Please leave a message after t--*Click*
 

Hey guys,

Do you ever get calls from people that just hang up and won't leave a message on your answering machine or in your voicemail box? As if I'm a fucking mind reader and know what you are calling me. I dunno, it's just one of my pet peeves and I won't call that person back, even if my caller ID or cell phone says I have a missed call. I'm pretty sure the machine says quite clearly to leave a message because I can't get to the phone right now and I'll call you back. You want the call back? Well follow the instructions and leave a fucking message.

I think I'm going to change my answering machine or voicemail thing to say something like I specifically have an answering machine and voicemail box so that you leave a fucking message. Or maybe you're one of these people that call other people and never leave a message. I don't want to waste my time playing fucking detective here people. Even if you were just calling to chat, just leave a message saying you were just calling to say hello and see how things are going. It's not that hard people. Phew, just had to get that off my chest. Maybe some of you share this same pet peeve or something similar, but I couldn't think of anything along the lines of e-mail or instant messaging.

I got hos in different area codes. Naturally none of these bitches ever leaves a message on my phone because they know that if they do, I run the risk of getting caught by my other bitches and then a nigga gon' have to make that backhand come down like the Hammer of Dawn on them crackhead teeth... Know what I mean?

I never leave messages. And I don't expect people to leave me messages. My friends know me well enough to know that if I call and they don't answer, they're obligated to call back. And if they call and I don't answer, I'm obligated to call back, and I WILL. If it's extremely important and urgent, I'll keep calling, or they will, and maybe if I get desperate I'll leave a message.

Leaving messages is a waste of time on both ends. You waste the time to leave it, and then the person who gets it wastes time trying to hear and decipher whatever idiot crap you mumbled incoherently, and ends up calling you just to ask what you said in your message anyway.

I don't leave messages. Many times the message I would leave would be dated and useless. Friends will sometimes levae me messages but I had a tendancy to not check my voice box for days.

I rarely leave voice mail either... I just don't see the point of it when some people I know don't check their messages for days. The only way I'd leave anything on there is if it were important.

But I'd think that people would get more pissed off if you left them messages anyway. No one wants to waste precious minutes of their life going through 30 voicemails. <_<

If you're a regular caller then there's no need, but if you're someone who doesn't speak with the owner of the phone often, maybe you should leave a message. After all, nobody likes getting calls from strangers, much less being expected to know what the fuck they want. Also, if you were calling to answer a question or the like there is no need to actually talk, leaving a message suffices.

The option is there for a reason, don't go getting your panties in a twist just because it's not one you happen to use.

That, and I made my girlfriend do the greeting on my phone, and getting messages like, "Dude, who's the porn star on your phone?" is fucking priceless.

I'll speak into an answering machine or voicemail if I have to, such as for important business, situations in which I'm calling to acquire a service. If it's one of my lazy friends screening calls, I won't bother. Caller ID is practically standard now; I don't block my information; there's no need to encourage their antisocial behavior.

When you speak into the machine, you're having a one-sided conversation and it's uncomfortable. It's like a tiny audition. You're trying out for the role of "important caller". If you miss the cue or you start rambling, that's it, you're finished. You're not the caller they were hoping to find. Of course, they're not going to tell you this. You have to sit by the telephone in futility like everyone else who blew the message. Weeks later, you run into the machine's owner at a party, you ask him why you didn't get a callback. "Yeah, sorry. We wound up going with the one who had trouble pronouncing 'sausage'." "The lisp guy? Noooooooooo...c'mon!" "Oh, you should hear him do Hamlet. He's hysterical! How could we turn that away?"

[/Seinfeld]

I never leave a message, my friends never check their voicemail anyway. Instead, I call back later.

I loathe leaving messages. Absolutely loathe. If I can't talk to someone directly, I don't bother. Unless it's of vital importance, in which case I don't care if I make myself sound like a dolt.

I only leave a message if I have a message I want to leave. I don't want to go, "Hey, uh, I just called, because I wanted to call," or something absolutely pointless like that. It's a waste of everyone's time.

If I leave a message, the person might call me back. Generally speaking this is at a time when I no longer need whatever it was I was calling about. Then I've got to waste time on the phone talking about nothing, you know, inquiring about the kids, the family, the weekend, school, job, etc.

Nah, if I call someone, it's because I want to talk about something right then, not whenever's convenient for the other person.

I'm the same way. In fact, whenever I do leave a message for someone it tends to sound like I'm talking in circles. And most of the time I'm not even sure when to end it so I just keep talking, then pause, then say "bye" or something like that.
Even when I'm at work calling a client I try not to leave a message unless I've written something down before hand.

Fuck, you people are just incredibly awkward. You shouldn't even use phones, much less own them.

