Voicemail is for dinosaurs?

[ronandannette]

I've apparently been alive a long time. I've lived with a rotary-dial party line, having multiple extensions of the phone in different rooms, an answering machine with a little cassette tape, primitive cell phones with no display, home phone with a call display and voice mail as extra paid services, a flip phone that you had to scroll through the number pad to type each letter, to bring us to present day - a smart phone and a land-line I virtually never use.

Returning voicemail promptly is a big part of my job - I pretty much never take a call in real-time. We use text widely to communicate amongst staff but never to communicate with customers. E-mail is the #1 preferred method of business communication both incoming and outgoing.

Personally, I pretty much never listen to the voicemails that accumulate on my home phone. If it's not spam it's from my doctor's or dentist's office and I've corrected my preferred number in their files a million times - not sure why they keep calling. I will occasionally listen to voicemail on my cell but usually just text or call back the person if I recognize who they are. I always reply to texts.

Our DS has never developed the habit of actually talking on a telephone. I can't remember the last time he picked up a call of mine. No point leaving a voicemail because he'll just text back "what did you call for??" rather than listening to the message.

 

[MI mom of 3]

As an elementary school secretary it makes my blood boil when I call parents because little Festus is sick or worse hurt (3 broken arms so far this school year) and they not only do not answer the phone but their voice mail is not set up and I can not leave a message. I just have to hope they see the number, appreciate the urgency and call back because I have moved on to calling grandparents and whatever family friends they have on their list. Please set up your voicemails if you have children in school.

 

[gotomu212]

As an elementary school secretary it makes my blood boil when I call parents because little Festus is sick or worse hurt (3 broken arms so far this school year) and they not only do not answer the phone but their voice mail is not set up and I can not leave a message. I just have to hope they see the number, appreciate the urgency and call back because I have moved on to calling grandparents and whatever family friends they have on their list. Please set up your voicemails if you have children in school.

Not to be dumb, but even if they did have vm setup wouldn’t you move on to grandparents/next emergency contact if you didn’t get an answer?

Our son’s school sends a text/email/call to both parents if there’s a problem. It always reminds us of the Office episode with ruff.com when they need to get us because all the devises light up.

 

[MI mom of 3]

Yes I do move on but without VM I cannot let them know why I called. I do not have access to texting them unless I use my personal phone and that is not going to happen.

We only use the text/email/call option from the principal or superintendent for school messages, reminders of upcoming half days, etc

There is no school nurse so I am trying to take care of the child and run the regular office business while making as many phone calls as it takes to get ahold of someone.

 

[BadPinkTink]

We only use the text/email/call option from the principal or superintendent for school messages, reminders of upcoming half days, etc

sounds like the school policies and procedures need to be updated. When the people you are trying to contact are not using the communications channel you are using, its time to move to a new communications channel.

 

[disneychrista]

When I changed providers last January I didn't even think about my voice mail because I was using the same phone, so figured it was already set up. Thank goodness my daughter had called and discovered it wasn't set up, as I was job hunting and voice mail being set up was kind of important.

 

[tvguy]

sounds like the school policies and procedures need to be updated. When the people you are trying to contact are not using the communications channel you are using, its time to move to a new communications channel.

LOL. Or the PARENTS need to provide the school with a number/method that they can be reached at in an emergency.

 

[LSUmiss]

I didn’t set mine up for almost a year after I got my latest phone plan. It seems no one ever left a message, they would call and if I didn’t answer they would then text “call me when you can.” It seemed to involved to set it up, not like years back when it was as simple as record a message, I simply didn’t worry about taking the time to do it.
ETA- I’m a Gen X’er

This is me & same generation. I can’t stand when someone leaves me a voicemail that just says call me!

 

[tvguy]

I am 42 and I don't have voice mail set up on my phone. I do return missed calls if I recognize the number (typically if their name shows up because they are in my contacts) and if it is someone I want to talk to. I rarely get calls on my phone unless my husband or kids need something, and I always answer their calls unless I am driving..

Everyone in my family including me has our number blocked, so there is no number displayed.
I have that issue at work because Police Departments, Fire Departments, Hospitals and a lot of major corporations have the inside extension numbers blocked. Some, like my work, display the main number, and people will call back and say THEN "I had a missed call from this number". ME: " We have 120 employees here, I have no idea who called you". THEM:" Well, they left a VM but I never check that". ME:"Well check the $%### voicemail, and you would know who called"

 

[gotomu212]

LOL. Or the PARENTS need to provide the school with a number/method that they can be reached at in an emergency.

But this isn’t a new problem. Before cell phones and answering machines schools always had to deal with contacting parents. Even with cell phones and vms some people are not always 100% accessible 24/7. That’s why you have alternative contacts. If the goal really ways having a more efficient way for schools to contact parents I agree schooos need to evolve.

Although I understand your viewpoint since your tv station has he most bizarre communication practices I have ever heard and seem so completely different from my friends who work in our local news.

