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Thoughts on voicemail?

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Photo of Kat F.
8/17/2010 Kat "don't get me started!" F. says:

How do you feel about voicemail?

Do you leave it? Do you listen to it? Do you use Google Voice, VoIP or some other digital delivery/transcription service to help you avoid calling in to that stupid voicemail system with a password?

I don't have voicemail, and I almost never leave it. What about you?

  1. Photo of Lauren M.
    8/17/2010 Lauren "Lo-BAL" M. says:

    I absolutely hate checking my voicemail on my cell. Sometimes I don't even know why I have it. When someone leaves me a voicemail, it irritates me. It seems time consuming to dial into voicemail and listen to that robotic voice spelling out the phone number ever-so-slowly before playing the sodding message!

    At work we have VOIP, so I can listen to them quickly through email and delete, without needing to dial-in to my voicemail box. This is much better.

  2. 8/17/2010 Carolyn B. says:

    I have it at home and on my cell phone, but I almost never use it anymore.  I pay something like $8 - $10/month for visual voice mail on my cell, and there are many months when I don't get a single message.  Same at home.   I really should cancel it.  I'm glad you brought this up!

  3. Photo of Roma M.
    8/17/2010 Roma M. says:

    I loathe it! That's what caller id is for, anyway. It used to be such a hassle to go through all the messages only to find out I'd need to call these people back. So what was the point of the message?

    Good to know Kat's thread is saving you money, Carolyn!

  4. Photo of Stephanie C.
    8/17/2010 Stephanie "Let the choir sing!" C. says:

    Yeah, I'm with everyone regarding voicemail. I hate checking it but it is useful to have it.

    If my memory is correct, I think my voicemail inbox can contain ten messages but I hardly ever have ten messages sitting in my voicemail inbox. So, thanks to this thread, I'll be following Carolyn's footsteps and make some changes to my plans.

  5. Photo of Elaine K.
    8/17/2010 Elaine "Danger Zone" K. says:

    I have it just for the old people who don't use text messages (my parents).

    I heard a great tip for people who HAVE to have voicemail, on your outgoing message, state that the  best way to reach you is by text, email, what have you, and that your voicemail is checked only at the end of the day or something.

    That works sometimes, although sometimes I get a voicemail saying "it said to text you so I'm leaving this message AND texting you."

  6. Photo of Ramanan S.
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    8/17/2010 Ramanan "Funkaoshi" S. says:

    Voicemail is the worse thing ever. I hate it when people leave a message on my phone. Of course, it's my fault, since I'm paying for the stupid service. (They usually bundle it with the much more useful call display.)

  7. Photo of Melissa F.
    8/17/2010 from Yelp for iPhone Melissa F. says:

    I love voicemail but admittedly if I didn't have it I wouldn't notice. Everybody hates to leave their voice on a machine nowadays. So I make my MSG a little more special. I get a 30 percent return rate now. Haha. That's now bad because I always screen my calls and never pickup the first time

  8. Photo of Chris P.
    8/17/2010 Chris "How quickly can I hit 4 digits?" P. says:

    I like voicemail, especially visual voicemail on my iPhone.  It makes it easy to see which messages I have listend to and not listened to.  

    The only time I think vociemail is dumb is when an automated system is phoning you and half the message is cut off because it deosn't detect VM and starts playing it's recording as soo as your message starts playing.

  9. Photo of Kat F.
    8/17/2010 Kat "don't get me started!" F. says:

    For those that use VM, what does your greeting say? Generic greeting, personalized, or snarky? I know someone whose greeting says "I don't check voicemails. Please try calling back later or sending an email."

  10. Photo of Elaine K.
    8/17/2010 Elaine "Danger Zone" K. says:

    I love that, but I'm way too nice to say that.

    Mine is very professional since it doubles as my freelance work phone.

  11. 8/17/2010 Carolyn B. says:

    Mine is very generic at the moment.