If I do leave a message, it's usually something like "hey ****, it's me ______. Call me back when you get this message, bye *click*"

Haha, I think I got this habit from my mom; sometimes she'll call just to say hello, but other times she'll have a question (and then she'll leave that sort of message if I missed the call)

Otherwise, unless it's someone I don't really know, I usually don't bother with leaving message anymore. I tend to trail off and mumble incoherent things, and sound like an idiot (and no one wants to have evidence of sounding like an idiot! D: )

I tend to leave messages since I usually don't call people up for random chit-chat. Ok, so maybe if I'm calling my folks or one of my brothers it might be for that reason, but anyone else I call it'll be with something specific in mind. If I'm calling my friends, it's because I have something interesting that I'm planning that I would like them to participate in or I have something to show them or something along those lines.

I just figure people would rather have a real message when the phone tells them they have one rather than just checking the messages to hear the *click* of someone hanging up. I know I sure do. In any case, how can spending less than a minute of your time listening to a friend's voice be so annoying anyway?

Woot for Rychord, at least I'm not the only one! :) Maybe it's the nature of my work and what I do, but I do deal with a lot of people on a regular basis and communication is essential, and I almost solely use the phone and e-mail to communicate with them, so I always leave a short message or reply to an e-mail as soon as I can (I try not to leave the message or e-mail un-answered for more than a day, it's unprofessional and rude, and I'm never that busy even to say I'm a little busy right now, but I got your message and will get back to you in full detail as soon as I can).

Of course when you stay pretty busy, you sometimes cannot get to the phone in time, or it's an inappropriate time to pick up and start talking (e.g. in class, at a meeting, etc), so someone leaving you a message makes it that much easier for you. I dunno, I just think it's common courtesy this whole leaving a message thing, but maybe I'm the socially ackward one here. Leaving messages is so out-dated it seems. I guess I need to slow it down, lol!

I don't have a problem with leaving messages. Generally, if I'm calling someone I know, it'll just be a quick "Hey, it's Adam, gimme a call when you get a chance." If I'm calling someone for a work-related issue or if I'm calling a business of some sort, I like getting the machine. I can put forth my initial statement and establish the reason for the call, so when the person calls back we can skip the bullshit and get right to the point. This is born somewhat out of the fact that I'm not the world's best speaker, and I tend to do the "um, uhhh, duh" thing on the phone more than I'd like when talking live with someone. I also like to keep my phone conversations short.

Voicemail is also nice when I just need to relay a piece of information and don't need or want a conversation to take place. Things like "hey, I got your message, I'll be there at 8" and whatnot.

Of course, I don't like phones in general and would rather email people if given a choice, but the phone does offer more immediacy and weight to my requests, so I deal.

I personally never leave messages, not even when it's important. I'll just keep calling until I get in contact with them. I figure most people never check their messages anyway. Regardless, I'm not a big fan of phone conversations in the first place--I generally prefer speaking in person or online somehow.

I generally don't leave messages when I try to call someone. A lot of times I'll just call back at a later time. The only time I'll ever really leave a message is if its important and I need to get a message to a specific person.

I constantly have to leave messages on my work cell phone all the time just to get a hold of specified people since we tend to be all over the place and its just more conveient because a lot of the places I work in prohibit cell phone use and since we tend to be always on call. It is always conveient to see if there is any needed work to be done, which there usually is a lot of times if there are any messages on my work cell phone.

I never leave messages, but this is due to the fact that my friends call me back without even checking to see if I left a message. Then there is one of my friends who is too stupid to know how his voice mail works since his voice mail message is "............................................ after the tone!"

I don't have much of a problem with leaving or receiving messages, my only peeve is when people whose numbers I don't have don't leave me a message telling me who the hell they are.

Not really. All my friends leave voicemails for any reason even if the call isn't urgent. I'm actually the one who never leaves messages for anyone during a casual call. Unless I'm calling one of my friends or colleagues because of something that's really important, I don't generally leave voicemails.

Didn't Caller ID solve this problem years ago?

I'm the opposite because I hate people who leave voice mails. Especially useless ones, because 90% of the time, it's someone who's just like "hay this is XYZ I just called you but you're not answering so you must be busy. call me back i'll talk to you later payce".

I have caller ID. If I see I have a missed call, I will look at said function and dial your number to call you back in due time. I just hate checking my voice mail and hearing 5 messages of the same person giving no information I couldn't deduce from technology already.

I leave messages if it's urgent, but if I don't need an immediate reply about a pressing issue I just leave it alone. I really hate useless voice mails that go along the lines of, "Hey, it's me, give me a call back," although some of my frequent callers leave me messages like that.

I almost always leave messages, mostly because I hate not getting them. I mean, if I see 'Mom' or 'Dad' in my missed calls and they don't leave a message, that's cool, I'll call them back. But like a couple people have pointed out I HATE getting a call from some number that I dont recognize, and no message being left. It drives me nuts, because then I'm like "Who was it? Someone important? Do I call back? What if it was just a wrong number?" I dont like that awkward "Yeah... I dialed a wrong number." "... oh. Ok."

So, what, you would rather they leave a message detailing how it was a wrong number? :p

Okay, so yeah, there are times that, say, a friend calls me from her friend's phone because hers is dead, or somebody gets a new cell number and calls me to let me know this is what it is. But I guess to me it's just another unspoken rule that that's one of those rare cases where you DO leave a message if I don't pick up. And interestingly enough, that's the only time people do leave me messages. Except my family, who insist on leaving messages for the most asinine things.

