These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

Out of Pod Experience

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Voicemail: Is it relevant anymore?
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Unsuccessful At Everything
The Troll Bridge
#1 - 2014-06-26 18:23:19 UTC
Im noticing a very disturbing trend in the past few years when it comes to voicemail:

NOT ONE ******* PERSON LISTENS TO IT BEFORE CALLING BACK.

Am I crazy to still be leaving voicemails for people who aren't available to answer their phone?

Id say at this point about 90% of my phone calls are returned to me asking "you called?" instead of people actually listening to the message. Are we regressing as a society back to the beeper era?

A very significant percentage of people on both personal and business phones don't even have their mailbox set up! How the hell can I even leave you a damn message?!!?

I guess what id like to know, do you people use your voicemails on your phones? Am I behind the times in being one of the minority who actually listens to messages before returning calls? I cant be the only person who notices this, or is bugged by it.

Since the cessation of their usefulness is imminent, may I appropriate your belongings?
Ralph King-Griffin
New Eden Tech Support
#2 - 2014-06-26 18:28:09 UTC
back in my day, we used to tie notes to rocks and throw them at eachother,
and that was innovative at the time,
before then we had to shout really loudly .

Murderers of Negotiable Motivations

=]|[=
Kijo Rikki
Killboard Padding Services
#3 - 2014-06-26 18:32:10 UTC
This behavior can be forgiven in instances where a person is on the other line, sees the call, and tries to call right back. Rather than listen to a voice mail from someone they know just to wait for , " Hi, this is Nuggetbutt with Cox Communications, I am calling in regards to the Cheekswisher contract, particularly paragraph 47, subsection A. If you could please call me back, my number is fnive nfinr 4, 767- 3fnive shwoshle 6. Again that number is 954-schwozzle buzz 7-3946. Thanks and have a great day, click."

Actually, that may be why people just call back, trying to listen to voice mails several times to get the necessary information is probably more painful than calling the number on the caller ID back and asking, you called?

You make a valid point, good Sir or Madam. 
Unsuccessful At Everything
The Troll Bridge
#4 - 2014-06-26 18:49:19 UTC
Yeah Kijo, I see what youre talking about. I can usually forgive someone who calls right back after I hang up, but the ones that irritate me are the ones from days ago.

It really irritates me when its a business contact. These are supposed to be professionals. I spend a good half an hour going through my voicemails every day. I jot down the relevant notes and call them back with answers. Is it so much to ask that other put forth the same effort?



Since the cessation of their usefulness is imminent, may I appropriate your belongings?
Ralph King-Griffin
New Eden Tech Support
#5 - 2014-06-26 19:03:07 UTC
Kijo Rikki wrote:
my number is fnive nfinr 4, 767- 3fnive shwoshle 6. Again that number is 954-schwozzle buzz 7-3946. Thanks and have a great day, click."

this actually has me laughingBig smile

Murderers of Negotiable Motivations

=]|[=
Kaarous Aldurald
Black Hydra Consortium.
#6 - 2014-06-26 19:13:01 UTC
Personally I just dislike the entire concept of voicemail.

Nevermind the absolute hideousness of the typical voicemail interface. Just setting mine up took me fifteen minutes of yelling at a robotic voice before it sent me to tech support to talk to a guy with a Middle Eastern accent who understood me only slightly less well than the machine.

And all because my last name is hard to spell. It's still wrong on my voicemail, in fact.

"Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws."

One of ours, ten of theirs.

Best Meltdown Ever.
Morihei Akachi
Doomheim
#7 - 2014-06-26 19:27:22 UTC
I disabled voicemail years ago. My phone is also usually turned off. You want to reach me? You send me an email. You don't know my email address? Then you're a total stranger and I doubt I want to hear from you.

"Enduring", "restrained" and "ample" as designations for starship components are foreign to the genre of high-tech science fiction and don’t belong in Eve Online. (And as for “scoped” …)
Ralph King-Griffin
New Eden Tech Support
#8 - 2014-06-26 19:35:51 UTC
Remember before the mobile phenomena,
when you had to just expect someone to be there when they said they would be there.

Murderers of Negotiable Motivations

=]|[=
Jonah Gravenstein
Machiavellian Space Bastards
#9 - 2014-06-26 19:40:19 UTC  |  Edited by: Jonah Gravenstein
I disabled voicemail the day my network provider at the time thought it'd be a good idea to charge for listening to it. Never re-enabled it even after switching networks.

There's other reasons too, one being the dire quality of the recording.

In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.

New Player FAQ

Feyd's Survival Pack
Unsuccessful At Everything
The Troll Bridge
#10 - 2014-06-26 19:41:58 UTC
Morihei Akachi wrote:
I disabled voicemail years ago. My phone is also usually turned off. You want to reach me? You send me an email. You don't know my email address? Then you're a total stranger and I doubt I want to hear from you.


I do a great deal of my communications via email. its actually my preffered medium for what I do. I wish that I could do 100% of my communications via email, but unfortunately a significant portion still needs to be done the old fashioned way.

Since the cessation of their usefulness is imminent, may I appropriate your belongings?
Khergit Deserters
Crom's Angels
#11 - 2014-06-26 20:36:46 UTC  |  Edited by: Khergit Deserters
Kijo Rikki wrote:
This behavior can be forgiven in instances where a person is on the other line, sees the call, and tries to call right back. Rather than listen to a voice mail from someone they know just to wait for , " Hi, this is Nuggetbutt with Cox Communications, I am calling in regards to the Cheekswisher contract, particularly paragraph 47, subsection A. If you could please call me back, my number is fnive nfinr 4, 767- 3fnive shwoshle 6. Again that number is 954-schwozzle buzz 7-3946. Thanks and have a great day, click." Actually, that may be why people just call back, trying to listen to voice mails several times to get the necessary information is probably more painful than calling the number on the caller ID back and asking, you called?

