Anyone else hate checking voice mails?
I will call the person back instead of listening to the voice mail . . . is this weird?

6/24/2009 10:33:35 PM

dude

take a vacation

6/24/2009 10:34:04 PM

I'm the same way, I understand if there is an important message but I'll call most people back without the "hey its me, give me a call" pointless message

6/24/2009 10:34:55 PM

^^HAHA inorite

6/24/2009 10:37:48 PM

i do it!!! i call people back instead of listening to voicemails. i don't know what it is.

6/24/2009 10:41:20 PM

I always get a sick feeling in my stomach when one of my parents call at odd times.... Like I see a call from my dad at 3pm on a random weekday.. I just know someone has died

6/24/2009 10:50:20 PM

I don't know either!
I don't know if I think it's going to be some sort of bad news? or something I need to take care of right away?
It's odd. Glad to know others share it

6/24/2009 10:51:19 PM

I know multiple people who do this. I've simply quit leaving voice mails since I know people will call back without listening to them . . .


Them: "Hey man whats up?"
Me: "Not much, so what do you think?"
Them: "About what"
Me: "About the fucking voice mail I left you jackass! Fucking call me back when you've listened

Of course, I don't pick up when they call back and then call them without checking it myself

6/24/2009 10:51:49 PM

if i see a missed call from my parents or close friends, i call back

if it's from a person i don't speak to on the regular, i listen to the voicemail

6/24/2009 10:56:23 PM

Actually I'm the reverse. I can't stand making the voicemail greeting. At work, we gotta change the greeting on our voicemail so people know when we're gone or out of the office (everyone has very independent job roles). I swear I fuck up no less than 3 or 4 times each time I try to say all the shit that HR required to be in the greeting.

6/24/2009 10:57:33 PM

^^^we just want you to repeat yourself

^I do this too when changing the on-call message or whatever. I can have the thing written in front of me and I will still get tongue-tied.


[Edited on June 24, 2009 at 11:01 PM. Reason : carrots]

6/24/2009 10:58:15 PM

checking email was once an enjoyable experience...no longer

6/24/2009 11:12:06 PM

checking voicemail is a MUCH more enjoyable experience thanks to the iPhone and Google Voice

voicemail transcription ftw

6/25/2009 1:14:46 AM

evan

6/25/2009 1:15:41 AM

wdprice3

6/25/2009 1:20:53 AM

YTMND!

6/25/2009 1:21:21 AM

i only return phone calls if the person leaves a message. and "hey its me call me back" is not an acceptable message. i rarely get these anyway. i do this because i get a lot of in the moment calls where someone calls because they're looking for an answer to a question and by the time i call them back they already figured it out. so i figure if that wasnt the case, they'll call back and leave a vm if i dont answer again

the only person who i call back without vm is the bf, he doesn't leave me vm and i dont leave him vm, see a missed call, call back, its easy.

6/25/2009 2:48:55 AM

Visual Voicemail FTW!!! (But really, I hate checking voicemails too, except when it's from certain people letting me know they are thinking about me!!)

6/25/2009 3:26:15 AM

Quote :

"Them: "Hey man whats up?" Me: "Not much, so what do you think?" Them: "About what" Me: "About the fucking voice mail I left you jackass! Fucking call me back when you've listened"

6/25/2009 7:08:34 AM

The only thing I can't stand are the 5+ minute voice mails. People who leave them... you know who you are.

6/25/2009 7:14:52 AM

^haha, well it's a different story if it's a drunk voicemail, i like listening to those

6/25/2009 7:21:21 AM

^^ I've done this before. Not quite 5 minutes, but brevity is not my strong point. I'll go through a full detailed readout of what happened out in the field (which is usually the only reason I'd leave a voicemail, because I'm not in the office) and how certain tests went and whatever interesting info the contractor decided to give me while I was there. Usually my boss would just call me back and I'd repeat the voicemail verbatim, hahaha.

Also, I tend not to have voicemail anxiety, but I'm still a bit iffy about cold calling. Got a lot better with it since I had to do it when I worked for a contractor, but there's still some things I hate to call unknown folks about.

6/25/2009 7:27:00 AM

i'm with you on this one, ashley

6/25/2009 8:04:45 AM

i fucking hate voicemail. it takes too damn long to check. you have to call your number, put in the code, hit 1, listen, delete it. much easier to just look at the missed call number and hit the green button

but i still check them anyway

6/25/2009 8:06:20 AM

^that is part of the problem which is why i agree with whomever above that stated it was one time enjoyable but no longer.

they build up too quickly and are never about anything fun or even important at this stage in my life.

Quote :

"The only thing I can't stand are the 5+ minute voice mails. People who leave them... you know who you are. "

i hate this too. on this same level i hate when someone calls (my mom) and says that they need me to call them back as soon as possible because they need to discuss something important and then when I call its about if I might like a new area rug for my birthday (months out) because she saw one at the store and doesn't want it gone.

6/25/2009 9:19:01 AM

kevin james has a good stand up routine about this. I'm at work or else i'd post it but "kevin james voicemail" should get you a couple good hits on youtube.

6/25/2009 9:23:11 AM

i hate voicemail. i can see that you called, so i will call you back. my mom is the worst. she'll call and be like "ummm yeah well i needed to ask you about the.....photographer and well we need to set a time for an appointment.......tuesday won't work for me and uh....well just call me back!"

wtf woman. she has these lloonnng pauses between every couple of words, never fully explains anything, then just says call me back. everytime. i told her to quit leaving such long messages or just don't leave one at all unless it's an emergency and she doesn't have time to wait for me to call back. my brother told her this too.

but i'm getting an iphone next week so visual voicemail ftw

6/25/2009 9:24:03 AM

i want an iphone.

plans are too damn expensive.

i can't warrant spending 1200 a year on that service.

