Voice mail: do you care anymore? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Cynthetiq · 04-03-2009, 02:19 PM

Quote:

View: You’ve Got Voice Mail, but Do You Care?
Source: Nytimes
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You’ve Got Voice Mail, but Do You Care?
April 2, 2009
You’ve Got Voice Mail, but Do You Care?
By JILL COLVIN

WHEN Steve Hamrick left his last job as manager at a software corporation, he had at least 25 unheard messages in his office voice mailbox. And that’s not counting the unreturned calls on his cellphone or landline at home.

It’s not that he doesn’t like to talk. But with the cascade of messages he receives by e-mail, texting and on Facebook, Mr. Hamrick, 29, a self-described “voice mail phobic” from Cupertino, Calif., said he’d found better ways to keep in touch.

“I had to give up something and that, for me, was voice mail,” he said. “It’s cutting out some forms of communication to make room for the others.”

When it was introduced in the early 1980s, voice mail was hailed as a miracle invention — a boon to office productivity and a godsend to busy households. Hollywood screenwriters incorporated it into plotlines: Distraught heroine comes home, sees blinking red light, listens as desperate suitor begs for another chance to make it all right. Beep!

But in an age of instant information gratification, the burden of having to hit the playback button — or worse, dial in to a mailbox and enter a pass code — and sit through “ums” and “ahs” can seem too much to bear.

Many dread the process or, like Mr. Hamrick, avoid it altogether, raising the question: is voice mail on its way to becoming obsolete?

“Once upon a time, voice mail was useful,” said Yen Cheong, 32, a book publicist in New York who has transitioned almost entirely to e-mail and text messaging. According to her calculation, it takes 7 to 10 steps to check a voice mail message versus zero to 3 for an e-mail.

“If you left a message, I have to dial in, dial in my code,” Ms. Cheong said. “Then I mess up and redial. Then once I hear the message, I need the phone number. I try to write it down, and then I have to rewind the message to hear it again,” she added, feigning exhaustion.

Tim Kassouf from Baltimore, 24, who calls himself “a certified voice mail hater,” said he had 68 messages, 62 of them unheard, in his cellphone mail box. Scott Taylor, 41, a senior manager at an e-commerce company in Phoenix, said voice mail was “just totally an ineffective communication method, almost ancient now.”

Like many others, Mr. Taylor advises callers on his outgoing message to try his cellphone or to send an e-mail message if they need to reach him right away.

It is good advice. Research shows that people take longer to reply to voice messages than other types of communication. Data from uReach Technologies, which operates the voice messaging systems of Verizon Wireless and other cellphone carriers, shows that over 30 percent of voice messages linger unheard for three days or longer and that more than 20 percent of people with messages in their mailboxes “rarely even dial in” to check them, said Saul Einbinder, senior vice president for marketing and business development for uReach, in an e-mail message.

By contrast, 91 percent of people under 30 respond to text messages within an hour, and they are four times more likely to respond to texts than to voice messages within minutes, according to a 2008 study for Sprint conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation. Even adults 30 and older are twice as likely to respond within minutes to a text than to a voice message, the study found.

There are no definitive studies of how many voice mail messages American leave compared with earlier periods, but if the technology is heading toward obsolescence — as many communication experts suspect — the trend is being driven by young people. Again and again, people under 25 recount returning calls from older colleagues and family members without bothering to listen to messages first. Thanks to cellphone technology, they can see who called and hit the Send button to reply without calling their voice mail box. “Didn’t you get my message?” parents ask. “No,” their children reply, “but I saw that you called.”

Jack Cathey, 20, a college student in Lewisburg, Tenn., said his parents and grandparents continued trying to leave him voice messages despite his objections. “Do you know your voice mail’s full?” a family member asked him recently, failing to comprehend that, for his generation, that might not be a problem.

To cater to those with no patience for voice mail, wireless providers are busy rolling out a new generation of text-based alternatives that promise to make communication faster and more efficient.

