I Hate Voicemail

I know some people like the author, people who never listen to their voicemail. I call and leave them a message and they call me back without listening to it. When they do this, they are communicating to me that their time is more important than mine. I am often just conveying information and I have to say it twice if they don't listen to the message. That's fine if it's a salesman cold-calling you. If it's a friend or family member, that's insulting.

There are a number of other reasons to use voicemail:

1) Everyone can speak faster than they can text. If you have a significant amount of information to convey, texting sucks. Voicemail can be very efficient.

2) Many people don't have unlimited texting plans and texting can get expensive quickly.

3) Texting is dangerous and illegal while driving in many places, while speaking and listening on the phone are often not illegal and definitely less dangerous.

You lost me with the first line: "Leaving someone a voicemail message on someone’s cell phone in 2011 is not only misguided, it’s selfish."

If you don't want to get voicemail, don't offer it as an option to your callers.

I get really bent out of shape by people who expect that everyone trying to reach them by <insert communication medium here> will follow their personal, and unpublished, rules.

We all use <insert communication medium here> in different ways, and most of the mediums are designed to be flexible, thus appealing to more users. Don't attribute malice, or selfishness, to other users of the medium who are using it in the way it was designed.

If you don't want people to leave a VM, say so. If you don't listen to your VMs, say so. If you don't want people to leave a long VM, say so.

Just as an alternative point of view: I probably won't call you back just because of a missed call if you don't leave a voicemail as I'll think whatever you were calling about wasn't important or if it was you will call back later.

I use Google Voice on my android phone and though it doesn't always update right away it does mean I don't have to call a voicemail number and log in to hear my messages I just press play.

I don't listen to voicemail, but it is rude not to accept it just as it is rude to leave long messages on voicemail.

The caller has already connected with you, for you to tell them to then hangup and try again with a txt or email is pretty obnoxious and arrogant.

I don't listen to voicemail, because I have googlevoice.

I agree fully. First of all 90% of my voicemail messages suck and follow this universal script:

- "Oh.. Erm.. It's XXX. I tried to reach you"

- Babbling, most are not used to a one-sided talk and get lost

- After listening the conversation could've been compressed to half a text message.

Unfortunately the business phone I have is required to support a voicebox. Worse: German carriers tend to abuse these things to milk their customers. The cheaper the carrier, the more certain you can be to have a mandatory (no way to turn it off. Calling your own box costs money..) mailbox that answers after X rings, where X is usually small enough that I can reach my wife only on the second try (before she pulls out the device the voicebox answers).

What a rant. I guess I have a deep sympathy for all people that hate this voicebox thing..

I'm notorious for never returning voice mails for the exact reasons expressed in this post. But two months ago I signed up for Google voice it largely fixed the problem. The text recognition is bad, but I can usually figure out who called me and that's all I need. The only outstanding issue is that my phone (WP7) doesn't always update the Google Voice tile that lets me know I have new messages. Not sure if that's an issue on other phones.

While I agree with the premise that voicemails that provide no additional information are not useful, the author is an elitist jerk. That being said, callers generally have no idea if you aren't answering because you're not near your phone, or because your phone is off/without reception/on a plane, in which case the call notification would never appear. Google Voice does a good job of solving this by includes notifications for missed calls, but everyone else has no way of knowing they missed a call.

I wonder if there's a way to deconfigure voicemail completely. Someone noticed that on a friend's phone & sort of envied them having "one less inbox." [1]

[1] http://a.wholelottanothing.org/2011/04/three-phone-tips-for-...

Personally, even if I get voicemails I tend not to listen to them - just return the call. If my phone rings I find myself feeling a little stressed. I'm usually in the middle of something that I don't want to be pulled away from for more than a minute. Phone calls always imply they will last longer than you want.

I don't hate voice mail - I hate people who use it without understanding how to.

Half my messages are .... crackling .... dut dut dut

I agree voicemail is pointless. Just send me a text message, email or Instant message.

while reading this I was afraid of what conclusion the author was going to reach -- but a vm message that says 'txt or email me' is great -- amen!

In soviet russia, voicemail leaves messages for you.