Pet Peeve #4,080 - if someone leaves you a voicemail

If I leave you a voicemail, it's probably regarding something that doesn't require a call back. So just listen to the berkeleying voicemail, mmmmkay? I have to call about a half-dozen people a day from work to let them know their order is ready. Most folks don't answer their phones, so I go through my whole routine; "...this is Professor Archibald Poopiebottom, Esq. (or whatever,) your order is ready, our hours are..., if you have any questions you can reach me at...."

Out of the half-dozen, at least a quarter call back. I answer the phone, every time, stating my name and the name of my business, and every berkeleying time, it's some E36 M3 stain toughguy who replies "YEAH, I gotta call from dis number????? WHO IS DISS?"

Just check your berkeleying voicemails, por favor, and/or act like you've got the sense you were born with.

Thanks,

The management.

Pet Peeve #4,081:

If you leave me a voicemail, please leave more than "Hey, call me back." Do this enough times, and i will no longer be checking my voicemails for any reason.

I experience this same phenomenon every day I am at work, we call someone to let them know their bike is repaired and ready to be picked up and get their voice mail. While the service manager is on the phone leaving them a message, the other line rings. It is invariably the person we are leaving a message with, who says with attitude, "YEAH, I got a call from this number?!?" Like we a berkeleying prank calling them or some E36 M3.

I think the root of the problem is all the berkeleying hoops you have to jump through to just leave a simple message, they are the same hoops that you have to jump through to listen to your messages. Rather than do all that, people just call back than listen to their messages.

We have had a bit of success using a website called txtdrop.com to text people that their bike is ready, our hours, total dollar amount of bill, etc. If they text back it goes to e-mail. Customers seem to like it and we spend a lot less time cussing. berkeley, OK, a little bit less time cussing.

Related: You were too busy to answer when I called, but as soon as I start leaving you a message, my other line is ringing with your number.

Well, you may as well hang up and listen to the message, because I'm not picking up just for spite.

Voice mail? What? Just send me a text.

Seriously, it's a waste of everyone's time, and it's been obsolete since the nineties. I literally do not check it. Instead of frantically searching for a pen and then having to "play back" a long, rambling, pointless message before the speaker gives the first five digits of the number I'm supposed to call back and then gets cut off, I'd rather just read the message on my screen. I might even reply right away. Don't like texting? Too bad, I don't like voice mail. It's the 21st century - deal.

If I can opt out of voice mail on my phone plan, I do. Otherwise I program it to wait, like, ten rings and then I make the recording tell the caller not to leave a message but to text me back instead.

Also, that caller who just hangs up instead of leaving a message? Yeah, I'm that guy.

poopshovel wrote: If I leave you a voicemail, it's probably regarding something that doesn't require a call back. So just listen to the berkeleying voicemail, mmmmkay? I have to call about a half-dozen people a day from work to let them know their order is ready.

I'm just amazed to hear that somewhere...people who have placed an order don't call you every 30 seconds screaming "WHY ISN'T IT DONE YET?!?!?!?"

Jay wrote: Voice mail? What? Just send me a text.

I don't think most businesses use text messaging yet. Seems to be what Poopie is talking about.

I hate voicemail and instruct everyone to hang up and I'll call them later, and to not leave a message. Mainly because most messages are "hey dude call me when you get a chance." Because you know I planned on ignoring you for all eternity.

bastomatic wrote: I don't think most businesses use text messaging yet. Seems to be what Poopie is talking about.

Correct. I receive and leave voice mails all the time at work.

My rant is about people who wait until the very end of a long message to mumble the number they want me to call them back on, so I have to listen to it five times to make out what they said. The way to do it is start the message with your name and number, spoken clearly and slowly, then the message, then repeat the number at the end.

Some people have voice mail and use it.
Some people have call display and use it.

The two don't mix well.

When you leave a message, PLEASE ferchrissakes, speak your name and phone number clearly. I can't count the number of times we get a perfectly legible message, except for the mumbled phone number and name. And you 80 year olds- it not "Twenty nine, thirty two six fourty"- its 293, pause, 2640.

If I misdial, and my number comes up on your phone, don't call me if you don't know who I am. You have not won the lottery, I am not a lawyer of your long lost dad. If its someone looking for you and its important, they will call back. DO NOT call me at 2:00 am after an evening in the pub, or I'll find you, spike your doors shut, and light your house on fire.

stuart in mn wrote:

bastomatic wrote: I don't think most businesses use text messaging yet. Seems to be what Poopie is talking about.