The most popular is Visual Voicemail, which comes standard on the iPhone and is available on other smart phones, including the Samsung Instinct and the BlackBerry Storm. The application displays messages in a visual in-box, just like e-mail, and allows users to listen to messages one by one, in any order, so important calls can be returned first and others saved.

Other companies have taken a bolder approach, eliminating the need to listen to messages altogether.

Frustrated by missing important calls while stuck in meetings, James Siminoff founded PhoneTag, now one of a handful of companies that offer voice-to-text transcription services. For a monthly or per-message fee, subscribers’ messages are converted into typed texts, which are then automatically delivered to phones or e-mail in-boxes.

“Voice mails are totally trapped info,” Mr. Siminoff said. Because the average person can read at least twice as quickly as he or she can speak, and text messages require no log-ins or waiting, Mr. Siminoff estimates that textual voice messaging is about 15 to 20 times faster than traditional voice mail.

Services like PhoneTag are about to be jolted by Google, which plans to introduce a competing free service, Google Voice, in a matter of weeks. The service will ring each phone a person uses at once — cell, home, office — and centralize all the messages received. Most important for the voice-mail-averse, Google Voice will also transcribe voice mails at no cost.

“Voice mail feels like it was a technology that was created to fill a gap — until something better came along,” Piers Fawkes, 34, a trend tracker, wrote on his company’s popular trend-tracking site, PSFK.com. “And now it has.”

Those in the industry expect voice-to-text messaging service to be standard in as little as a year or two down the line.

“Text is the future of voice mail,” Mr. Fawkes said.

But not everyone thinks that voice mail is going the way of the floppy disk. Richard Kelleher, 59, from Phoenix, who worked at AT&T when voice mail was developed, said he was still a loyal user and wondered why young people were shunning the technology.

“What does it take, 10 seconds to leave a message?” he said. “I can do that faster than Twittering.”

Yet many see the shift away from voice mail as part of a generational divide, in which younger people are substituting text for talk, while older folks yammer on.

Text messaging has increased more than tenfold over the last three years, according to CTIA — the Wireless Association, the trade group representing the industry. Young people have overwhelmingly been the most enthusiastic adopters. According to Nielsen Mobile, users 13 to 17 now send or receive an average of 1,742 text messages a month, versus 231 cellphone calls, and they spend nearly the same amount of time on their phones texting as talking.

For Charlie Park, 30, a Web developer in Williamsburg, Va., a text message is more efficient and — equally important — more respectful of the recipient’s time.

“You never send an e-mail that says, ‘Hey, e-mail me back!’ You’re always sending information,” he said.

But even Mr. Park admits that sometimes, there is value in voice.

When his eldest daughter, Lucy, now 5, was learning to talk, he had to take a business trip. While away, she left him a message: “I love you daddy. I miss you. Come home soon.”

Mr. Park said he kept the message for several years and would replay it again and again.

“There is something nice about hearing people’s voices,” he said.

Thankfully, she kept it brief.

I gave up on voicemail years ago, when people would call and call and call until they got you. What I mean is that they didn't get you on your office phone, so they call your house, then they called your cell, each time potentially leaving you a message. I'd of course spend time dutifully listening to each message wasting alot of time. Between caller ID and them leaving a very brief message, I know pertinent information.

I limited my home phone to only allow 1 minute messages. I like when people leave who they are, and if there is any pertinent information like, "It's an emergency..." but if you are just yammering on and on and on.... BEEEEEEEP. Time's over!

Now, the idea that messages converted to text and then sent to you. I don't know if I'm a fan of that, there's something to be said for listening to my nephew ask me star wars character questions via voicemail, or getting news from my parents about a family member. There's tone, inflection, something to explain the nuances of what they are saying. The written language of English is horrible for that because we've dumbed it down to the point of mulitple meanings for the same word.

But ultimately, if you leave me a message, note to not leave anything too long, I'm going to spend a minute listening to it tops, and then call you back.

