bill%gauss@gatech.edu (bill) (03/23/91)
Ever since I got Caller ID, I've noticed that some callers will call,
Call -- CALL, and will never leave a message. I can understand why
telemarketing creatures would not leave a message - they don't want to
take any more time on a call in order that they may cover as many
phones as possible within a given amount of time. Besides, a machine
can't slip up and inadvertently commit to a sale.
But why won't some people leave a message? Don't they realize that
most people have other things to do besides sit by the phone waiting
for it to ring? Most of us take showers, use the restroom, putter
about in the yard, go over to the local basketball court, eat dinner,
wash the dog, wash our clothes (in that order), and shop. Maybe these
people who don't leave messages are just gamblers at heart and they
want to take their chances catching their callee at a free moment.
Maybe they don't realize that if they leave a message they might
(probably will) get a call back, but if they don't leave a message
they definitely WILL NOT get a call back - unless I get real curious
and call a strange number back.
I'll be posting a "First Month of Caller ID" note here next.
Bill Berbenich Georgia Tech, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{backbones}!gatech!eedsp!bill Internet: bill@eedsp.gatech.educollins@wam.umd.edu (Bernard F. Collins) (03/25/91)
In article <telecom11.227.8@eecs.nwu.edu> Bill Berbenich writes: > But why won't some people leave a message? Don't they realize that [Stuff deleted] > wash the dog, wash our clothes (in that order), and shop. Maybe these > people who don't leave messages are just gamblers at heart and they > want to take their chances catching their callee at a free moment. > Maybe they don't realize that if they leave a message they might > (probably will) get a call back, but if they don't leave a message > they definitely WILL NOT get a call back - unless I get real curious > and call a strange number back. I confess. I am one of those disturbed few who frequently hang up without leaving a message on an answering machine. I do not resent the machines. I own one myself. There are however many situations in which I prefer simply to hang up. When I am calling just to chat with a friend; or when I need a piece of information which I can readily get elsewhere. Many times I simply do not want to put another person to the trouble of trying to reach me. Answering machines are wonderful devices that in some measure restore control to people who do not like to be at the beck and call of anyone at any time. That does not mean that those who reach a machine are required by good manners to leave a message. If I visited someone's home in person, and he were not there, I very well might choose not to leave a note on his door. The freedom to take or not to take a call is accompnied by the freedom to leave or not to leave a message. There are very many real-life circumstances in which people like myself do not find that the curiosity of the persons we are calling is enough of a reason to leave a message.
"Robert E. Zabloudil" <nol2105%dsacg2.dsac.dla.mil@dsac.dla.mil> (04/06/91)
In article <telecom11.227.8@eecs.nwu.edu> bill@eedsp.gatech.edu writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 227, Message 8 of 13 > Ever since I got Caller ID, I've noticed that some callers will call, > Call -- CALL, and will never leave a message. I can understand why > telemarketing creatures would not leave a message - they don't want to My answering machine is sort of rinky dink (fixed length OGM, and as a holdover from my radio days, I hate dead air, so I filled the w-h-o-l-e OGM tape), and I tell 'em "we don't really like answering machines ourselves, but we didn't have any choice right now, we had to put it on, so...". One day, someone who thought it was urgent called and hung up, called and hung up, over and over, and filled up the whole tape while we were out of town for the day. She's fairly intelligent; you'd think she would know that we would either pick up the phone and talk to her if we were just monitoring calls (not paranoid, just can't always get there quickly to pick it up, you know), or we would call her back as soon as we could, or maybe we were being antisocial (after the eighth hangup, a different adjective comes to mind). Like you, I wonder sometimes ... I might call back a second time, if I thought they'd forgotten me ... by the time we got back that evening and called her, she was not home, and talking to other people we found they had handled the situation anyway.