The trend of ansaphone messages being ignored

[Buzz84]

I actually get annoyed at the opposite, I have a perfectly good voicemail on my mobile if I miss people ringing for whatever reason yet no one ever seems to leave a message.

[ClockworkDog]

ambuletz said:

I hate voicemail personally. IMO it's a chore to have to call it and sit and listen to the entire message, sometimes listening to it 2-3 times if someone is giving you details too quickly. If your business is able IMO if you are able to use text messages instead then do that. They'll never miss it and can read it thousands of times over.

Exactly. It's a chore to listen back, especially as the robot voicemail slowly reads back the number who has just called as if I remember everyone's number in my phone book. I can see I have a missed call - I'll call you back! There is no need for a lengthy message just to say "call me back" at the end of it. I will, but without wasting my time listening to you asking me to!

[funkyrobot]

We have an answerphone on our house phone. The messages we end up with consist of cold callers (PPI, boiler grants, smart meter calls etc.), the odd one from my mother in law talking to it, and the odd one (bizarrely) for our neighbour from someone called Colin.

In the last few weeks though our house insurance has come up for renewal. The current provider (who we are moving away from) has left us over 20 messages. Really, really annoying. I'm due to call them today to tell them we won't be renewing with them. I'll also tell them to stop the stupid phone calls.

I don't have voicemail on my mobile as it's a waste of time too. If anyone wants me, they'll call me back if I miss the original call.

[anonymous-user]

boyse7en said:

Interesting set of replies.

What they show is that everyone expects the other person to make all the effort and to put no effort in to it themselves, and that you have to contact them using the particular technology they demand, or you will not get a reply.

The days of a universal communication system are pretty much gone. You will have to send a message by multiple methods - SMS, Whatsapp, Messenger, Kik etc - and hope that at least one gets through the recipient's self-imposed message filter system.

not really.

People might not send SMS messages but they'll read them, so unless it's a landline that's the easiest and more universal way and doesn't have to be dealt with straight away if they're busy.

[funkyrobot]

Buzz84 said:

I actually get annoyed at the opposite, I have a perfectly good voicemail on my mobile if I miss people ringing for whatever reason yet no one ever seems to leave a message.

It has it's uses for work stuff. However, pretty much everyone who used to ring me on my work mobile at my old job never left a message.

[Slushbox]

It's getting harder to contact people directly. Phone calls ignored/blocked by 'Not in your contacts list'/TrueCaller type apps, SMS ignored/blocked/lost in maze of waffle, spam and tripe messages. Skype regarded as unfashionable by many yoofs. Voice calls only used by grandmothers. Friends all on different apps; Whatsapp/Line/FB messenger/Signal/Viber/Telegram; none of which I use, making me the oddball.

Email just gets ignored by a lot of clients (might contain a virus) or takes four days for them to reply after wading through the backlog of spam in their inbox.

So I just send an SMS now, but people/clients have moaned because 'it's intrusive' and interrupts them at work.

Text the bds. Let them deal with the intrusion into their busy digital lives . :-)

[CraigyMc]

boyse7en said:

What they show is that everyone expects the other person to make all the effort and to put no effort in to it themselves, and that you have to contact them using the particular technology they demand, or you will not get a reply.

If it's a company contacting me as in the OP, then yes, I do expect them to make the effort.

I'm the customer and ultimately will be paying them for their work, including the time spent dealing with me.

I routinely avoid buying stuff/dealing with companies that don't communicate with me in the way I want. I'm sure other customers work the same way.

[Gad-Westy]

Yipper said:

Yes, this is the "I am more more important than you" generation, so the onus is always on the caller and how desperately they want to contact the self-important recipient.

Blame the endless bombardment of nuisance calling from the PPI and ambulance chaser brigade.

[PAULJ5555]

I have just invented the solution to the problem, an app on your phone where it gives you the option to replay your answer message when they ring you back to remind you why you called them or even play the message to them before it rings your phone.

Now off to Dragons Den and don't forget me when your a squidilllionaire.

[droopsnoot]

I've disabled voicemail on my mobile because it's PAYG and costs me to retrieve them, and leaving it enabled suggests to the caller that I'm going to listen to their message and call them back. But I've still got a note on the screen saying "new voicemail messages", and I can't get rid of it without re-enabling it, calling it, and listening to it. I don't understand how it got there in the first place, with it being disabled and all that.

And yesterday, I got a call from an 0843 number that I don't recognise, but went to answer it anyway, only for it to tell me that I don't have enough credit to complete the call. It's got no balance currently (as I had to spend it all phoning a company who hadn't, and still haven't, replied to an email that I sent them enquiring about prices and so on, another annoying thing) but I don't see why I need balance for someone else to call me.

[Slushbox]

PAULJ5555 said:

I have just invented the solution to the problem, an app on your phone where it gives you the option to replay your answer message when they ring you back to remind you why you called them or even play the message to them before it rings your phone.

Now off to Dragons Den and don't forget me when your a squidilllionaire.