Most interestingly enough, I do use it at the office as much as I can. Publishers are very much into words so they tend to read into emails more than they should. So many times, I pick up the phone and talk directly.

What do you do with your voice mail? Like it? Hate it?

lostgirl · 04-03-2009, 02:44 PM

Hate it, but I hate talking on the phone in general. The phone is still better than text messaging and e-mail which I can't bring myself to write to often. I much prefer to talk to someone in person, and avoid all the above as much as I can.

I guess you could say I am communication impaired. It is something I am working on, which is why I am back on here posting more often. I am making an effort to reach out to others.

Voice mail I find very annoying. I don't like listening to messages and most of all leaving one. Just like on answering machines before voice mail, I rarely leave a message unless it is important or I really want you to call me back. I feel so stupid talking to a machine.

Martian · 04-03-2009, 02:49 PM

I still use voicemail. I recently switched cell phone providers, and the two features I insisted on having were voicemail and call display.

Interestingly enough, I hate text messages and avoid them as much as possible. I'd just as soon have someone leave me a voice message that I can check at my convenience.

I do frequently find myself erasing messages that are no longer pertinent by the time I get them (mostly from my mother, who loves to leave a lot of messages), but I get important messages often enough to mean that the function itself is still indispensable.

Bear Cub · 04-03-2009, 03:19 PM

Always check it at work. If somebody left me a voicemail rather than an e-mail, odds are it's important and needs done ASAP. In construction, you can't afford to have delays.

mixedmedia · 04-03-2009, 03:27 PM

Like lostgirl, I really dislike talking on phones in general, but I always listen to my voicemail (and respond) when I am at work. It would be neglectful not to and I imagine I would get into a lot of trouble if I didn't.

My personal voicemail is a different story, though, I'll go for days sometimes without listening to messages. It's pretty much just my family that calls me, though, and we always end up catching each other one way or another.

CinnamonGirl · 04-03-2009, 09:28 PM

I really don't like leaving voice mails... I always sound like a complete dork. I'm not bug on talking on the phone in general, though; I'd much rather text.

On the other hand, GETTING voice mails is different. If an unknown number calls me, I don't answer, and if they don't leave a voice mail, I'll have no idea who it was. Also, I can't answer the phone in class or at work. I don't get a signal at all in some of the school buildings, so a missed call won't register... without voice mail, I'd miss some (somewhat) important stuff.

The voice-to-text thing is an interesting idea, but I think I prefer listening to the voice mail. I have a few friends that leave some really goofy messages every time they call, and if I was just reading text, I wouldn't get the silly voices or songs. That's no fun.

SabrinaFair · 04-04-2009, 05:44 AM

I hate leaving voice mails, I sound like an inarticulate goober. I still listen to mine, mainly because it drives me crazy to have that little voice mail symbol on my cell phone. I'm weird. I don't have voice mail at work anymore (thank god), so any such messages I get are generally personal in nature. I generally only get them from unknown callers (my eye doctor, my dentist, etc.) or my Mama.

f6twister · 04-04-2009, 05:57 AM

In a business environment, I think ignoring voice mail messages is bad work etiquette. If your employer provides that tool and it can't be turned disabled, it needs to be checked.

Quote:

What does it take, 10 seconds to leave a message?” he said. “I can do that faster than Twittering.

I think this part of the story bothered me the most. What kind of people have we become that 10 seconds out of our day is too much time to spend communicating with others? Have we become so rushed that we need to cut this down to 8, 5 or even 2 seconds?

Overall, I still enjoy actually hearing someones voice. I understand the convenience of texting or email but I think it should be an additional tool. I don't think it should be used as a replacement for true personal communication.