Correct. I receive and leave voice mails all the time at work. My rant is about people who wait until the very end of a long message to mumble the number they want me to call them back on, so I have to listen to it five times to make out what they said. The way to do it is start the message with your name and number, spoken clearly and slowly, then the message, then repeat the number at the end.

If you'd have posted quicker, I wouldn't have needed to type so much. Hurry up next time.

When you leave me a voice mail, don't zip through your phone number so fast I can't catch it.

My pet peeve is leaving a VM with everything I want to know, my name, and callback number AND NEVER HEAR FROM THOSE A-HOLES AGAIN WITHOUT CALLING MANY MORE TIMES!!!

1. I don't leave the "Hey call me back bruh" vm.
2. The "doodbruh, just text me bruh" demographic is not my customer.
3. I am as clear and concise as possible when leaving a vm...and when leaving a bm.

If you could block your number, you could force them to listen. But I get it when I call someone's cell phone, leave a message, and then "did you just call me, who is this?" grumble, grumble.

I don't do texts, and I generally ignore emails. Voice mail may not be cutting edge, but it works for me. Or just mail me a letter.

i find it odd that people will immediately call back numbers they don't know. I never answer the phone for unknown numbers. 99% of them are some scumbag scammer or telemarketer. If I don't know a number it goes to vm. If they don't leave one, then they never hear from me.

I use my voice mail on my cell phone. I listen to the messages and call back if required.

At work it is another story altogether. I get too many emails to read every day, I have too many meetings, too much work to do, and sometimes have a handful of people standing in line at my cube to talk to me about something. I don't have time for voice mails. I don't even dial the number to check them anymore. Occaisionally, someone will ask me why I didn't call them back and I just tell them I don't listen to voice mails. Send me an email or call back until I answer.

Crappy way to be, but it is what it is. I need a new job.

alfadriver wrote: If you could block your number, you could force them to listen. But I get it when I call someone's cell phone, leave a message, and then "did you just call me, who is this?" grumble, grumble.

I only do that when the previous phone dies, and I procure a new one. I'm worse than the young folks I know about not remembering a phone number, and just seeing the "contact" name flash on the screen when the phone rings. Last phone that died on me had the screen go dark..can't transfer the contacts manually if I can't see them on the dead phone.

And of course, that's all about personal contacts...and not about business stuff.

1988RedT2 wrote: I don't do texts, and I generally ignore emails. Voice mail may not be cutting edge, but it works for me. Or just mail me a letter.

I only use telegram, if you can't send me a damn cable I don't want to hear from you!

I use google voice. Voice mails arrive as emails, and the voice recognition software makes for some genuinely funny stuff. It's like it converts to Chinglish sometimes.

Otherwise - please send a brief, concise text.

stuart in mn wrote: My rant is about people who wait until the very end of a long message to mumble the number they want me to call them back on, so I have to listen to it five times to make out what they said. The way to do it is start the message with your name and number, spoken clearly and slowly, then the message, then repeat the number at the end.

EXACTLY!! I would have to use the jump back 5 seconds button over and over when getting some of my techs in the field call. Its a lost art on some people how to leave a business voicemail.

What used to drive me batE36 M3 crazy was when someone would leave a voicemail at work and not leave a phone number or what the berkeley they were calling for. Some would just leave their first name. We had 400 plus people all over the US. Telling me "David" or "John" called, isn't going to help me much. Then they would wonder why I didn't call them back. :banghead to bloody pulp:

Edit: When it comes to personal E36 M3, text me, I hate voicemail for personal stuff.

It makes me livid that the voicemail format has not changed. Who in the hell still needs instructions on how to leave a voicemail?

"You have reached the voicemail of 2. 6. 7. (coffee break) 8. 4. 2. (take a nap). 5. 9. 9. 1. If you would like to leave a message, press one, or just stay on the line. (An eternity passes). Beep."

What I hate is that I leave a voicemail and the person calls me back a significant amount of time later, and I ask if they heard my voicemail.

"No, What's up?"

Then I have to explain or ask the whole thing over again.

Why the hell do people have voicemail?

I also have a problem with people like my mother that leaves a 20 minute voicemail asking me a question with the history of mankind leading up to the situation at hand.

Just say "Hi, this is so-and-so, I have a question for you, please call me back".

My fumble-fingers father in law will dial my number, and then not properly end his call if I don't answer. Several phones ago, my cell phone would not let you end, erase or skip a VM until the end. He called, didn't get an answer, and set his phone in the console of his car. I had a fifteen minute VM! It consisted of munching chips, cussing at drivers that HE cut off, arguing with mother in law, and finally, "oh E36 M3, my phone won't dial"