do people not listen to answering machine greetings?

[bazookaman]

sometimes we get the strangest messages left on our machine. obviously a wrong number but they proceed with a very detailed message for someone who is not even mentioned in the greeting. Sometimes we get messages from people who are obviously close to the person they are TRYING to reach so they should know (if they'd listened) that they had the wrong number. Just strikes me as weird.

Usually they're good for a laugh. But we did get a call once from someone who was leaving a condolence call! My wife called her back and told her she had the wrong number.

[Paul F.]

No.. they don't.


My parents had a number that was two "flipped" digits from being the number for Cal-Trans Road Conditions hotline.
One winter, the local news-droids flipped the digits around, and gave out my parents phone number.

The answering machine message was very unequivocal, "This is NOT, I repeat, NOT The Cal Trans Road Conditions Number... that number was given in ERROR. The Channel 3 News was WRONG! The correct number is "xxx-xxxx". If you have a messgge for the F. Family, please leave it".


47, yes, Fourty Seven, people left MESSAGES asking "Cal Trans" to call them back with Road Conditions information.
I was a teenager at the time, and REALLY wanted to call each and every one of them back and tell them about the HUGE snowstorms and landslides that had killed thousands, and sealed off the area from the rest of the world... councel them to stockpile food, ammunition, and medical supplies.. it would be MONTHS before the roads would be open..
My mom was a spoiled sport and erased the messages before I could get any of them down.


Where was I?
Oh yes.... People are stupid.
No, they don't listen.

[RAMd®d]

I only bypass the "greeting" if I've already heard it.

So far, I've *never* heard one of those "our menu has changed" greetings were the menu has actually changed.

[Chupa Chupa]

Of course people don't listen to answering machine greetings. This is what they hear...

"blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah." beeeeeeeeep.


Of course most people don't listen to their own answering machine messages either. This is what they hear...

"blah blah blah, blah blah blah 213-555-5555. Thanks. Time remaining 3 minutes and."

[OWC Jamie]

they don't listen to human greetings.

Phone rings.
I answer:
"Good morning, XXX, this is BIll, how can I help you.."
Caller: "Is this John ?"
Me: "This is Bill, how can I help you."
Caller: "Is this John?"


sigh.



If I transpose the last two digits of my phone number I get the local mental health clinic, so sometimes I'm nice, sometimes I have fun.

I'm impressed with the brilliants that use redial after getting a wrong number.
Repeatedly.

Sometimes they tell thier whole sad story before asking who is listening. There are some troubled peoples out there.

[Zoidberg]

I used to work at a restaurant that was a couple of digits off from a local cab company. We would get calls all the time for cabs; eventually the office clerk got tired of it and started telling people that a cab would be there soon. If it was raining, she would tell them they had to wait outside. This was pre-Dogbert, but I still think she was the model for Dogbert in that regard.

Similar situation with an engineering firm I worked at that had a number similar to a local day spa. The receptionist got so tired of it that she started taking appointments.

In both cases, the situation was the same: the phone would be answered with the proper company name (say, "Hello, this is ABC"), the person would say, Is this XYZ?, and there'd almost always be an argument from the caller.

And I can do one better. That same engineering firm had the same suite number as a lawyer across the street (3502 versus 3501 as the street address). People -- who were involved in a class action suit kind of thing -- would come into the office and start demanding to see someone, even after we would explain that they wanted to be across the street.

The world makes a lot more sense when you realize most people are stupid.

[wurm]

[quote Zoidberg]The world makes a lot more sense when you realize most people are stupid.
Thanks, Zoidberg. If I were the type to use a sig, I'd have just found it.

[Harbourmaster]

I was calling someone the other day and her message said to "send me a text message because I never listen to the voice messages....ever"

[incognegro]

Try 1-800-S0S-APPLE if you dare.

The number between the S is a zero. S-zero-S. Have fun.

[rz]

My in-laws number is one off of a local pizza place. My father-in-law frequently takes orders for pizza. Sometimes he'll even tell them that their pizza is free if it isn't there in 30 minutes. I'm sure the actual pizza place gets a lot of angry people when they call back after 30 minutes and want to know when their free pizza will be delivered.