Has anyone in the history of the world, leaving a voice mail message, actually “Pressed 1 for more options?”
And why after I’ve already heard the voice of the person I’m calling tell me to leave a message do I actually get a SECOND WOMAN saying “After the tone, please record your message. When you are finished recording, you may hang up …”
Do we need this sort of repetitiveness in our lives?
Was hoping there’d be a poll …
Yes, I actually have “Pressed 1 for more options”. Sometimes I have to listen all the way thru the first options that our given to decide which one best fits my need. Stupid of me, I know. Best thing to do is just hit ‘0’ and normally a live voice will come on the line.
Better yet, up until 3 years ago my wife’s aunt & uncle didn’t have that problem….They still had a “dial” telephone! Yes, the one where you’d spin the circular contraption when you chose each number to dial. I guess that’s why we still “dial’ the number on our phone even though we don’t really.
Are all you twenty-somethings scratching your head?
It’s almost as though we get charged by the minute by our cell phone companies, who have an incentive to make our short calls last at least one minute.
It is a scam by phone companies to get more money.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/the-mandatory-15-second-voicemail-instructions/
And in the event of calling a disconnected number, you’ll hear, “We’re sorry, but this number is no longer in service.” WHO’s sorry? And why?
I think the question isn’t “Have you ever hit 1” but “on what proportion of voicemails you’ve left have you hit 1”.
I think I have hit 1 two or three times ever, and probably have left 10,000 voicemail messages over the last decade. Making it a 0.02% conversion rate (I think!).
There is probably a higher chance of me sneezing or using the bathroom instead of hitting 1, and so either all these options should be available or none??! (Press 1 for more options. If you need to sneeze, please find a handkerchief and sneeze into that. To use the bathroom…)
So, folks that have hit 1, what are the options?
And, Mark, the word you’re looking for is ‘rotary’.
I’ve pressed 1 for more options. Just once, though. It was when I was calling Chase about an unauthorized charge on my credit card, and it was after calling several times and talking to several different people and getting nowhere. I will tell you now that hitting 1 did not give me the option that I wanted, which was to talk to someone who knew what they were doing.
What I hate more than the “press 1 for more options” is when credit card companies ask you to enter your 16 digit credit card number, and then when someone finally answers, they ask you for your 16-digit credit card number!
Brian: Thanks, “Rotary” is now the club my wife belongs to so I put the ‘rotary dial phone’ almost completely out of my memory. However, I can still hear the clicking as that rotary dial made it’s connection.
Do we need this sort of repetitiveness in our lives?
Do we need this sort of repetitiveness in our lives?
I’m not a ‘techie’ by any sort but when at the end of a call where you have left a message you can then choose to send it as an “urgent” message or just a “normal” message. Does the person’s phone ring louder if it’s urgent?… LOL
Nah. I always do what I can to skip past these messages.
Bigsteveno . . .I see what you did there.
@Mark Daniel —
Agreed.
Along those lines, I just love it when I call Sprint Customer Service from MY phone by pressing *1, have to enter my phone number on the keypad, and then have to repeat it to the rep who answers.
If I am using a Sprint phone to call Sprint, don’t they have my number as soon as the call is connected? You know, that crazy new-fangled thing the kids call “Caller ID”? Why do I have to provide it two more times?
More generally, I usually don’t do anything at all when I need to speak to a real person, since most systems are still set to deal with rotary phones by exiting to a human being if no keypresses are made within a certain amount of time.
You know what else? I don’t think their options have recently changed, either.
“I’m not a ‘techie’ by any sort but when at the end of a call where you have left a message you can then choose to send it as an “urgent” message or just a “normal” message. Does the person’s phone ring louder if it’s urgent?… LOL”
On my corporate network, setting a message urgent makes the phone ring periodically until voicemail is checked. A standard message just turns the light on. Though I will say that I’ve never received an urgent message since I’ve worked here, so I can’t swear that it actually works.
Try riding the nyc subway to get a true sense of technology’s full potential. Wait for fifteen minutes. Get on. Wait for the doors to close. See people dash to get on, leaving portions of their clothes, briefcases, and persons on the outside. Watch the doors re-open. Then hear a mechanical voice say that the train is being held by the dispatcher. Wait five more minutes. Watch the doors close. Have the train lurch out of the station as you grab the nearest handrail. Watch the train slow in the tunnel. Hear the announcer talk about train traffic ahead (what traffic, the next stop is 8 blocks away and no train came before yours for 15 minutes). Hang. Grimace at the person next to you while she shrugs. Ehh, been there, done that. Air conditioning goes off. A friendly reminder from the MTA that we should offer our seat to the elderly (seat, what seat?). “Courtesy is contagious” Another reminder not to display cell phones (theft is contagious?). Train begins to move slowly forward. Another announcement about saying something if you see something. Success-you coast slowly into the station. Eight blocks, 14 minutes, walking would have been better. Watch the doors open. Repeat all the above.
An urgent message goes to the front of the queue of voicemail messages, instead of giving them in chronological order.
Doctor of Trivia: Which urgent call stays in the front of the queue? The first one entered or most recent?
Or my favorite: “To send a fax, press 5 now”.
NMarkW, I think they come in in reverse chronological order, but I think that’s only happened once in 20 years of having voicemail, so don’t quote me. Point is they jump the queue on all non-urgent messages.