:-). We have too many electronic 'messages' to be of any use. My Windows Phone (spit) is hooked into an Outlook account. Microsoft now scan all my emails and adds Calendar events to inform me of Amazon deliveries. So the $%£€-ing phone wakes me up at three AM to tell me the £1.20 USB lead, delivered by the postman yesterday, is scheduled for delivery today.

So I put the phone on Do Not Disturb and miss text message from Loved One saying she's broken down fifteen miles away. Her phoning me is out of the question, for some reason.

Grrrr.

[Rude-boy]

Hainey said:

On my phone message I actually say

'Don't leave a message as I dont listen to them. If you know me you'll WhatsApp me. Bye'

Had that on for a few years now.

This works well.

I need to get my Mrs to do similar as her voicemails usually only lets her know she has a voicemail to listen to 3 weeks after it was left...

I don't answer calls with withheld numbers or that i don't know as a rule. If i am expecting a delivery then obviously I will keep a look out for them.

If the number has been withheld, no abnormal 3rd party contact is expected, and there is no voicemail then 99% certain it will be telesales or similar.

If number is shown then Who called me is consulted and the number either called back or added to auto reject...

[designforlife]

I think its fairly normal behaviour these days, with the proliferation of junk calls.

I only answer the phone if it's a number I recognise..and rarely listen to answerphone messages. If it's a number I know, i'll just return the call.

I never leave answerphone messages either, just ring off and try again later.

[romeogolf]

I'm with the OP on this. I pick up any call I receive and always listen to voicemails. I never call back a missed call unless I know who it is or why they might be calling - I assume if it's important they'll leave a message. Calling my voicemail takes minutes out of my allowance, but 30 seconds or so isn't going to break the bank.

My other half ignores any call from an unrecognised number, he never makes out-going calls either preferring to use online chat functions where they exist or just 'out sourcing' the call to me...

A lot of people complain about being bombarded with nuisance calls, but my method is just to block the number the first time I get one and stop future calls from that number. I get very, very few calls. Perhaps two or three times in a year at most so perhaps it's because I'm not being bombarded, but then I also feel people have a responsibility to ensure they protect their details and don't provide their number willy-nilly. I say this as someone who has been involved in three car accidents in the last 3 years and has never had a "we heard you had an accident" call.

So yes, in short, I get irritated by people who ignore voicemails or who expect me to call them back when all I have is a missed call from a number I don't recognise.

[jamescodriver]

Had the same issues, the one thing we do now is leave Name / company / number - for some reason its gets us a better call back rate than a long winded message on an ansaphone, just a very short sharp message,

But in the main, people dont reply or answer calls to mobiles from numbers they dont know..

[Rude-boy]

Slushbox said:

So I put the phone on Do Not Disturb and miss text message from Loved One saying she's broken down fifteen miles away. Her phoning me is out of the question, for some reason.

Grrrr.

I have a simple solution to this problem.

If i need to know that someone has seen a message i will send it via Whatsapp or will call them if they have not replied within an appropriate timescale.

If you need me urgently, and you are someone i would take an urgent communication from, you will know at least 2 or 3 other ways of contacting me (or at the very least you would know and have the details of people who do) and if you are not bothered to chase up an unanswered voicemail/email/text/etc then it obviously wasn't that urgent was it?

[Morningside]

Back in the early days we had a work answerphone on a dedicated line. It was some awesome thing with twin tapes and great 1970s wooden look.

There would be at least 40 - 50 messages in the morning asking us to post a demo of the business software. I would say that 10 of those were muffled or they would hang up on the last digit of the phone number. The worse ones were "Thisismrsmithofsurrey10highstreet" with zero gaps as if we needed to save some recording space.

But I do agree, many times I have left clear messages for them to totally ignore them. I lost out on a car due to this.

[Rude-boy]

Morningside said:

But I do agree, many times I have left clear messages for them to totally ignore them. I lost out on a car due to this.

Been there, done that. Seller had advertised car replied to e-mail asking to telephone number to call and discuss (wanted to check a few facts before sorting out 100+ mile drive to see to do a visual before buying) but phone never answered and voice mails ignored. Texted to say had tried to call and got a reply saying that they would call later when free.

Nothing.

Chase again 3 days later to be told that they had sold the car to someone else as i had not been in touch.

Not happy but what can you do. Even less happy as it turns out it was a mint car and so i would have bought it there and then and also said car has now gone up about £10k on average over the last 3 years...

[Long Drax]

Is it a sex shop?

[P-Jay]

Whilst I think we all applaud the care and attention the OP puts into his Voicemails, sadly he seems at odds with the pace of the modern world.

I'm not sure why, but in 2017 people find voicemails intrusive.

Open an account with Fast SMS, write a few standard SMSs and away you go. It's just what consumers expect these days. It seems odd to me too, I've always seen SMS / WhatsApp as a thing you use with mates and loved ones, but in business we call and leave voicemails, but I get texts all the time, I get some from the no-nonsense, all business CTO of one of our clients, he does at least avoid TXT Speak.