A few days ago, I was left a voicemail on my cellphone. It sounded like it was a pretty important message. The details are fuzzy because I wasn’t paying enough attention, but it was something like, an apartment was available for rent. The rental manager (or realtor) was calling to let them know.
As I was listening to the message, I thought that if I were the intended recipient, I’d want to know this information and not have it be sent to someone else by mistake.
I was in a quandry. What do I do?*
Let the message go and possibly let the renter lose his place or return the call to let the caller know that the intended recipient didn’t get the message?
What would you do?
Public poll follows.
*it turned out that the caller had also left an email, so I was off the hook.
I have in the past, when I got a new phone number and I got a voicemail about some woman’s upcoming court date, honestly though it probably just depends on the mood I happen to be in at the time, and whether I’m busy.
No, because if they hear my message “Hi, you’ve reached the cell phone of Rhiannon8404…” they should hang up and try their call again. If they still leave a message, that’s their problem.
If someone sounded panicked or very upset, and the message seemed urgent, I might call the back…but that hasn’t happened.
My way of thinking is that if it’s important enough, the caller will call back, hopefully the right number. The same with not leaving a VM, especially now that spoofing numbers is so frequent. You need to get in contact with me, leave me a VM or text me. Those that know me, know I’ll never answer their call unless I’m expecting it.
The only time I’ve had someone call me more than once was an old man. After the first voicemail, I’d answer his call and politely tell him he had the wrong number. And years ago, I had a guy insist that I put his GF on the phone and when I told him he had the wrong number he said I was lying. I hung up and he never called again.
When I was young, I got a call on the home phone with a little kid saying “Help me” quietly and dramatically, then hang up. This was long before *69 and 911. I told my parents and they chalked it up to some kid playing around. I still remember it, but it’s never bothered me.
I said no, but it depends how busy I am. Sometimes I don’t even get around to returning voicemail that was left for me, let alone chasing up other people who are apparently capable of listening to “Hi! You’ve called Carol” without realising that they have a wrong number.
I purposely leave my message at default. Not giving anyone any more info than they need. If it doesn’t click that the automated number message they’re hearing isn’t what they were supposed to dial, that’s their problem.
I have two spare phones (I’m on the $3/month T-Mobile Prepaid plan) for backups and no one has those numbers. Whenever I turn on one of the phones (I use it a MP3 player), there’s always a VM. I never listen to it and just delete it. Too many phone scams going on and I don’t believe in taking any unnecessary chances.
Your post reminded me of another incident. I kept getting calls from the Humane Society in this area. It was a robocall telling me about my pet. I didn’t have a missing pet, so I didn’t answer.
After a few more robocalls, I finally call to let them know they have the wrong number.
I called the number left in the voicemail. A young woman from the Humane Society answers. She sounded completely bewildered and didn’t know what to do. She told me that she would try her best to get me off the robocall list, but she didn’t know how. I had to call back several times to get off the list.
Once or twice in the past that has come up. Pre-caller ID I’d call back if they left a number and let them know they got the wrong person. Now, I’d give one call-back and that’s it.
If it’s on the order of “I waited at the theater but you never showed up, what gives?”, I’m not bothering with relaying it.
On the other hand, if it’s “The lab just notified us that they made a mistake, the kidney isn’t really a match and you need to give your nephrologist a call right away”, I’ll try to make sure the intended recipient knows about it.
I would return the call for both myself and the caller. It will help the caller to reach whoever they intended plus it will make them check their number as they may have it wrong and call me yet again. I see it as both reactive and proactive. I reply to mistaken texts as well.
It turns out my work number is one digit different from the local town court. One morning I got a voicemail about someone who wasn’t able to make his court appearance that day.
I think I’ve done this once or twice. If it’s an important call for someone, it’s just a little bit of paying it forward. In the OP’s case, it’s not terribly important to the original caller, but could be very important to the person they were trying to reach, so it’s not likely that the mistaken caller is going to figure out they called the wrong number on their own.
That assumes I heard the voice mail to begin with, and I’m not terribly good at that these days.
There is a fellow not far from me that delivers fire wood. I used to use him a lot. His first name is the same as mine (that I have on my answering machine) and his phone number is one digit different. So, yeah, I get calls for firewood delivery. I call the people back to let them know they got the wrong guy. Why wouldn’t I?
I used to get VM from a person whose name was eerily similar to a relative but wasn’t her.
I finally called to find out if the caller was a distant relative (she wasn’t) and to correct the number.
The poll’s answers did not reflect my opinion on the subject.
One-time mistakes, no.
When it becomes a nuisance, yes.
If it seemed particularly urgent, I would.
Since we stopped paying for landlines, I have very rarely received any mistaken VM or texts, so it hasn’t been an issue in years.
Among the ones I’ve called back have been a situation where someone was being contacted about housing finally being available. I don’t know if it ever got worked out, but at least there’s a chance for that happening where if I hadn’t called back, there wouldn’t have been.
Does this include my office phone? If so, I find myself doing this a few times a week. Not so much for the dunderhead who didn’t listen to my outgoing message which says "if you’re trying to reach “" (my extension is one digit different from another dept.'s), please hang up and dial "”, but for the client who’s waiting for the info.
If it was my personal phone, it would depend on the nature of the message.As Rhiannon8404points out, they should be able to tell from my recording that they’ve got the wrong number. But, if it sounded like an elderly person or someone in distress I’d contact them.
If I get a late night message “Jay, look in the yard. You’re dog is dead. You got 12 hours or you and that Lansing girl are next!” I’d probably return it.