Answer Me This
Here's something I hate. You call a friend's number and get their answering machine. Instead of recording their own message, they have the machine's mechanical outgoing message.
Why would a friend do this to me? When I call I want to hear a voice I recognize. Otherwise, I don't know if I've got the right number, and I don't want to leave a message.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:41 AM
5 Comments:
I agree 100%. Two of my friends -- a married couple -- have advanced degrees in mathematics, and are technical writers for a major software company. And yet they do not seem able to create an outgoing message for their voicemail.
Sometimes women don't want to identify themselves on their answering machines. They don't want any random caller to know that it is a woman living alone.
None of the examples I can think of are women living alone. But really, if this is how some guy tries to find a woman is living alone (does anyone have any evidence this has ever happened?), he still couldn't be sure from an outgoing message. I mean, you already know a woman is living there by the name in the phone book. Leaving a message on a machine doesn't prove she's alone--she can just say "please leave a message" if she wants.
any power outtage erases the outgoing message on many answering machines. You kick the plug by mistake or have a touchy outlet and the message gets erased. This can happen quite often.
The only time this seems to be an issue with me is when you're calling someone you don't know well and the outgoing message gives you no indication if you've even got the right number. If it's a "friend" then I don't see what the problem is. You know you've got the number right so you can feel confident that the message will be received.
What's far more annoying is people who call up, get the machine and don't leave messages. If the person with the answering machine hasn't left an outgoing message, then yeah, they don't deserve an incoming one. But if they've recorded an outgoing message, then they deserve an incoming one.
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