When leaving a message, DON'T JUST TELL ME TO CALL YOU BACK!

The BBQ Pit
1

Forgive me, but I have a real problem with voice mail messages that say nothing other than, “This is Wilbur, call me at 555-1212.”
While I accept this from my customers, I tend to get nutsy when suppliers behave that way.

Example: Overhead door parts were ordered from a distributor for one of my customers over a month ago. Original lead time promised was two weeks. Two weeks ago, I spoke to my salesman, and he said, “Next week.” Last week, I left a message with my name, phone number, the nature of the call (where is my stuff?) and a request for a call to confirm delivery. I followed up today, and left a detailed message with the receptionist-taking care not to get on her case, as it’s not her fault, but I expected a call from this boob rendering useful information. Instead, my voice mail has, “Hi, this is Wilbur. Call me at 555-1212.”

In the name of Og, you KNOW why I’ve called! Tell me that my parts are in, lost, stolen, inadvertently shipped to Rangoon, or render some useful data such that I may attempt to placate my customer. IF I wanted to piss him off, I could accomplish that without your able assistance.

Maybe it’s just me, but when I call someone and need to leave a message, I do my best to give them all requisite detail such that they can research the matter and call me back with something meaningful to say. Why waste their time by forcing a call to ask me questions, when they could instead research the matter prior to calling?

Sorry if this seems lame-I had a great secretary years ago when I worked for a large company, and she understood the thought process, e.g.-she would not take a message without data. “Just have him call me” went to the bottom of the pile, where they belonged.

2

I agree.

If it’s a friend or a social call, no big whoop. If it’s work related, it’s much better to leave at least a general subject. That way you can get your paperwork out, open up a file, whatever, so that you at least know generally what’s going to be expected of you.

3

Heck, I had one just today leave a long winded message about some subscription problem, asked me to call him back, and forgot to leave a number!

Argh.

4

My ex-boss (who was a complete asshole, BTW) used to do this on purpose. He’d call up one of our suppliers (one guy in particular he especially liked to mess with—my boss was only really happy if he was making someone else miserable) and leave a long message (disguising his voice) listing a bunch of stuff he wanted to order, then just say “give me a call” without leaving a name or number.

Did I mention he was an asshole?

5

I’m more annoyed when someone I barely know leaves a message.
“Hi it’s me! Call me back!”

I don’t know who the heck me is. I don’t just instantly know your name off of a recorded message. And I certainly don’t know your number. This is esp annoying when it’s a female voice. Are you one of my cousins? Some girl I gave my number to in a desperate attempt to go out on a date?

One of my friends I’ve known him for 9 years now still always gives me his name (and he has a distinctive voice) the reason we’re still friends? B/C the first few times he called me he always left his name and number on my machine.

6

I play phone tag all day after returning calls to people who say, ‘give me a call’. When I reach them, they say something like, "Oh, that file is ready for download’, or ‘we fixed the server’.
I mean, not just the first message says, ‘call me’, but even the
‘tag, your it’ messages say it.

The best thing about support folks not sayng something was fixed up front is that nothing got done all day.

Fucknuts.

7

I get messages from someone that comprise their name and for me to call 'em back. No reason for the call given. Then, I get an email from that person. “Fine”, thinks I, “that’s what they called about.” The message gets no further action.

Nuh-uh. The call was to do with something else.

  1. I really like it when people tell me what they’re calling about on my message service. It keeps me much calmer and in a better frame of mind, rather than thinking, "WTF? What now???

  2. If they can email me about one thing, why not the other topic as well? (And no, it wasn’t particularly confidential).

Aarrghh!

Excuse me, I’ll go check my messages now …

8

Yeah, the trouble with just saying ‘ring me back’ is that it escalates:

“Hi, X here, please ring me back.” Click.
“Hi, Y here, you left a message saying to ring me back.” Click.
“Hi Y? You said I left you a message. I’m sorry, but who are you?” Click.
“Hi X? You rang me first. Who are you?” Click.
.
.
.

9

I steadfastly refuse to get caller ID, there’ve been some very awkward calls when I misidentified which friend was “It’s me”.

OTOH, I often wonder when my mother will stop telling me it’s her on my machine or voicemail, of all the voices in the world I ought to recognize…

10

I also like someone to tell me why they called so I can decide whether I want to call them back.
I will give them the same respect.
Especially if I need time to find something or make a decision before I call.
I’ll even do it with friends. Even if I just rang for a chat, I will say that.
Just because someone called doesn’t mean you have to call them back.

On a slightly different idea… it’s okay to NOT answer your phone.

11

Well, shoot. I was gonna call you and ask you to call me back, but now I dunno. Would it be OK if I called you and just said “How you doin”?

12

I make my outgoing message as specific as possible, asking for name, phone number, reason for call and best time to reach them. I also change it religiously if I’m going to be out for half a day or more. I am very conscientious (sp?) when it comes to leaving messages for people. So why the HELL do I still get messages saying “Hi, it’s so and so, call me!”?!?!?!?! AAAARGGGHH. Ok, I’m done now.

13

Virtually all the professional people I deal with leave a number; people who don’t leave a number usually don’t get called back. I get a lot of calls from people where I work who expect me to know their number or expect me to look it up - I guess)
(It really irritated me until I just stopped calling thme back - now I am fine with it)

The people who want me to call them just to tell me something that could have been left as a message either have too much time on their hands and like to get calls or they just like me; either way is irritating (unless I like them).

Yeah the topic is nice - but a short message is nice also.

Caller ID is great - some folks never talk to me, just the voice mail.
(and there are some folks whose voice mail I always seem to get, but that’s ok to.)

14

I have found a solution to this problem. Don’t call anyone back. Anyone. Ever. So you’ll have no friends, no job, and therefore no place to live from the lack of funds, but don’t you think hoboes are the happiest people in the world?

I do.

15

If people put the minimum that you’d see in an e-mail, I’d be happy.

E.g. “Name, subject, reply address”

That’s pretty much all I require as a bare minimum. So, If someone just wrote: “This is Crayons, I’m calling about the CD release, 123-555-1212.” click

Aaah! Bliss.

16

What irritates me is when people do give you the info you need, but say it so fast you think you’re listening to an auctioneer.

Yesterday, I had to listen to a message eight times just to get the phone number.

17

My favorite is when it’s obviously a sales call or debt collection (the person who had this number before me racked up quite a bit of debt) and they don’t say what it’s regarding.

“Hi this is Bob. Please call me back at 555-1212 at your earliest convienence.”

Sure, Bob. Go ahead and hold your breath.

:rolleyes:

18

Yeah, **lezlers[B/] I’ve had them, too. Somebody who had my phone number must have hosed every department store she could find, and they ask me if I know where she is?!? WTF? I moved here from 150 miles away. I didn’t give her the credit. Sounds like you’re screwed. Buh-bye.

19

As someone who leaves messages with all the info you request, danceswithcats, may I tag on to your rant?

When I call you* from work, I leave a detailed message, telling you exactly what information you will need when you call me back. Don’t get pissy with me when you call back without it either because you were too lazy to really listen to the message or too dumb to write it down before you deleted it.

And yes, I have had people tell me “You should have told me you needed that!” Errr…perhaps by singing telegram? The phone is clearly not getting through to you. It’s enough to make one want to leave a “Hey, call me back” message. :wink:

*Generic “you”, of course.

20

Does this mean you’re not going to return my call? I mean, you HAD to have known it was me, right?

Oh, and if you get the guy to tell you where your stuff is, could you see if he can help me locate a 1200 lb antenna tripod for DET302 which has “gone missing” (wtf???)?

Thanks ever so.