6/25/2009 9:26:17 AM

it's a business phone which is for personal use also

working for dad ftw but i'm not the only one who gets that perk. both bosses and 5 other people get the same benefit.

our current bill with verizon is $650 a month. switching to at&t will save us about $200 a month (minus cost of phones).

you could get away with $900/year at the cheapest with an iphone & personal plan.

[Edited on June 25, 2009 at 9:36 AM. Reason : ]

6/25/2009 9:35:22 AM

Quote :

"i fucking hate voicemail. it takes too damn long to check. you have to call your number, put in the code, hit 1, listen, delete it."

It's like a two step process on any modern phone.

6/25/2009 9:44:17 AM

I did not realize anxiety over checking voicemail was a common thing. I don't have any problems with that, but I hate leaving someone a message. If I'm calling someone where I should leave a message if they don't pick up, I feel compelled to kinda practice what I would say if I did have to leave one. You think I'd just be used to sounding like a retard by now and get over that, but no.

6/25/2009 9:49:31 AM

Quote :

"It's like a two step process on any modern phone."

i just typed out the process it takes on my cell phone

it's more than 2 steps

6/25/2009 9:50:51 AM

Well your phone sucks and you suck too

6/25/2009 9:53:30 AM

please tell me the steps taken to check voicemail on your modern phone, sir

6/25/2009 10:08:23 AM

Quote :

"I did not realize anxiety over checking voicemail was a common thing. I don't have any problems with that, but I hate leaving someone a message."

exactly what i thought? how the hell do you get anxiety when checking a voicemail? you can listen to the first 3 seconds and know if it's important or not, and then quickly press delete and not think twice. i dont think anxiety is the right word here.


now anxiety before leaving a voicemail...i can agree with. I especially get it at work when i'm about to speak to someone on the phone i've never spoken to before. Then when their voicemail picks up i usually get nervous and totally jumble up the message i was trying to convey. usually once i've heard their voice a few times and spoken to them its fine. however, there are still some people in my business that are hard to talk to because they sound like assholes 100% of the time.

6/25/2009 10:09:04 AM

I only hate it when I know it's from a bill collector.

6/25/2009 10:10:20 AM

Quote :

"please tell me the steps taken to check voicemail on your modern phone, sir"

Hold W key, wait, listen. Press 7 to delete.

6/25/2009 10:10:25 AM

Quote :

"now anxiety before leaving a voicemail...i can agree with. I especially get it at work when i'm about to speak to someone on the phone i've never spoken to before. Then when their voicemail picks up i usually get nervous and totally jumble up the message i was trying to convey. usually once i've heard their voice a few times and spoken to them its fine. however, there are still some people in my business that are hard to talk to because they sound like assholes 100% of the time."

this is 100% me. especially being the dumb snot-nosed intern.

6/25/2009 10:11:04 AM

I am so used to making cold calls that leaving messages doesn't bother me. I typically don't leave voicemails though, because people hardly ever call sales guys back.

6/25/2009 10:18:20 AM

I, too, am afraid to listen to voicemails.

6/25/2009 12:36:15 PM

who is your service with and what kinda phone do you have ernie?

that sounds wonderful

6/25/2009 12:38:19 PM

no one leaves voicemail anymore (non-work calls), if they call and i don't pick up, they'll text usually. in fact people don't really call anymore in general, its all texting.

i hate leaving voicemails because it feels weird talking to myself. what ends up happening is i'll say the same sentence like 3 times at different areas of the message, and then realize i sound completely retarded, attempt to think up something witty to recover, and end up just failing.

6/25/2009 12:39:02 PM

I dont check voicemails until I have at least 5 or 6 backed up-- take that incoming callers!

6/25/2009 12:41:03 PM

I fucking hate texting.

6/25/2009 12:42:07 PM

i hated it until i got dat 190% qwerty keyboard

6/25/2009 12:44:14 PM

i stopped listening to voicemails completely around 2004. unless I am expecting a message or want to hear my nephew's happy birthday song to me

i guess at some point they stopped being "HEY DUDE LETS PLAY LOL" messages and turned into "GIVE ME $$$ I KILL YOU"

6/25/2009 12:45:38 PM

Quote :

"if i see a missed call from my parents or close friends, i call back if it's from a person i don't speak to on the regular, i listen to the voicemail"

I have an irrational fear of answering calls of numbers I don't know. No clue why.

6/25/2009 12:47:17 PM

I leave voicemails when I call my girlfriend and she doesn't answer. She calls me back without listening to the voice mail. This has been going on for nearly two years and I still can't make myself stop leaving them *just in case* they get listened to.

But at least they provide information, usually. A friend of mine will in almost all cases leave "hey, it's xxxxxx, call me back". That provides no information whatsoever, since I can see from the missed call who it was. That type of message is unnecessary.

[Edited on June 25, 2009 at 1:09 PM. Reason : k]

6/25/2009 1:08:16 PM

i do this because i just dont feel like listening to the voice mail, its quicked just to call them back

6/25/2009 1:33:55 PM

^yeah, but eventually you have to listen to the voicemail to get the notification off your phone

6/25/2009 1:36:26 PM