Meditrina · 04-04-2009, 06:44 AM

We have voice mail at work, but I don't rush to listen to it because 9 out of 10 times, they email me as well. OR they don't leave a detailed message and I don't know what they want. If I don't call back quick enough for them, they walk down to my office. So, the voice mail is there, but it is not as important or urgent. At home, we have caller ID. Most callers don't leave messages anyway. Probably solicitors.

dlish · 04-04-2009, 09:44 AM

never had it..rarely ever used it

World's King · 04-04-2009, 09:58 AM

I never leave them or listen when people leave them for me. If I need to tell you something and don't really need a response, I'll text you. If I need to talk to you I'll assume you're smart enough to figure that out just by the fact that I called you. It's pointless to say, "Hey, it's Sean, call me back. Need to talk to you."

Xerxys · 04-04-2009, 10:58 AM

I use voice mail. Voice mail is just as important as email, text and all the rest. I hardly leave them if I was just calling to say hi but despite everything else, I use voice mail.

BurntToast · 04-04-2009, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by World's King

I never leave them or listen when people leave them for me. If I need to tell you something and don't really need a response, I'll text you. If I need to talk to you I'll assume you're smart enough to figure that out just by the fact that I called you. It's pointless to say, "Hey, it's Sean, call me back. Need to talk to you."

My thoughts exactly. I disabled voice mail on my cell because I have it with me 24/7. If you called and I didn't answer it's because I didn't want to talk to you. And if it's something important, they were supposed to call my wife's phone anyway.

Cynosure · 04-05-2009, 08:05 AM

A year ago, my mom left me a voice mail and I inadvertently saved it. Now I'm glad I did, because she died five months ago, of cancer. I plan to re-save it and listen to it, every now and then, for as long as our phone service enables me to.

nikkiana · 04-05-2009, 08:52 AM

I'm not a huge fan of it, though I do listen to my messages... Though unless it's super important I usually don't call people back... I can't stand the phone.

777 · 04-05-2009, 09:20 AM

Back in '98, my manager at a bank did something that might have been revolutionary at the time. While listening to her voicemail, she would set the speaker phone on, and do other paper work at her desk. If it was an important message, she would jot down a few notes, and return a few calls after all her messages have played back.

Personally, I screen calls to my cell if I don't recognize the number, since they'll only leave a message if it's an important call. At first, I would Google the phone number to see who had called when there was not message, and most of the time the number was on listed as a telemarketing company.

And I love leaving voice mail. I'm not talking to a machine anymore than when writing email to a machine, both are forms of comunication. And voice mail is just that, a verbal message.

I dated this one gal that would call early in the morning from her work line, and since I'm not in a chatty mood until the afternoon, I'd let the machine answer for me. Rather than leave voice mail, she would email me instead. Which was great for me

What boogled my mind, is that this gal is use to speaking to assemblies full of people, and yet an answering machinng gave her the heeby geebies.

healer · 04-05-2009, 11:51 AM

I don't think voicemail's going anywhere anytime soon.

If you're willing to wait through my automated greeting in addition to the 10 rings before the phone kicked over to voicemail to leave one, I'll assume it's important enough for me to listen to. This rings true at work especially - no one's going to bother leaving a message just to ask me how I'm doing.

And really, we can't take a few seconds out to listen to the messages themselves? I usually only have to listen to the first few seconds to realise what it's about and how to respond. Voice-to-text is cool and all, but I refuse to be reduced to channeling my life through my thumbs.

For me it's all about ease of use. It's easier for me to hold the '1' button down and listen to my messages than to press however many it takes to read through all of them.

Psycho Dad · 04-05-2009, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by f6twister

In a business environment, I think ignoring voice mail messages is bad work etiquette. If your employer provides that tool and it can't be turned disabled, it needs to be checked.

Agreed. IMHO, the best systems are the ones where a real, live human being answers the phone. If the person being called doesn't answer, it rings back to the operator who can then ask if the caller wants transfered to the voicemail of the person they want to reach.

grumpyolddude · 04-05-2009, 07:10 PM

As annoying as voicemail can be, I hate text messaging double. I rarely respond to a text. If I do, it's with a phone call or email.

