trying to call AutoZone, their number is XXX-XYXX. Please call that number instead. Otherwise, leave a message."

Inevitable message left: "Uhh, is this AutoZone?"

I swear...

Other useless messages: automated messages that start up as soon as our VM message begins, so that the part of the message with the caller's name and number is lost. Guess I didn't really want to talk to them anyway.

[Anonymous]

LOL

I have to admit, the "talking too fast phone number" in combination that they don't repeat the number, is very unpleasant, ESPECIALLY when they leave a LOOOOOONNNNNNGGGG message and you have to replay it and wait till the end of their blathering to hear the number again....and like above, sometimes you have to hear it 4 or 5 times to get a clue.

PLEASE, speak the name and number slowly and REPEAT the phone number at least once....and say each digit individualy.....I hate the "twenty-three, seventy-five" thing cause sometimes it is even harder to understand.

[Lel]

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haulingthescoreup wrote:
Our phone number is one digit different from that of an auto-parts store. We get so many wrong numbers and dumb messages on VM/AM that I finally recorded this message:

"Hi, you've reached the Haulings. This number is XXX-XXXX. If you're trying to call AutoZone, their number is XXX-XYXX. Please call that number instead. Otherwise, leave a message."

Inevitable message left: "Uhh, is this AutoZone?"

I swear...

Other useless messages: automated messages that start up as soon as our VM message begins, so that the part of the message with the caller's name and number is lost. Guess I didn't really want to talk to them anyway.

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In my college dorm, we all had 702 prefixes on our phones.  One of my friends had the unfortunate number of 702-5551.  Why unfortunate?  Because many people trying to call Las Vegas directory assistance (1-702-555-1212) would forget to dial the "1" before the area code and end up calling his number.  People would leave messages saying things like, "Could you call me back with the number for Caesar's Palace?"  He changed his outgoing message to something like, "Listen carefully: if you are trying to reach the Las Vegas directory assistance, please hang up and dial 1 before the area code.  This is not Las Vegas.  Do not leave a message."  It didn't work.

[demi]

I agree...especially the ones you can't understand...my vmx at work does not have a rewind, you have to listen to the whole message over and over.

However, my real pet peeve is probably more on the side of the person's greeting message.   I can't stand it when people leave their greeting something like "This is Joe Blow, its Tuesday, Nov 22, I am in the office all day" and then you get it two weeks later.  I had a boss who would do this, drove me nuts... his message was always, always out of date.  If you can't change it every day, then don't have a message that says what day it is.  I wan to pull my hair out when I get one of these, just really irritates me...

Whew....glad I got that off my chest!   LOL

[laz98]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Other useless messages: automated messages that start up as soon as our VM message begins, so that the part of the message with the caller's name and number is lost. Guess I didn't really want to talk to them anyway.

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OMG I HATE THESE!!!  All of my VA appointment messages are like this.....grrrr!!!!!

[daisyduke]

OK, here's a tried and true strategy and has worked for me. I tell people that KNOW me...I don't check my home voicemail. You can always try that number, but no promises I'll get the messages, since I never did set up vm properly....For three years I never checked voicemail for home..The words gets out.. What happened with Comcast, is overload and the message never did get erased but another message came on saying the vm was full and it stayed that way  .Then I keep my cell phone VM at full capacity. People cannot leave messages. I hate getting messages from my sister after four martinis and the rambling is endless. Drunk rambling...the worst when you are not drunk...Now, I can see missed calls on my cell. Should I want to return the call, I know you called, you don't have to leave a message. I just simply call back at my convennience and say "I missed your call last week, sorry" or whatever. I like not having to check vm's everywhere. Send me a text. That doesn't interrupt my day.

[BungalowMo]

OMG....these have been great! 

Here's my story.... about 15 years ago, one phone # I had was 1 number off from the local golf course.  I worked 2nd shift, so I'd usually go to bed around 1 or 2 & later on weekends. 

Never failed, Saturday mornings starting at 7 am, I'd get all the local golfers calling for tee times.  I got so sick of telling them it's the wrong #...so I started taking their appointments!  Even set up some lessons with the pro!  

Oh to be a fly on the wall when they got there!!  Serves 'em right for dialing wrong!

Odd thing about this...my ph # was also one number off from my chiropractors office....NEVER got a wrong # from a patient.  Go figure!

[llecs]

Oh I hate wrong numbers. I use a digital communications service that integrates my fax, cell, office, e-mail all into one nifty toll-free number. About 3 years ago, I began receiving faxes from pharmacies in the Houston, TX area for bulk drug orders. At first I would spend literally hours trying to track down their phone number, call them, explain to them that they had the wrong number. I thought that the supplier gave them a wrong number to dial. It wasn't until a year after all of this started that I received a fax with a phone number similar to the one they were trying to dial and figured that all of these pharmacists were misdialing.

Thankfully I can go into my settings online and create call rules from the incoming fax numbers. If they try to fax again, they'll hear a busy signal and then get hung up on. I went into my call records and as of last year (I stopped counting) over 300 calls and faxes came in from pharmacies in south Texas and averaged one every other day at that time. If I had to answer the phone every other day for a misdial for 3 years I'd go nuts. Of the 300, only a dozen or so slipped by and those were on the ban list now too.....someone isn't getting their meds.

[Uborrow-Upay]

Speaking of wrong numbers, I wish people would at least say, "Oh, I'm sorry...I think I've got the wrong number" much more often than they actually do.  The silence, with the subsequent abrupt hangup, is just kinda rude.

I've received wrong number calls about 20 times or so from the same guy over the course of about three years, but he's very polite when he misdials me.  After around four of these calls, he apologized so profusely that I had to tell him that it was OK, relax, have a great day, etc. 

The next time he called I jokingly told him, "Thank God, I'm so glad you called...I was worried, I hadn't heard from you!"  He laughed like mad.  To make a long story short, it still happens occasionally, we sometimes chat for a minute or so, and he's just sent me a new customer...the guy he's been trying to call when he dials me by mistake!

Just kinda funny how things work sometimes.