When I had a work mobile phone in Australia I had my voicemail saying I was on leave and to call the office.
The boss wasn’t happy, but the customers actually called the service desk because of it.
Is that not normal? Most people business wise I’ve contacted or even for medical stuff in Canada they do. Auto email response, change voicemail to contact X or the receptionist.
They’re saying they left the voicemail as “on leave” when they were not in reality
No, almost everyone I know would have “leave a message and I will call you back.”
Your boss would be breaking the law in Australia, now explicitly under the new right to disconnect legislation, if they said anything about it.
(Though, could have probably been argued in the past also as unpaid overtime in the past)
This was a decade ago. He was actually annoyed that I didn’t change it after I got back from holidays.
So I was working, the customer would call and get the voicemail on my mobile, then call the main support line and got me.
Need to teach her how to turn off voicemail redirection.
here in chile we dont longer use voicemail, cant remember when was the last time i heard one… That said, a lot of people send whatsapp audios, i understand its easier for some folks, but, common!
i think I have my voicemail as the disconnected phone sound to stave off robocallers. anybody who wanted to call me texted me immediately after to confirm.
I worked for nearly a decade as product support for various voice mail applications, so I feel very strongly about this.
Fuck voice mail.
See, for me, if you call me and don’t leave a voicemail, I’m going to assume it was unimportant (or spam) and I won’t call back. Businesses, which are most likely going to an unknown number, should leave a voicemail if they want any action on my part. I mostly don’t want businesses texting me because they tend to spam the fuck out of you. And I’m sure as fuck never going to pick up the phone for an unknown number.
Recently, I’ve been getting calls I’m pretty sure are spam. They are all from different numbers, but all of the area codes are from where I got my phone number, which is quite far from where I live now. Additionally, they all do leave voicemails, but each and every one is exactly thirty seconds of silence.
Spam or not, I can’t figure out the point.
Probably a bot waiting for a voice in order to start. It waits until it hangs up.
That makes sense, and I appreciate the information.
You’d think they would have marked me as inactive by now - they’ve been calling every day or two, including weekends, for more than a month. I haven’t answered once! The persistence is the only thing that made me question whether it was spam.
It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop… ever, until
you are deadit’s no longer profitable to operate the automated service!
They spoof a number close to your number to increase the chance you pickup, they don’t know you moved.
I’d bet the silence calls are to determine if a phone number is active.
I definitely know about the spoofing - that’s what made me figure it was spam initially.
The waiting for a voice response makes sense, but I’ve never encountered a system that didn’t at least say some form of “hello.” Not this persistent of one, anyway.
Thanks!
Had this problem too (phone number is from NM but I’m in MA now) so I just started messing with them. I’d answer “Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albuquerque district office, how may I direct your call?” Click. After about a week of doing this I haven’t gotten a single spam call, this was like 2 years ago. Who cares it it’s “impersonating a federal agency” or whatever, they’re scammers overseas, fuck em.
It’s AI, I’d be willing to bet. Waiting to detect a human before responding with whatever scam they’re selling.
that doesn’t really require AI lol
Playing back a message when you hear someone pick up? No, they’ve been doing that forever. But trying to determine whether you have a human on the line or just their voicemail recording? That’s something that could start to require more sophisticated language models, and the fact that the message didn’t just start rattling something off as soon as something picked up suggests maybe they’re using it. Actual phone scams using AI? Well, if they’re not doing it yet, they will be soon.
And I’m sure as fuck never going to pick up the phone for an unknown number.
You’ve gotta be diligent: if you do business with something, like a project or an appointment, you need to drop their number into your contact list. Every time. Yeah, it’s neat if you need to reach out to them, which will be never because it’s on the phone, but it’s primarily so they can call you and not be unknown.
I’d love a QR code with the org’s phone/mail/blah number on it at the front desk, because I do in-person a lot because fuck the phone.
I prefer voice mail, If it’s important enough send it, if you’re not a contact and there’s no caller ID I’m not picking up, I’m not screening your call I don’t want you to know I saw the call.
If you’re a contact and I miss you send a text
I disabled my voicemail. Problem solved.
I’ve never had it enabled
Over here whenever you get a new provider, the voicemail is automatically enabled. You need to actively disable it or you are being spammed with messages from your mom saying “hi, yeah, so I tried to call, but you didn’t pick up… So, I’ll try again in 2 minutes. Bye!” “hi, yeah, so I tried to call you again, but still you didn’t pick up. Why aren’t you picking up? Anyway, I’ll try again in a bit. Bye!” etc.
Visual voicemail (voicemail transcribed to text) has been a godsend for me. The number of doctors offices that call with an unlisted number is staggering.
Hag up before the beep! Or else it just record you hanging up, and leave me a voice message to delete.
Mine is “You have reached my phone but not me, I don’t really check voicemail, if you need to reach me, text.” I still get voicemail.
Some voicemail the phone will transcribe, those I read but really don’t listen to them.
Some people just can’t fathom communicating other than a voice call lol
Why I still end up listening to a voicemail after reading the transcription:
I’d still have to because the new voice mail notification won’t go away until you at least pop in and delete it or listen.
Voicemail is actually really nice, if people call you and don’t leave a message, the call was not important or a spam call. Its like the perfect filter.
Yeah but I get like 5 spam calls a week from “Nicole with loan processing” or “Joshua Martinez from the loan issuance department” and they always leave a voicemail that I have to delete because I tried to get a personal loan 4 months ago.
My kid can make 100 push ups, when Nobody’s watching.I love that meme! I can see this one being real though
ya if the child is old enough to know what a phone call is, they are old enough to understand how pointless voicemails are
Voice mail still has uses. There are times you need to be able to receive calls from businesses or government entities. Often those entities don’t have call centers set up to let their workes send texts. Sometimes the only way you can hear news you need to hear is via a phone call.
That sounds like their problem, and they should fix that. Probably cheaper in the long run too.
Which is kinda funny because they could save money by automating texting for some of the shit they have people call for.
Though on the other hand, if it’s a legitimate business, you can stop the call spam easier, at least in places with enforced do not call lists.
And then people wonder why nobody has friends and prefer talking to an AI