    It was more exciting years ago when the Patient Inquiry number for our local hospital was identical to my number except for the last digit.  I would get calls and messages daily.   My message said, "This is NOT the number for General Hospital's Patient Inquiry.  For Patient Inquiries, please call X.  If you would like to leave a message for Carolyn B, please do so now."

    Thank goodness they amalgamated and the number was retired!

  12. Photo of Allie G.
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    8/17/2010 Allie "Tall Cinnamon Latte" G. says:

    I don't use voicemail.  My phone will tell me if I missed a call and if they really needed to get ahold of me, they'd just call back again.

  13. Photo of Mariko M.
    8/17/2010 Mariko "Performance Before Competence" M. says:

    Where's the love? I heart Voicemail.

    What do you do when you miss a call from a number that has many people using it?

  14. Photo of Mariko M.
    8/17/2010 Mariko "Performance Before Competence" M. says:

    v
    Case in Point

    I sometimes get calls from my school board from various people - night school, benefits, payroll, credit union etc.
    On my Caller ID, no extension shows up so it can be anyone calling... even someone using the phone in the lobby.
    If I didn't have Voicemail, I don't think I would have the patience or time to brainstorm all the possible sources of the missed call and follow up on them,

  15. Photo of Mariko M.
    8/17/2010 Mariko "Performance Before Competence" M. says:

    v
    Case in Point

    I sometimes get calls from my school board from various people - night school, benefits, payroll, credit union etc.
    On my Caller ID, no extension shows up so it can be anyone calling... even someone using the phone in the lobby.
    If I didn't have Voicemail, I don't think I would have the patience or time to brainstorm all the possible sources of the missed call and follow up on them,

  16. Photo of Elaine K.
    8/17/2010 Elaine "Danger Zone" K. says:

    @Mariko, this sounds like a work thing, though. I agree, that VM at work is pretty essential (although I prefer email, then I have a written record of everything).

    I think that with the age of everyone using cell phones as their personal phone, VM may be obsolete.

  17. Photo of Nicole H.
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    8/17/2010 Nicole "the Antipodean one" H. says:

    I haven't had voicemail on my personal phone for the longest time, but i've just gotten a new phone and it's part of my plan - I certainly wouldn't spend extra money on it, but I don't mind having it there.. For now, at least. We'll see when I have to start checking for voicemails that are just hang-ups.

    I hate it at work though, because I never notice it right away - i'd rather someone just send me an email really.

  18. Photo of Taylor O.
    8/18/2010 Taylor "Indie Bacon Foie Gras" O. says:

    Google Voice (or a site like YouMail) is the way to go; voicemail transcriptions.  They aren't perfect but usually enough so I don't listen to a single voicemail on a phone and can click the play button in my email to hear it if I must to decipher a phone number for example.  The nice thing about Google Voice is that it forwards to any phone so you can avoid getting voicemails in the first place.  

    Oh and voicemails longer than 10 seconds: delete with an iron thumb.

  19. Photo of Kat F.
    8/21/2010 from Yelp for iPhone Kat "don't get me started!" F. says:

    +1 Taylor! Love the GV transcription!!

  20. Photo of she s.
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    8/21/2010 she "squirrels are little people with a hairy overbite" s. says:

    I just recently got vm on my cell phone because I have an answering machine at home but because we have everything with roger cable wireless land line and cable they gave me a freebie vm
    rogers is cool that way like right now I have a freebie trial of the comedy gold channel which I am not that crazy about but have until the middle of september to say if I like it or not

  21. Photo of Laura C.
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    8/21/2010 Laura "Lala" C. says:

    I'm bad. People leave me VMs and I don't check it. I figure if it's important and a personal call, I either have call display and saw they called and will call back , or they will text.email me

    But it is useful to get other non-personal calls like confirmation of appointments, job related things, and other messages that can't be texted.

  22. Photo of Kiro M.
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    9/7/2010 Kiro "Grasshopper" M. says:

    Working in the entertainment industry both in the facility/maintenance side and event planning side I'm always on the go. Because work gets merged with my personal life a lot of times, if someone leaves a VM, it's usually important. If it's something that can be scheduled, then it's an email.

