# Not listening to voice mail even when you don't recognize the number **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 12, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801 "2015-09-12T13:51:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/21 "2015-09-13T21:09:11Z")
I think there’s a huge difference in various folks’ experience with phone spam. I’m far from a social butterfly, so I don’t get lots of calls from friends and family. But I also only get about 2 spam phone calls per _month_. Even if that’s 10% of the calls I get all month it’s hardly sensible to make 18 legit calls a bunch more work for both of us just to avoid hearing “Hi I’m Rachel …” twice. BFD; Rachel’s not so bad. It’s not hard to answer every call & deal with it now. Lots of books on being an effective worker say to never handle a piece of info twice. Handle it once and dispose of it. That means answer it when it rings; not choose to not answer, then check VM, then be annoyed at needing to check VM, then deal with it, then delete the VM, etc. Conversely, if for some reason you’re in a condition where your phone rings with a spam call every 20 minutes it sure makes a lot more sense to treat your phone as an outgoing-only device. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/22 "2015-09-13T21:46:27Z")
I get a ton of “spam” calls. About two per _day_, in fact. At least half of these are based on debt collectors who can’t get through to my father or my brother and think “This last name only appears nine times in the entire United States, let’s just call all of them!” ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/23 "2015-09-13T21:58:19Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > So…you never get legitimate phone calls from anyone except friends?? > > To repeat:If you do leave your number with any of the above, do you immediately add them to your contacts so you will recognize the number if they call you back? If that’s the number they call back from, that is. A business or doctor’s office calling from a land line isn’t going to text you. > > I have my phone number on the tags on my dogs’ and cats’ collars. If one of them is injured and whoever finds them calls me, that’s going to be a call (from an unfamiliar number) I don’t want to miss. > > I’m getting a picture of a select, closed circle of people who talk/text within that circle, and no outsider can penetrate. What is the rationale for being this unreachable even by voicemail? Is it that you believe the world outside your circle can’t possibly have anything worthwhile to offer you? This is very young thinking. I’m guessing when you’re out of your teens and start getting calls from your child’s school or your elderly parent’s doctor, you’ll allow breaches in the heretofore impenetrable titanium wall. I add business and Doctor numbers to my phone by name. I will answer those, or call them back if I see I’ve a missed call. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/24 "2015-09-13T21:59:21Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > My friends all know this about me though and would act accordingly. Once my gf borrowed a friend’s cell to call me when she’d forgotten hers. She texted me about her situation and I called the number the text came from with my caller ID blocked. > > (I _said_ I was anal about the issue!) Maybe I’m dense, but have you gave the _reason_ why you just don’t listen? I mean, in the scenario of your girlfriend, you really did know the caller. Is it because of the odds? That you wouldn’t ever truly have to worry about some emergency situation? Is it because you don’t want to waste the time? Is it because whoever has left the message is not doing as you asked? Is it because of what? I’m just trying to understand. And for others who don’t have the same set-up as **kayaker** or **MoonMoon** , does this have to do with to much spam in general? Because I honestly ain’t getting something here. From the other side though, I know why my nana doesn’t. She can’t consistently figure out how to do it. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/25 "2015-09-13T22:30:36Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > I add business and Doctor numbers to my phone by name. I will answer those, or call them back if I see I’ve a missed call. That works if you know the number they are calling back from. But many businesses may call you back from a different number from the one used for incoming calls. My dentist works 2 or three days a week. If I get his answering service and leave a message that I want to make an appointment , his receptionist may retrieve the message and call me back from her home. Once, I called the service trying to locate an ER with a dentist- they tracked down the dentist and he called back from his cell phone. My doctor has one phone number for incoming calls- and different phone numbers for outgoing calls. Same for the pharmacy and the cable company. Delivery persons often call from their own cell phones to ask for directions or give me an estimate of when they will arrive. I wouldn’t recognize any of those numbers. Same thing with my job- if you call the publicly listed phone number, get transferred to me and leave a message, the call back will come from a different number than the one you called. I still have a landline, with an answering machine and what I’ve noticed is that most of the spam callers don’t leave messages. I don’t answer calls to my cell if I don’t recognize the number (unless I’m waiting for a delivery) - but I do listen to voicemails, and it has never once been spam. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/26 "2015-09-13T23:08:22Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I still have a landline, with an answering machine and what I’ve noticed is that most of the spam callers don’t leave messages. I don’t answer calls to my cell if I don’t recognize the number (unless I’m waiting for a delivery) - but I do listen to voicemails, and it has never once been spam. If it’s an actual human being they probably won’t leave a message, but robocallers will. During election season I’ve sometimes come home from work to find I have 7-10 voice mails on my landline, with ALL being political robocalls. Other people in my area code tell me that don’t have this same problem and will only get a few political robocalls, so I guess I’m just “lucky”. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/27 "2015-09-13T23:16:58Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > If it’s an actual human being they probably won’t leave a message, but robocallers will. During election season I’ve sometimes come home from work to find I have 7-10 voice mails on my landline, with ALL being political robocalls. That’s why I said most- political calls are the exception and leave messages on my answering machine. But they don’t seem to call my cell. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/28 "2015-09-13T23:34:47Z")
I was the contact person for a statewide convention last winter. I had a Google Voice number that went to my cell phone so that my personal number wouldn’t be on a widely-distributed flyer, and so that I could change the outgoing message as new information became available so I didn’t have to answer the same three questions over and over and over. I invited people who had other issues to leave a message and I would call back when I could. People got _offended_ by this. They thought the number went to an actual phone that would be answered by an actual person when they called, which was usually during the day. They didn’t understand that 10:30 am is not always a convenient time to answer, especially a number that came up as “Google Convention” that could be anyone. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/29 "2015-09-13T23:48:07Z")