 

[Southernmiss]

Couldn't the school office have a remind # for the secretary to add and subtract parent numbers to use?

If my little church can text people using a computer, certainly a school can implement a method to do so.

And so could tv guys place of employment.

 

[Scifidiner]

Personally I think the “smart” phone is the tool of the devil. Yeah I have one but I don’t particularly care for it. Texting is the modern day equivalent of the telegraph to me, IMO. I get the whole convenience aspect, but it seems like an excuse not to actually talk to someone. As a rule I don’t text, by the time you text what you want and factor in the confusion/misinterpretation factor it’s faster to call. As far as voicemail is concerned I have one. If I don’t recognize the # I let it go to voicemail, this enables me to screen the junk out.

 

[starry_solo]

Voice mails: have them at work, on cell phone, on landline at home (although that's still the old-fashioned answering machine but now doesn't need a cassette tape!)

Good to have and keep those messages from friends/family. I have a friend who saved all the voice mails his mom left him over the years on his cell phone. He kept it after his mom passed. Verizon eventually send him a CD with all the voice mails so they could delete it from their servers. I do the same - I keep all the voice mails from both parents. So, eventually, I'm sure Verizon will do the same

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Ha, I spent an hour in chat with AT&T the other day because my voicemail randomly stopped working. I have Visual Voicemail so more often than not I’m reading it vs. listening to it. When my kids aren’t at school I send calls from the school right to VM and read them later. My Dad always leaves a VM. Our family typically texts so if someone calls it’s most likely important so I like VM for that. I will send a “hey, call me” text as well. FWIW my oldest is 22 and she and her friends use VM. She let me know the other day that my younger kids weren’t set up because she tried to leave them one. (their phones seem to have the same bug mine did)

Call me an old fogey but I’m not maintaining a bunch of chat services. If you want to get ahold of me your best bet is to text me using my number.

At work, we used Skype & now Teams for video conferencing. A handful of people insist on trying to use these same services for messaging within the company, but several of us have refused to set it up. When asked what advantage it has over e-mail, they just get a blank stare. Okay, since we HAVE to have e-mail & Teams doesn’t provide anything new, I’m not using it. Period.

I generally dislike phones, so not a huge fan of voicemail, But it has its place and both of my teen daughters have it set up on their phones. But, if you’re going to leave me a voice mail, it’d better not be “call me” and nothing else. Because I won’t.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We have a voicemail. On our landline that has a telephone number that's been in use for 30 years. I *looooathe* cell phones. I only have a cheap flip phone that I use only for calling someone at home (on the landline) to say I'm ready to be picked up, or whatever.

 

[ronandannette]

Couldn't the school office have a remind # for the secretary to add and subtract parent numbers to use?

If my little church can text people using a computer, certainly a school can implement a method to do so.

And so could tv guys place of employment.

Agree! I remember oh, maybe about 8 or 10 years ago, when our work phones were almost all flip-phones, we mostly all used our laptops to compose and send SMS messages. There has to be a way. And I'd also wonder, if in a pinch, why one of the school administrators wouldn't bite the bullet and send a text from their own phone? Seems like the right thing to do if a little kid is in the back of an ambulance and his parents haven't been reached.

 

[RedAngie]

I'm a dinosaur, so I still use voice mail. Mostly for work.

 

[disykat]

I'm kind of amazed/appalled that people expect schools to spend the time and money to revamp their entire communication system when people still have the ability to get phone calls and emails. Text is just one way of communicating - the other ways haven't disappeared. And why on earth does a frustration that parents want texts and that's not something we can do from our system turn into "a kid is in the back of the ambulance and no one would send a text from their own phone." Really?

Along with refusing to listen to voice mails I'm always surprised by the number of people who won't read emails.

 

[wenrob]

Personally I think the “smart” phone is the tool of the devil. Yeah I have one but I don’t particularly care for it. Texting is the modern day equivalent of the telegraph to me, IMO. I get the whole convenience aspect, but it seems like an excuse not to actually talk to someone. As a rule I don’t text, by the time you text what you want and factor in the confusion/misinterpretation factor it’s faster to call. As far as voicemail is concerned I have one. If I don’t recognize the # I let it go to voicemail, this enables me to screen the junk out.

Before texting was a mainstream thing I avoided phone calls. I’d let them go to the machine and more often than not forget to return the phone call. Texting keeps communication flowing and I don’t have to remember to text back because I do it immediately.

What confusion/misinterpretation? With today’s phones “text speak” is unnecessary and most people don’t use it anymore. I tend to ask those that still do to use their big girl/boy words. Unless I have three paragraphs worth of things to say texting is much quicker and receives an almost immediate response with the added bonus of being able to leave a discrete message for my DH/DD at work or kids at school without interrupting what they’re doing with a ringing phone.

 

[Kitty 34]

This Dinosaur, here, is asking (and nooooooo snickering behind my back guys!!) is voicemail the same as what is on my answering machine via landline??