I use voicemail as a call screener, as well. If I don't recognize the number calling, or if I do and just don't have the time or inclination to get into a conversation with that person at the time, I let it ring out and wait to see who they are or what's on their mind on the voicemail they leave, if any. Plus, as a rule, I don't take personal cell calls while at work, nor texts, or chat requests.

ametc · 04-05-2009, 08:17 PM

I checked my voicemail just now and I got new messages from three weeks ago.

I think people need to stop sending boring, lame, unimportant messages to the voice mail box and just call back later.

telekinetic · 04-06-2009, 07:43 AM

Texts are superior in every way than VMs, and I will always send a text if I get someone's message. Why? Time and difficulty to parse. I can read a text message in 3 seconds, versus calling the traditional vm hassle of punching through menu options, then either waiting through the message header and wasting that time, or not having the message header and then having no idea if this was sent a week ago or this morning and by who.

Google is working on the ultimate solution to this problem, which is auto-transcription of your VMs, which will then be sent to you via text. Until then, the interim solution of visual voicemail eliminates almost all of the hassle on my end, and since installing PhoneFusion I have started checking my cell voicemail with great regularity. Having a list of messages displaying who (or what number, at least) they are from, time, date, and length, and having to just hit 'play' (or be able to delete without listening) makes voicemail actually useful.

snowy · 04-06-2009, 07:58 AM

The only people who bother to leave me voicemails are clients, friends, and parents, so yes, I usually check them.

I don't like text messages, mostly because my provider (Sprint) totally dicked us. When we went to get me a new phone, I selected the LG Rumor for its nifty slideout keyboard after the guy in the store told us that text messages were only $5/mo, with no extra fees. Wrong. The bill showed up the next month with a $15 charge for access to Sprint's Vision network, plus the $5 for texting. We tried to straighten it out, but they insisted that we needed the $15/mo Vision access to even have texting (despite the fact that I asked the guy in the store that exact question). Given that I have a $20 line on a family plan, it's not worth paying as much as my line costs just to get texting, so we turned the texting off (Sprint's charges are obscene for individual messages). Unfortunately, a lot of people my age and younger don't seem to comprehend that not everyone has text messaging or wants to use it. Sure, it has its uses, and there are times I wish I had it, but I think our culture has gone a little text-crazy. I HATE seeing people text in class. GRRRR. How much are you paying to sit in a college classroom and text people? Seriously.

04-03-2009, 02:44 PM	#2 (permalink)
lostgirl lightform Location: Edge of the deep green sea	Hate it, but I hate talking on the phone in general. The phone is still better than text messaging and e-mail which I can't bring myself to write to often. I much prefer to talk to someone in person, and avoid all the above as much as I can. I guess you could say I am communication impaired. It is something I am working on, which is why I am back on here posting more often. I am making an effort to reach out to others. Voice mail I find very annoying. I don't like listening to messages and most of all leaving one. Just like on answering machines before voice mail, I rarely leave a message unless it is important or I really want you to call me back. I feel so stupid talking to a machine. __________________ We're about to go through the crucible, but we'll come out the other side. We always arise from our own ashes. Everything returns later in its changed form. - Children of Dune

04-03-2009, 02:49 PM	#3 (permalink)
Martian Young Crumudgeon Location: Canada	I still use voicemail. I recently switched cell phone providers, and the two features I insisted on having were voicemail and call display. Interestingly enough, I hate text messages and avoid them as much as possible. I'd just as soon have someone leave me a voice message that I can check at my convenience. I do frequently find myself erasing messages that are no longer pertinent by the time I get them (mostly from my mother, who loves to leave a lot of messages), but I get important messages often enough to mean that the function itself is still indispensable. __________________ I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said - Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

04-03-2009, 03:19 PM	#4 (permalink)
Bear Cub The Reverend Side Boob Location: Nofe Curolina	Always check it at work. If somebody left me a voicemail rather than an e-mail, odds are it's important and needs done ASAP. In construction, you can't afford to have delays. __________________ Living in the United Socialist States of America.