I almost never answer my phone, but I do listen to voicemails from unknown numbers. It’s annoying because over 99% of them are junk calls. In particular, the car dealership that I bought my last car in 2009 won’t quit calling me even though I told them I now live 1500 miles away. I assume they have sales managers that demand the salesperson call even the deadest of leads. I also get quite a few job calls for sales jobs that are all commission even though I don’t work remotely in a sales position. I will try to google the number that called me. That helps eliminate some of the annoying junk calls. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/30 "2015-09-14T00:39:35Z")
I must not be on that many robocall lists. I might get two spam calls per month (usually from _“Rachel at card services!”_). How are you people getting on enough call lists to get spam calls DAILY? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/31 "2015-09-14T01:19:18Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I must not be on that many robocall lists. I might get two spam calls per month (usually from _“Rachel at card services!”_). How are you people getting on enough call lists to get spam calls DAILY? If I knew I would tell you, possibly after murdering the person responsible. In my case it’s only a daily (or multiple times a day) issue during election season, scam robocalls are less frequent. I’m not looking forward to 2016. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/32 "2015-09-14T07:54:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Spam and the (over-)reactions to it has rendered yet another highly reliable means of communication into a totally hit-or-miss affair. You say that like it’s a bad thing! ( **Piper** retreats to his hermitage cell.) ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/33 "2015-09-14T08:17:03Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > \ A business or doctor’s office calling from a land line isn’t going to text you. This happens all the time, though. No business with more than one phone line has, like, an analog phone plugged into a jack anymore. There’s software that very easily lets a business send and receive texts. I pretty much never listen to voicemails whether I recognize the number or not. Chances are if I don’t answer, the information will be quickly relayed via email or text message (SMS or Skype), or it’s a message left at my Google Voice number so I get a text from that. It costs me money to check my voicemail but text-based messaging is free (or uses a negligible amount of data). ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/34 "2015-09-14T11:37:03Z")
> [@Lucretia](#): > > So…you never leave your phone number with a doctor, veterinarian, lawyer, dry cleaner, dog walker, house painter, etc etc etc? Your boss doesn’t have it? How in the world do you conduct daily business? No, I don’t. I own a small business and leave that number with my doctor, housepainter, etc. It works better for me like that. Now my lawyer has my number because he is a friend as well. We were friends before I became his client. I just _really, really_ prefer privacy wrt my phone. I’m not claiming it would work for anyone else, but I’m _really, really_ happy with things this way. I originally switched to my current number because it seemed I was constantly getting calls I didn’t want to be receiving. I got a new number and sorta made a vow. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/35 "2015-09-14T13:35:34Z")
Then is actually listening to the voicemail going against your vow? Sort of like rewarding bad behavior? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/36 "2015-09-14T13:42:32Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > Then is actually listening to the voicemail going against your vow? Sort of like rewarding bad behavior? No. I guess I listened to the first few voice-mails I received from unknown numbers, but quickly realized it was a waste of time. Additionally, it is a pia to listen to them at home. We live in a rural area and keeping a signal for a voice call involves going out onto the porch, standing on one leg, etc. This weekend I downloaded [YouMail](http://www.youmail.com/) which changes voice messages to text. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/37 "2015-09-14T13:46:35Z")
> [@Lucretia](#): > > So…you never leave your phone number with a doctor, veterinarian, lawyer, dry cleaner, dog walker, house painter, etc etc etc? Your boss doesn’t have it? How in the world do you conduct daily business? If he’s like my husband he leave my cell number. With EVERYONE. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/38 "2015-09-14T13:50:25Z")
Since we moved to Taiwan, I don’t handle any of the stuff for the family, and I don’t have that many friends here, so pretty much any call which isn’t from someone in my contact list is going to be a wrong number. I got tired of saying hello only to hear Chinese, so I rarely answer for unknown numbers and I don’t think I’ve ever called to retrieve voicemail from someone I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/39 "2015-09-14T15:00:21Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I think there’s a huge difference in various folks’ experience with phone spam. Yeah this is so important. Not just phone spam but phone usage experience in general. I was customer service for a goodly number of years. Before that, my ex boyfriend had all of his friends crank call me, over and over again, at all hours of the day or night. Lastly my parents would call me every week and yell at me about something (I’m not exaggerating). Between these things, I don’t like the phone and kind of jump a little every time it rings. I’ve also always gotten bad news through the phone so that totally doesn’t help. I do check all of my voicemails. I don’t much like to, but it’s better than answering the phone. I just hate answering the phone, though I have an excellent phone personality (all of those years in customer service) ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801/40 "2015-09-14T15:27:38Z")
I am in the throes of an extended job search. In desperation I have loaded my resume on every site known to mankind, and thus my phone number got crawled. For unrelated reasons, I had to change my cell phone number, and during the switch I also registered for a g-mail number (free) and I love it. I can just give out that one, and if anyone leaves a message it will be forwarded to me by e-mail. Granted, the text will be slightly garbled, but it’s usually enough that I can tell the gist of the message. Meanwhile, important people get the cell phone number. As for messages, I do listen to at least a few words before deleting. If I know the person, I listen to all of it. And I don’t give more weight to texts or voice mails, but texts are so much quicker to retrieve that they get more immediate attention. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-listening-to-voice-mail-even-when-you-dont-recognize-the-number/730801.md?page=3)