Does Voicemail Annoy You?

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
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TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has an interesting blog entry on the demise of voicemail and encourages readers to stop using it. Personally, I prefer email and chat over voicemail and traditional phone calls because I feel that it’s much faster. However, I’ve had more than one email and/or chat transcript misinterpreted so I often follow up something important with a phone call to ensure comprehension. What are your thoughts on this subject?

Typical voicemail messages today include things like “Please don’t leave me a voicemail, I rarely listen to them. Please just email me at [email protected]” Many people don’t bother setting up their voicemail accounts at all. Then there’s my favorite method, the one I use personally - let the message box get full and then don’t empty it. Caller ID still tells me who called, and I can simply call them back.
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Here's why I don't leave voicemail

"TO LEAVE A CALL BACK NUMBER PRESS 5. FOR MORE OPTIONS PRESS ZERO. TO CHANGE URGENCY PRESS 2. FOR OTHER OPTIONS PRESS 3. RECORD AT THE TONE. .................................. BEEP"
 
The only person that ever leaves me voice mail is my mom, probably says something.

I don't have a nice phone and txt messaging takes forever to type out for me, so I never send out, only receive.
 
I would disable my account but for times where work calls, etc. it is completely necessary. But I fucking hate voice mails from my family and friends.
 
If I call someone and they don't answer, I usually hang up before even hearing their voice mail recording. I know they probably won't check it anyway, so I send an email or call again later.
 
What about that one person you have to call but dread? I hope for voicemail at that point. Heh
 
MooCow said:
Here's why I don't leave voicemail

"TO LEAVE A CALL BACK NUMBER PRESS 5. FOR MORE OPTIONS PRESS ZERO. TO CHANGE URGENCY PRESS 2. FOR OTHER OPTIONS PRESS 3. RECORD AT THE TONE. .................................. BEEP"
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This.

And then when I go to check a new message "The following voice mails will be deleted from your mailbox..." And then I feel like I have to listen just to make sure it's nothing I want to keep. What should have been a 15 second check turns into 5 minutes.
 
voicemail is good because sometimes calls don't show up on a cell phone for whatever reason. of course if no message is left its the same scenario ;) :p
 
Don't you just love the really slow talker that keeps telling you the same thing over and over again with lots of "UHMMMMMs" thrown in for good measure.

Voicemail is really annoying. My message says that if it is urgent, to email me. Otherwise I should be able to check my voicemail in a day or 2, and I will get back to you then. I usually just delete them, and if I am asked, I say I think I had a message from you, but it was garbled,and I could not make out what you were saying.

Don
 
Voicemail annoys me because NO ONE EVER USES IT!!! Leave me a message, darn it! Don't redial me three times, then try texting, emailing, and calling other phones when I don't answer. I always say if they don't leave a voicemail, it must not have been important.
 
Voicemail works great for me. I have a really long and annoying greeting. It usually weeds out most people I don't want to talk to anyway and for the times I have an annoying automated message thingy trying to get hold of me, my long ass message kills a large portion of that message so it's easy to ignore it.

I figure if something is important, people will leave a message and I will decide ot call them back if I feel like it. Also, I'm not a messaging junkie or email junkie like some people. For the most part, you probably won't be able to reach me through either of those two mediums, especially if I'm at work. Sure, I have email at work but I don't give my email out but to a very few and it better be important if you email me there.

Some people are just way too caught up technology. Believe it or not, most people don't stay in touch with their email or messaging 24/7 even if they want to use either.

It sounds like the author is hoping to push his personal preferences on other people. Personally, I don't like people being able to contact me constantly and in many different ways. My cell phone is about the only way you have a chance of reaching me immediately and only if you're lucky will I answer. I have caller ID for a reason and I use it.

 
i like voicemail

on the iphone


should been done that way long ago. we have all this tech and we are still hitting numbers for options? pass
 
It's much faster to just call all the people back than to open the voicemail. -_-
 
I prefer talking on the phone over talking online mainly because it is a lot quicker to convey your thoughts clearly. Though admittingly, if you spend much of your time in front of a computer, sending IMs is a lot more likely to get my attention for something urgent.

For some reason, emails just annoy the hell out of me, especially anything longer than 3-4 sentences. If you have something important to say, call me, or message me for me to call you, I don't want to read a damn essay. If it's not important, just leave me a message on my Facebook wall so it doesn't clutter my email box and I'll get back to you some time in the next few days
 
I checked my VM before posting.

"You have ... twenty... seven... new messages. Message one..."

So I hit "7" 27 times.

Yeah. I've always hated voicemail.
 
I have Vonage and as part of that, I have "Visual Voicemail".

Its really cool. When someone leaves a VM on my home phone, It creates a Wave File and E-mails it to my Gmail. On top of that, I Transcribes it with speech-to-text and puts it in the body of the email.