  23. Photo of Lisa K.
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    9/7/2010 Lisa K. says:

    I hate voicemail. It's useful, for sure, especially when you're looking for a job (sigh). But I hate the fact that I have to use my own minutes to check the voicemail! There are ways around it but what a hassle!

    I let the default creepy voicemail lady introduce me. "You have reached the mail box of ______"

    I also hate leaving voicemail but once again, sometimes it's a necessary evil.

    I'll have to look into this Google Voice! Thanks Kat and Taylor.

  24. Photo of Tong J.
    9/7/2010 from Yelp for iPhone Tong "The Other One" J. says:

    My friends and family know how to get a hold of me, so I recorded the voicemail greeting in Thai (saying rubbish things) to drive telemarketers crazy.

  25. Photo of Mozart A.
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    9/7/2010 Mozart A. says:

    I have a message that's been in my voicemail for three or four days but I can't check it because I don't remember the number I have to call. #89? *88? I kinda remember the password, though...

  26. Photo of Karl R.
    9/7/2010 Karl "Kid Don Cornelius" R. says:

    I had voice mail with my bell land line. But they were charging like $8 a month. Same price they were charging 20 years ago with zero technological upgrades. Hasn't technology made VM cheaper? Why are they still charging the same amount? Back then an answering machine would run you $150. So $8 seemed okay. But now you can pick up one for $19.99. Which I did and canceled my Bell voice mail. Heck I'm even considering ditching my land line but I'm holding out for that magical time I get a GF and her and I can chat dreamily over the phone before bed time.

  27. Photo of Chad M.
    9/9/2010 from Yelp for iPhone Chad "I used to play DOOM I" M. says:

    I have spent the last few years training my clients (mostly 50+ age) to email or text me.  If they do leave a VM it is transcribed by Vonage or Google Voice.  I also use GV to send free text messages to my clients. Love it!

  28. Photo of Vivek S.
    9/9/2010 Vivek "When I wake up imma be yelping" S. says:

    So I've been without voice mail for about 5 months now and my world hasn't fallen apart.  In fact, I notice that people just call me back later assuming I was busy or unavailable (the truth), or they are happy to wait for me to return their call, since I have caller ID.

    And no more voicemails saying "call me back."  Geh.

  29. Photo of Grainne M.
    9/9/2010 Grainne "sounds like Grawn-ya...not Grainy" M. says:

    I can't really take calls during work so like having it-they can leave a message if they really want me.  I probably come from assuming I'll have it though.  No one is charged for the facility on their mobiles at home.  It's very much a standard service.  I'm trying to remember if you had to pay to check the message when I first got a mobile 13 years ago...but I don't think so.  It was always free.  Along with the never ever ever being expected to pay for incoming calls or texts!

  30. Photo of Kat F.
    9/9/2010 Kat "don't get me started!" F. says:

    Since getting my new phone, I haven't been able to disable voicemail (comes automatic), but at least I can delete it without listening to it. As soon as I get a VM notification I just swipe/delete it from my iPhone.

  31. Photo of Patty L.
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    9/9/2010 Patty "the Jet-setting Diva" L. says:

    I have it because it's included with my voice plan. Since I have unlimited minutes it doesn't bug me to check it. It used to piss me off when people would leave super long voicemails for me when I was on Pay-As-You-Go because it deducted minutes while they talk, and then again when I listened.... So lame.

    A lot of my relatives (that are text msg inept) still leave me voicemails, and sometimes it's quite essential when my work is trying to contact me and I'm on the subway or in an elevator/basement. Obviously the scheduling department is not going to txt me...

  32. Photo of Vivek S.
    9/13/2010 Vivek "When I wake up imma be yelping" S. says:

    I just got a new voice plan that comes with 3 (count 'em) voice mail messages.  I think that's 3 too many but we'll see how it goes.

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