It's a wrong number, get over it!

[Magpie]

For a while in highschool I never left messages for my friends. Basically I could never remember which of them would dream of calling me back, so this way I never waited for someone who couldn't be bothered to call me back to do so. Yeah, I really don't get the logic myself anymore.

EricKei - are you sure they're listening to the whole message? My machine will record a hang up message even if the person hangs up immediately upon the machine picking up.

[EricKei]

Well, on my answering machine at least, yes. If they hang up prematurely, the unit does not even mark it as a call nor record anything. I was talking about times where I get a 2-second recording of them breathing into the handset, followed by the sound of it clattering down (or a cellphone beep)

[Jules Of All Trades]

Along the same lines are the people who can't be arsed to check their voicemail/machine and just dial you back demanding to know what you wanted.

My project right now involves swapping out PCs for people at a huge company. We do anywhere from 25-60 a day, and I have to call every.single.one. of these people when their PC is done letting them know the new one is on the way.

When I'm making my rounds of calls, I hate it when I number I just left a message on (or better yet - am in the middle of leaving a message for) calls me back. There's no way in hell they had time to check their messages, they're just being lazy. Most of the time I ignore them and let them check their voicemail to see what I wanted.

Last week I got irritated and answered, it went something like this:

Me: "PC Trade Up - this is Jules"
SC: "This number just called me"
Me: "Oh?"
SC: "Well, did you?"
Me: "Yes...and this "number" just left you a message too"
SC: "Oh....."

*silence*
*silence*
*silence*

Me: *in that sickly sweet voice* "Well if you have any questions after you check your messages let me know!"

Irritates me to no end...

[draftermatt]

Along the same lines are the people who can't be arsed to check their voicemail/machine and just dial you back demanding to know what you wanted.

I hate that, but I hate when I'll call and leave a voicemail at 9 AM, they call me back at 1 PM and "didn't know I left them a message"

So in 4 hours your phone never said "new voicemail" what's wrong with your service?

[HYHYBT]

So: why do you hate getting called back so soon, so much? Obviously, if you haven't even finished leaving the voicemail yet, the person you called can't possibly know that you even *are* leaving one. What they do know is this: "1 Missed Call: 706-335-3760." That's it. Sure, you *might* be leaving one, but then again, you might not, and if you do, sometimes it doesn't show up right away.

I'm not saying it can't be annoying, but why is it such a big deal to you?

[Jules Of All Trades]

I'm not saying it can't be annoying, but why is it such a big deal to you?

You have a point in saying that the person may not know I'm leaving a message...but I think it's extremely rude to call someone back (no matter how much later they see my missed call) with "yeah...this number called me?" rather than checking messages to see if the "missed call" actually needed something first.

It's possible that I mis-dialed and obviously don't need a call back, or that everything they need to know is in the voicemail I left them. If they can't be bothered to check, then I have to repeat the exact same (and extremely detailed) information I've already left for them, and with the volume of calls I make on a daily basis it's gets really irritating really fast. My messages are detailed and friendly, and I always leave my number at the end if they have any questions/concerns.

I never call any random number back from my "missed calls" list that doesn't leave a message. If they don't leave me a message I assume they either changed their mind about needing me or dialed a wrong number. I honestly think it's rude when people call me with the "you called me?" or "this number called my phone" greetings. It seems curt, discourteous, and 9.999 times out of 10 could be avoided if they just checked their voicemail.

Maybe it's just me...my cell phone doubles as my work phone so I find things like this to be over-the-top annoying.

[HYHYBT]

Ah, but you're unusual. Most people don't leave a long, detailed message that would mean not having to call you back. The ones I get are, very nearly without fail, nothing more than "Hi, this is soandso, can you call me back?" anyway. Content-wise, anyway; some people take a remarkably long time to say so little. That much I knew already from the caller ID.

[Jay 2K Winger]

What's weirder is when you get random calls on your cell phone for someone else, and they leave a voice-mail for them.

That happened to me recently. For a couple of days, I kept getting calls for "John." My name is not "John," it sounds nothing like "John." The people who were calling him (who all seemed to be trying to hook up with John for clubbing or parties or something) all apologized when they realized they dialed the wrong number, even when they just dialed me back up again.

Them: "Hey, John?"
J2K: "Nope, you got me again."
Them: "Ah, sorry."

Then a couple weeks later, my phone buzzes while I'm at work (I have it set on vibrate while on the clock), and I get a voice-mail. On my break, I check the voice-mail (in case it was a prospective employer calling me about my resume), but it's for John! Asking him where he is, since it was apparently time to go out clubbing or something.

I just don't understand that. My voice-mail message even states "Hi, you've reached the voice-mail of <My Real Name>" at the start, and as we've established, my name sounds nothing like "John."

I deleted the message and went about my business, and haven't gotten any more strange calls from John's posse.

[infinitemonkies]

I get that a lot at the hotel:

"Yeah, someone just called me from this number..."
(Side rant: Y'know that part where you don't know who I am? I don't know who you are, howsabout trying "My name is ****, did someone call me?"')

"Ok, this is a hotel. Ive got about 65 rooms occupied right now, all of which will show this number on a call display, and no way of telling which one called you." (That's actually not true, but with our crappy software I have to check the phone logs for each room one by one, and unless I'm really bored or it's a 911 matter, I won't.)

Even worse, at least once a week I'll get one of these calls, only it will be:
"Yeah, someone called my number at 2pm on Tuesday..."
"Dude, its now 3:30am Sunday night, let it go."

Personally, if I missed a call from and unknown number, and they don't leave a message, I assume it's a wrong number and forget about it.



Also, wtf is with people not comprehending when they've dialed a wrong number?
As I've mentioned, a major US hospital sent out all their billing for the month of march with a typo on their toll-free line. I had something like 1400 calls for them throughout the month, and every single one of them I answered saying "<Hotel name,> <Hotel location,> Infinitemonkies speaking."
Not one caller said anything along the lines of "Oh dear, I seemed to have dialed the wrong number." Instead, every single one of them asked to be put through to the hospital billing dept.

[blas]

I just finally got voicemail....didn't realize I could set it up myself, I was always convinced I had to drag arse down to AT&T with my mom (since she's the main person on our plan) and get it set up.

Anyway, since then, NOT ONE SINGLE unknown number has called me.....I know a few weeks ago I was wishing they'd never call again, but now I don't have to Google every number that calls me that I don't know to track them.

Well, I take it back....I did get ONE message from an unknown number, but I had to set up my voicemail to listen to it.......hence why I did it.....and it was some telemarketing bullshit from Best Buy. Oh was I pissed.