04-03-2009, 03:27 PM	#5 (permalink)
mixedmedia has all her shots. Location: Florida	Like lostgirl, I really dislike talking on phones in general, but I always listen to my voicemail (and respond) when I am at work. It would be neglectful not to and I imagine I would get into a lot of trouble if I didn't. My personal voicemail is a different story, though, I'll go for days sometimes without listening to messages. It's pretty much just my family that calls me, though, and we always end up catching each other one way or another. __________________ Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

04-03-2009, 09:28 PM	#6 (permalink)
CinnamonGirl She's Actual Size Location: Central Republic of Where-in-the-Hell	I really don't like leaving voice mails... I always sound like a complete dork. I'm not bug on talking on the phone in general, though; I'd much rather text. On the other hand, GETTING voice mails is different. If an unknown number calls me, I don't answer, and if they don't leave a voice mail, I'll have no idea who it was. Also, I can't answer the phone in class or at work. I don't get a signal at all in some of the school buildings, so a missed call won't register... without voice mail, I'd miss some (somewhat) important stuff. The voice-to-text thing is an interesting idea, but I think I prefer listening to the voice mail. I have a few friends that leave some really goofy messages every time they call, and if I was just reading text, I wouldn't get the silly voices or songs. That's no fun. __________________ "...for though she was ordinary, she possessed health, wit, courage, charm, and cheerfulness. But because she was not beautiful, no one ever seemed to notice these other qualities, which is so often the way of the world." "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

04-04-2009, 05:44 AM	#7 (permalink)
SabrinaFair Junkie Location: Louisville, KY	I hate leaving voice mails, I sound like an inarticulate goober. I still listen to mine, mainly because it drives me crazy to have that little voice mail symbol on my cell phone. I'm weird. I don't have voice mail at work anymore (thank god), so any such messages I get are generally personal in nature. I generally only get them from unknown callers (my eye doctor, my dentist, etc.) or my Mama. __________________ "With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy." -Desiderata

04-04-2009, 06:44 AM	#9 (permalink)
Meditrina Junkie Location: LI,NY	We have voice mail at work, but I don't rush to listen to it because 9 out of 10 times, they email me as well. OR they don't leave a detailed message and I don't know what they want. If I don't call back quick enough for them, they walk down to my office. So, the voice mail is there, but it is not as important or urgent. At home, we have caller ID. Most callers don't leave messages anyway. Probably solicitors. __________________ "Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles." ~Alex Karras

04-04-2009, 09:44 AM	#10 (permalink)
dlish Currently sour but formerly Dlishs Super Moderator Location: Australia/UAE	never had it..rarely ever used it __________________ An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay? - Filthy

04-04-2009, 09:58 AM	#11 (permalink)
World's King Here Location: Denver City Denver	I never leave them or listen when people leave them for me. If I need to tell you something and don't really need a response, I'll text you. If I need to talk to you I'll assume you're smart enough to figure that out just by the fact that I called you. It's pointless to say, "Hey, it's Sean, call me back. Need to talk to you." __________________ heavy is the head that wears the crown

04-04-2009, 10:58 AM	#12 (permalink)
Xerxys Junkie Location: My head.	I use voice mail. Voice mail is just as important as email, text and all the rest. I hardly leave them if I was just calling to say hi but despite everything else, I use voice mail.

04-05-2009, 08:05 AM	#14 (permalink)
Cynosure Psycho Location: the center of the multiverse	A year ago, my mom left me a voice mail and I inadvertently saved it. Now I'm glad I did, because she died five months ago, of cancer. I plan to re-save it and listen to it, every now and then, for as long as our phone service enables me to.