I have Gmail on my Blackberry, So when someone Laves me a message on my home phone, I can just view the text of it, anywhere i am. If I want to hear the message, I just open it up on my PC. On top of all of that, I have a record of everything.

It rules!
 
InorganicMatter said:
Voicemail annoys me because NO ONE EVER USES IT!!! Leave me a message, darn it! Don't redial me three times, then try texting, emailing, and calling other phones when I don't answer. I always say if they don't leave a voicemail, it must not have been important.
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i agree. i make sure mine says "i can't get to the phone, please leave a message and i will get back to you as soon as i can". most of the people i know hardly know how to use email let alone text and shit... the voicemail is a tried-n-true way of keeping up to date without really dealing with it.
 
oh man voicemail is bullshit.. some service providers here FORCE you to use voicemail... so i have to tell all my friends,... dont leave me voicemail i WILL NOT check it.. wanna send me a message? send me a goddamn message..

or you ring someone up.. you want to talk to them.. not be charged a connection fee to listen to an annoying recorded voice befor you hangup.. i dont talk to machines (well except for my computer when its not working properly)

its all just a scam to charge you even if your call doesnt connect...

but despite all my frustrations... im am one of the lucky ones ive spent less than $50 on mobile call the last 3 years.. im a devoted non-telephone person.. personal calls are made via VoIP... and i try to only ring landline/VoIP ...

even so.. i'm more likely to just rock up at your front door than to ring you (if your a friend of mine)

the only thing i hate worse than voicemail is those anti-social txtr fucks... i've sat there in a room of 10 people, nobody saying a fucking thing cas they've all got their head buried in their mobile.. fucking talk to the people that have the decency to see you in person, if i knew you were going to just sit there saying fuck all i would've stayed home and jacked off or some shit...
 
MooCow said:
Here's why I don't leave voicemail

"TO LEAVE A CALL BACK NUMBER PRESS 5. FOR MORE OPTIONS PRESS ZERO. TO CHANGE URGENCY PRESS 2. FOR OTHER OPTIONS PRESS 3. RECORD AT THE TONE. .................................. BEEP"
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QFT.

1) Takes too long to listen to it. 9/10 they end up emailing me as well, and can actually condense the message in email (but ramble on in the voicemails... ???)
An email... You can skim through, in 3 seconds determine importance, and move on.

2) Multitasking. For the times I need to be on the phone, I can actually work on your problem while I am on the phone with someone else. With voicemail, you can't do that.

3) Kills workflow. You have to drop everything you're doing to check it.



Another pet-peve of mine is the voicemail-email-hybrid... You get an email which says "Call me".


All the above is for business. My personal cell on the other hand- everyone I know (except the older generations- naturally) has an unspoken knowledge to text each other. Much easier on everyone- unless you need to deal with real-time info (directions or something).
 
I hate voicemail too. Its always full because for some reason people keep leavng messages. Hell, why dont u text me if u want to leave a msg.
 
Unfortunately, there isn't much remedy to the issue for most people...

1) Personal: If the other person doesn't have texting, doesn't know how, whatever... You kinda need Voicemail.

2) Business: I'm sure most folks' bosses wouldn't be happy with them getting rid of voicemail, or leaving a message saying "I rarely check this voicemail, please email me".
 
I delete 90% of my voicemail because by the time I get around to checking it, I'll have already talked to the person. I have a voicemail on my phone from one of my friends that he left on Thursday, I haven't even talked to him yet, but I still wont even bother checking it. If it wasn't important to call again, it wasn't important.

Besides, my voicemail message says this:
Hey, this is Woody. Looks like I'm not here right now, so leave me a message and I MIGHT get back to you.

Yes, I do add emphasis to "might" in my voicemail recording. My old supervisor hates that shit. :)
 
Dew said:
I have a voicemail on my phone from one of my friends that he left on Thursday, I haven't even talked to him yet, but I still wont even bother checking it. If it wasn't important to call again, it wasn't important.
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Voicemail reads: "Help me, terrorists have kidnapped me, im at xxx location near the docks, please help me, i quickly managed to escape and ring you from under a stairwell, when they find me they'll surely take my phone off me, im locked in and cant escape.. please come rescue me!"
 
matrix563 said:
voicemail is good because sometimes calls don't show up on a cell phone for whatever reason. of course if no message is left its the same scenario ;) :p
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What he said.

InorganicMatter said:
Voicemail annoys me because NO ONE EVER USES IT!!! Leave me a message, darn it! Don't redial me three times, then try texting, emailing, and calling other phones when I don't answer. I always say if they don't leave a voicemail, it must not have been important.
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Yea some things can be said on voice mail. Considering most of my friends don't have smart phones email is kinda out. Plus you can call and leave a voice mail message while driving. Txting really isn't an option.
 
