If you don’t answer, you can see who called anyway, thereby giving you enough info to return their call. If they then leave a message it’s both a waste of time and money for the both of you – unless of course there’s a deliberate reason for leaving the message – “Hey, I coudn’t get through to you, my phone is going to cut out soon I’ll meet you on the corner of such and such…”
But to leave a chain of messages within five minutes like “Hey, pick up your phone”, followed by “Hey, where are you, not picking up?”, followed by “Hey I can’t seem to get through”, is just dumb.
The problem is, I’m getting more and more “chain” voicemails. And I’m beginning to hate them, just like a friend who has never had voicemail diversion on his phone. His attitude is: “They’ll ring back, or if it’s urgent, they’ll SMS me”.
That’s far more sensible. I can see it’s getting ridiculous – and reminds me of a lyric from the Living Colour song: “Information Overload”.
Surely by now humankind should have established some sort of voicemail etiquette?
I’ll start:
1. If you don’t know me, and you’re calling me, then it’s best you send a short SMS introducing yourself and asking for a response when I might best call you back. Don’t leave a voicemail.
2. If I do know you – never leave a voicemail
3. Unless it’s something amazing (eg: you’re trying to record something) please don’t leave a voicemail.
4. If we have a great day / night out / I do something really nice for you and you feel the need to call me and leave me a lovely voicemail. Please write me a nice SMS instead. Please don’t leave a voicemail.
More?
Also,
What about people with no caller ID? Show us your number, don’t be scared!