04-05-2009, 08:52 AM	#15 (permalink)
nikkiana Tilted Location: Brooklyn, NY	I'm not a huge fan of it, though I do listen to my messages... Though unless it's super important I usually don't call people back... I can't stand the phone. __________________ nikkiana

04-05-2009, 09:20 AM	#16 (permalink)
777 drawn and redrawn Location: Some where in Southern California	Back in '98, my manager at a bank did something that might have been revolutionary at the time. While listening to her voicemail, she would set the speaker phone on, and do other paper work at her desk. If it was an important message, she would jot down a few notes, and return a few calls after all her messages have played back. Personally, I screen calls to my cell if I don't recognize the number, since they'll only leave a message if it's an important call. At first, I would Google the phone number to see who had called when there was not message, and most of the time the number was on listed as a telemarketing company. And I love leaving voice mail. I'm not talking to a machine anymore than when writing email to a machine, both are forms of comunication. And voice mail is just that, a verbal message. I dated this one gal that would call early in the morning from her work line, and since I'm not in a chatty mood until the afternoon, I'd let the machine answer for me. Rather than leave voice mail, she would email me instead. Which was great for me What boogled my mind, is that this gal is use to speaking to assemblies full of people, and yet an answering machinng gave her the heeby geebies. __________________ "I don't know that I ever wanted greatness, on its own. It seems rather like wanting to be an engineer, rather than wanting to design something - or wanting to be a writer, rather than wanting to write. It should be a by-product, not a thing in itself. Otherwise, it's just an ego trip." Roger Zelazny

04-05-2009, 07:10 PM	#19 (permalink)
grumpyolddude Deliberately unfocused Location: Amazon.com and CDBaby	As annoying as voicemail can be, I hate text messaging double. I rarely respond to a text. If I do, it's with a phone call or email. I use voicemail as a call screener, as well. If I don't recognize the number calling, or if I do and just don't have the time or inclination to get into a conversation with that person at the time, I let it ring out and wait to see who they are or what's on their mind on the voicemail they leave, if any. Plus, as a rule, I don't take personal cell calls while at work, nor texts, or chat requests. __________________ "Regret can be a harder pill to swallow than failure .With failure you at least know you gave it a chance..." David Howard

04-05-2009, 08:17 PM	#20 (permalink)
ametc Psycho	I checked my voicemail just now and I got new messages from three weeks ago. I think people need to stop sending boring, lame, unimportant messages to the voice mail box and just call back later.

04-06-2009, 07:43 AM	#21 (permalink)
telekinetic zomgomgomgomgomgomg Location: Fauxenix, Azerona	Texts are superior in every way than VMs, and I will always send a text if I get someone's message. Why? Time and difficulty to parse. I can read a text message in 3 seconds, versus calling the traditional vm hassle of punching through menu options, then either waiting through the message header and wasting that time, or not having the message header and then having no idea if this was sent a week ago or this morning and by who. Google is working on the ultimate solution to this problem, which is auto-transcription of your VMs, which will then be sent to you via text. Until then, the interim solution of visual voicemail eliminates almost all of the hassle on my end, and since installing PhoneFusion I have started checking my cell voicemail with great regularity. Having a list of messages displaying who (or what number, at least) they are from, time, date, and length, and having to just hit 'play' (or be able to delete without listening) makes voicemail actually useful. __________________ twisted no more

04-06-2009, 07:58 AM	#22 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	The only people who bother to leave me voicemails are clients, friends, and parents, so yes, I usually check them. I don't like text messages, mostly because my provider (Sprint) totally dicked us. When we went to get me a new phone, I selected the LG Rumor for its nifty slideout keyboard after the guy in the store told us that text messages were only $5/mo, with no extra fees. Wrong. The bill showed up the next month with a $15 charge for access to Sprint's Vision network, plus the $5 for texting. We tried to straighten it out, but they insisted that we needed the $15/mo Vision access to even have texting (despite the fact that I asked the guy in the store that exact question). Given that I have a $20 line on a family plan, it's not worth paying as much as my line costs just to get texting, so we turned the texting off (Sprint's charges are obscene for individual messages). Unfortunately, a lot of people my age and younger don't seem to comprehend that not everyone has text messaging or wants to use it. Sure, it has its uses, and there are times I wish I had it, but I think our culture has gone a little text-crazy. I HATE seeing people text in class. GRRRR. How much are you paying to sit in a college classroom and text people? Seriously. __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau