I have noticed that as time goes by, the answering machine/voice mail pick-up has gotten much shorter, and I like it .
I was just calling someone , and there was no answer. there was also no voice mail. So I hung up. After I did i was thinking that my maximum wait for an answer or machine time has been reduced to 5 normal length rings. And I’m getting pretty impatient about that, I figure in the next year or so it will be down to 4.
It seems like it used to be standard for it to pickup after 8 or 10. But now I expect to be talking to someone or something within 4. My own Cell phone is set to pick up after 4, which seems just about perfect. It drives me crazy as hell when someone at work leaves their phone on their desk, or even their office phone, just rings and rings without end before finally the voice mail gets it :mad:
What is everybody else’s limit for waiting for a pickup?
I’ve found many phone accounts that don’t pick up until about 12 rings. Sometimes the account holder doesn’t even know he has a voice mail feature because most people don’t ring that long. My guess is it’s a default number for accounts when the feature is first enabled and no one changes it.
I tell people to let my phone ring at least 10 times and either I will answer or they will get voice mail. If I don’t answer on the first 4, it rolls over to another number, but without any click or hint that’s what’s happening. After 4 more rings, my answering machine will kick in. There’s no way of changing these numbers, so we have to live with it.
For a mobile phone, 4-5 rings is about right but for a land line that may not be long enough for a person to get to the phone if they’re in another room or outside. We know by the area code which numbers are for mobiles and which for land lines but if you can’t tell from the code which it is, don’t expect to only wait 4 rings before someone either answers or the voice mail answers.
It depends how badly I need to get ahold of the person. If it’s urgent I’ll let it ring to 25 or more if they don’t answer. But, that rarely happens these days, since everyone I know prefers to use their cell phone. Either they answer it in 4-5 rings, or it goes to voicemail.
That’s not right. Tons of folks have the same area code for their mobile that they have for their land line. Did you mean “we know by the exchange” (area code-exchange/prefix-last four numbers)?
Exactly. My mobile number, my home (land line) number, and my office number (land line, 25 miles from my house) all have the same area code.
However, I note that Kiwi Fruit is located in New Zealand, so assignment of area codes (or the definition of “area code”) may be quite different there than it is in the U.S.
This. Or tripping over toddlers and cats and a dog to find the darn phone. Ours is set to the max, and has been ever since we had little kids in the house.
The voicemail on our phone picks up at 4 rings, and I hate it. There’s no way to change it or turn it off temporarily, either (I’ve asked and complained). In the past standard telephone etiquette was to let the phone ring* at least* seven times to give a reasonable amount of time for the callee to get to the phone. If I’m in the back room and the phone is in the front room, there’s no way I’m going to get to it before the voice mail kicks in.
Land line areas
Northland/Auckland = 09
Waikato/BoP/King Country = 07
Gisborne/Taranaki/Wanganui/Manawatu/Hawkes Bay = 06
Wellington = 04
South Island = 03