I love that, the way people speed up while giving their phone number. The first part of the message (the unimportant part) is all rambly, slow, repetitive, lots of "and uh"s. Then when they get to the call back number (the important part), they get a burst of energy and it's "faiwonsisatewonfreenine, call me back, bye." Like doing their phone number chant thing gives them a little buzz or something.

Anyway, I have to admit that I'm guilty of usually calling back without listening to the voice mail first. After some doing some reflection, I have determined that that is because: Anybody leaving me a voice mail usually wants either a) some of my money, or b) some of my time and effort. In other words, the VM is about something taking away some of my slack. If I'm going to have to deal with that, why deal with it twice? Just call them directly and deal with it only once. Smile
Mark Munoz
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#12 - 2014-06-26 20:51:23 UTC
I hate voicemail and love it at the same time. I hate it for the reasons mentioned above of having to listen carefully on poor connections or replaying multiple times as they zoom through their return contact info. I ESPECIALLY hate when they want you to call back on a number different then the one they called you from. FOR FUCKS SAKE JUST CALL ME FROM THAT NUMBER AND DO ME A FAVOR!

I love it because I get a lot of phone calls in a day, usually about 50-70. Sometimes clients think to get the information they need it has to be done by phone. In those instances I will usually screen the call listen to the voicemail then respond by text or email. Most of my clients don't mind that as I respond quicker to issues. Especially since I spend 8 of my 10 hour days physically in someone else's location, calling back becomes quite difficult.

My other hate for voicemail is when somebody just says to call back but gives no indication of what the call is about, very annoying.

Typing all of this and re-reading it is making me think I really hate the phone. Honestly though I think it is just because my work life is crazy busy so I try to do things as efficiently as possible and for the most part the phone is not that way.
Kijo Rikki
Killboard Padding Services
#13 - 2014-06-27 00:17:22 UTC
Khergit Deserters wrote:
Kijo Rikki wrote:
This behavior can be forgiven in instances where a person is on the other line, sees the call, and tries to call right back. Rather than listen to a voice mail from someone they know just to wait for , " Hi, this is Nuggetbutt with Cox Communications, I am calling in regards to the Cheekswisher contract, particularly paragraph 47, subsection A. If you could please call me back, my number is fnive nfinr 4, 767- 3fnive shwoshle 6. Again that number is 954-schwozzle buzz 7-3946. Thanks and have a great day, click." Actually, that may be why people just call back, trying to listen to voice mails several times to get the necessary information is probably more painful than calling the number on the caller ID back and asking, you called?

I love that, the way people speed up while giving their phone number. The first part of the message (the unimportant part) is all rambly, slow, repetitive, lots of "and uh"s. Then when they get to the call back number (the important part), they get a burst of energy and it's "faiwonsisatewonfreenine, call me back, bye." Like doing their phone number chant thing gives them a little buzz or something.

Anyway, I have to admit that I'm guilty of usually calling back without listening to the voice mail first. After some doing some reflection, I have determined that that is because: Anybody leaving me a voice mail usually wants either a) some of my money, or b) some of my time and effort. In other words, the VM is about something taking away some of my slack. If I'm going to have to deal with that, why deal with it twice? Just call them directly and deal with it only once. Smile


This is usually because after all that rambling most people realize they are going to be running up against the alloted message time.

You make a valid point, good Sir or Madam. 
Ria Nieyli
Nieyli Enterprises
SL33PERS
#14 - 2014-06-27 03:04:35 UTC  |  Edited by: Ria Nieyli
I've never really used voice mail, and I don't think I know anybody who has. I'll ask around and fax you if I find somebody.
DaReaper
Net 7
Cannon.Fodder
#15 - 2014-06-27 19:34:43 UTC
I use it all the time, mostly if I don't know the number, i'll kick it to vm, if it leaves o a message then maybe it was important, if not then **** em.

I've done the 'call back and not check voice mail' thing, but that's usually because I JUST missed the call by like 2-5 min. past 5 min i'll listen to the vm.

The worst vm I ever got was form a doctors office. I was getting referred to I think eyes, I forget, and the dude who called me back droned on for like 3 min before finally telling me when the apt was and a number to call back on... seriously some people just have no idea how to leave a message.

OMG Comet Mining idea!!! Comet Mining!

Eve For life.
Unsuccessful At Everything
The Troll Bridge
#16 - 2014-06-27 19:41:59 UTC
DaReaper wrote:
The worst vm I ever got was form a doctors office. I was getting referred to I think eyes, I forget, and the dude who called me back droned on for like 3 min before finally telling me when the apt was and a number to call back on... seriously some people just have no idea how to leave a message.


I always begin and end a message with my call back number and name, and I try to keep messages short and sweet. I find that 15 seconds is the maximum span for attention on voicemails before peoples eyes roll back and they fall over with blood running out of their nose.

The only time I ever leave a droning on and on message is if im doing it to **** someone off, and that is usually to Steve (Alpha Douche) when he ignores me and my emails.. and my thrown objects, and commands from my muffin (all of which are mandatory compliance.).

Since the cessation of their usefulness is imminent, may I appropriate your belongings?
Adunh Slavy
#17 - 2014-06-29 02:29:28 UTC
Hate voice mail, always have. My current work voice mail message is, "I do not listen to voice mail, send me email. Do not attempt to IM me as I am logged on to nearly 20 computers at a time. thank you."

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.  - William Pitt
Gallowmere Rorschach
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#18 - 2014-06-29 21:14:22 UTC
I don't leave voicemails, and in turn, I never check mine.