"Hey, Elijah, um... hi... I uhh... was just wondering... <something incoherent> guitar hero... ummmm... so... call me back... or something. <Something else incoherent> bye."
beep boop
ring ring ring ring
"Hello?"
"What do you want?"
"I want to play your guitar hero."
"You could've just SAID THAT."

I don't bother with leaving messages. If I call anyone at all it's because I'm trying to get hold of them quickly and if they don't answer then they're obviously not available.

One thing I've learned about making messages on your answerphone is that they should always be serious. I discovered this after I got a call from a prospective employer who left a message on my mobile. I'd recorded a drunken message. I'm damn lucky I was even considered for the job after that.

Wait, you called someone whose resume you had in your possession and asked them to call you back because you wanted to hire them when you were drunk?

Did I read that right?

If it's on the home phone, then I don't like when people leave messages since I can just check the call history to see if you called. I'll call back since I have the number on hand, and if you call more than once to check, then I'll definitely return the call. Otherwise, there's no need to leave a message saying "just called to chat," much like I hate IMs that are merely out of boredom.

I really just hate hearing a click or hangup after the recorded message because if you're going to bother to listen to the message then at least leave something substantial. It's sort of a false hope that there's something important in the inbox.

If it's on my cell phone, I actually want you to leave a message since I was most likely in class and voicemail isn't free unlike for our home phone, so might as well use it.

I agree.

But, my attitude about people who don't leave messages: "Must not have been important, then."

I like the way you think. I think I'm going to adopt that attitude you have, and if anyone gets pissed off on why I haven't returned any of their calls, I'll just say it must not have been important if you didn't leave a message. I might have to tweak and modify it a bit at work though, don't want to get fired for not getting back to a client or something, but I'll see how far I can stretch it without getting into trouble.

I don't leave messages unless it's something important or I need an urgent reply from the person I'm calling. Otherwise, what's the point, right? Most people don't even listen to the messages, they just look at their missed calls and call back.

Yeah, I share this sentiment. If someone whom I don't know calls me but doesn't leave a message, I'm not going to call back. If it's really important, they'll either call again or take ten seconds to identify themselves so I know to get in touch. Otherwise, oh well.

I haven't figured out how to get the voicemail working on my phone yet. It's pretty wierd. But I prefer for people to leave messages. On my homephone I get calls from numbers I don't recognize, and they just leave a click. I have no clue who they are, or why I should phone them back. Also if a friend leaves a click, I don't tend to phone them back. because if it was important enough that I need to call them back, they should leave a message.

Since I only have a cell phone and my phone already tells me if someone I know called I don't really expect a message nor do I really listen to them, I just call them back and just ask.

I don't ever leave voice mails because for the most part my friends do the same thing to me, I'll leave this nice little message for them only to have them call back and make me regurgitate what I've said before. So I've found it rather pointless to leave messages, emergencies and very important messages being exceptions of course.

I meant employer >.> They called my mobile, which I didn't get to in time and as such had to listen to a recording of me off my tits before they could leave a message. I got the job anyway though ^_^;

I hate it when people call and don't leave messages. If the answering machine has begun doing it's thing, you've paid for the call and may as well make the most of it. If you don't leave a message, how do you expect me to know who you are/when you called/call back??

It frustrates me not to know who they were because clearly there was a reason to call in the first place but I don't really mind them hanging up. Some people are just uncomfortable talking into nothing with no cues or a time limit and they ramble on forever. I used to be that way so I'd never leave a message but I always hung up before the beep.

Depends on the circumstances, but I'll usually leave messages, whether they be serious or just something random like saying "ghost," pausing for about 15 seconds, and going *PFFFFT* (usually warrants a callback). With most people I communicate with though, e/gmail works best.

I, on the other hand, will sometimes miss checking voicemail messages. >_> I'd usually just call the person back and ask what they wanted (if the call was not too long ago).

I only bother listening to my voicemails because it's free. If it's important they'll call back.

I don't bother leaving messages unless its really important. And for the most part, I hate checking my voicemail, so I would prefer that no one leave me a message. Though, I usually do call back if someone calls me if I miss the call. I don't really make it a big of a deal. Leave me a message or not, I don't care.

Yeah, I'm totally guilty of this. I figure, everyone has caller ID. I call someone, they don't pick up, they'll see my name and call me back.

The only time I leave messages is with doctor's offices or businesses, but not usually with friends of family.

Interesting to see all the responses that aren't in favor of leaving messages, or people having a hard time communicating what they need in a clear and concise manner. I would chalk up all this social retardation to how detached society has become in general, what with all the new technology that has risen up in this generation. Most of the interaction people have with one another is with their digital self, and hell, people don't even need to leave their house for anything anymore. I even remember seeing on TV about this company in New York that lets you shop for groceries online, and the people will deliver it to your house.