I typically use two things for communication: phones and email. I use phones if I need to speak with someone immediately and email if I don't. Logically speaking, voicemail serves little purpose.

I don't like voicemail anyway. It's far easier to leave an email since I can proofread what I type and I can include lots of details and formatting. I also have a hard time holding a one-sided phone conversation without sounding like a moron.

Receiving voicemail is annoying since I have to often sit there and listen to the person drone on until I get the details (or not) that I care about. And often times I have to play back the message more than once to get all the details. Also, sometimes I'd occasionally get stuck in a "call me back" voicemail loop when the other person is seemingly never available and always calls me back when I can't pick up. Those annoy the hell out of me.
 
Voice mail is handy. Just hit the play button and do something else while the messages are played, unless there is an important message where I have to write down a number.

The problem is some people, in this day and age, still do not know how to use voice mail. They leave long pointless messages that they could have summed up in just a few words.

I do like the trick greeting some people leave:

Greeting: Hello?
Me: Hey Dave.
G: How ya doin'?
M: Good. You doing anything right now?
G: Not much.
M: Ok. Such and such is going on...
G: Leave a message.
M: huh?
Machine: BEEEEPPPP!!!
 
Terry Olaes said:
TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has an interesting blog entry on the demise of voicemail and encourages readers to stop using it. Personally, I prefer email and chat over voicemail and traditional phone calls because I feel that it’s much faster. However, I’ve had more than one email and/or chat transcript misinterpreted so I often follow up something important with a phone call to ensure comprehension. What are your thoughts on this subject?
Click to expand...

There are two reason I don't use my voicemail.

First...
Most people who leave their phone numbers for a call back
say it so fast you can't get all the numbers or its un-inintelligable.

Second...
To many salesman, I don't want to be bothered. My phone is not
a bazaar.

IF it's that important they will call me back when I'm in the office
or email me.
 
YouMail:
  • Completely visual - see who called, from where, and even their picture (when before all you had was their number!)
  • Use your smart phone or your computer - or you can still dial in like before (if you feel the need!)
  • Save time - Point, click and play or delete.

Your voicemail becomes like an email inbox. You can record a personal greeting for different contacts. You can set up DitchMail greetings for numbers you don't want to talk to. You can download messages in mp3 format. You get way more space for messages, so you don't have to cycle through them to re-save ones you want to keep just to get to your new message(s).

And...it's all free. :D
 
lol @ the phone being a bazaar comment. You know, there is actually technology that converts your vm's to emails people.
 
SockMan! said:
Also, sometimes I'd occasionally get stuck in a "call me back" voicemail loop when the other person is seemingly never available and always calls me back when I can't pick up. Those annoy the hell out of me.
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Phone tag?? I hate those too...
If I have that person's email address- I stop trying and send an email- it wastes both of our times calling back and forth.

If I don't, by the second or third time- I tell them my email address in the voicemail and be done with it.

msny said:
First...
Most people who leave their phone numbers for a call back
say it so fast you can't get all the numbers or its un-inintelligable.
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How I hate those!
My philosophy on that- if you said it too fast: don't bother with it.
It's already a PITA to have to listen to it once, if you can't leave me a number I can understand, you'll have to try again later or send me an email.

msny said:
Second...
To many salesman, I don't want to be bothered. My phone is not
a bazaar.
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No kidding.

I had this guy from IBM that I swear... left me so many messages I was looking for ways to block the dang number. Each time he left a VM, I tried calling back, didn't leave him a VM, so I emailed the guy.
Email must not be good enough for him, because the only thing he could do was call me back. I stopped emailing and calling and it eventually stopped- but I HATE salesmen!
 
Voice mail would work better if people wouldn't leave dissertations on the machine.

"this is Joe Smith - my number is xxx-xxxx - I'm calling about "subject" - thank you". Hang up.

I prefer greetings that are short with no irritating crap:
 
Voicemail is fine so long as the person leaving it calls for a real reason. I hate it when people call me and leave a voicemail when all they wanted to do was BS on the phone.
 
Dan_D said:
Voicemail is fine so long as the person leaving it calls for a real reason. I hate it when people call me and leave a voicemail when all they wanted to do was BS on the phone.
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even if someone gets through to me on the phone (friend or otherwise) if they havent got anything that warrants a phonecall and they start blah blah blahing something they could tell me next time we catch up, my phone suddenly goes out of range and drops out...
 
I too hate long rambling messages, which is why when I leave voicemails I tend to get right to the point. Of course, my friend never listens to his voicemail, stating that it's faster just to call the person back (after seeing a missed call). Of course, then it wastes *my* time as I have to explain the whole thing again...
 
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