I can see someone leaving a message like that if I had an answering machine on a home phone. We know people who screen calls like that and will only pick up once they hear your voice. Then again I feel like telling those people this is the age of caller id, but that's there prerogative.
I've had a hard time trying to figure out why people do that on my cell phone, though. It's not like I can hear them leaving the voice mail, but you'd be surprised how many times it happens in any given week.
My Grandma does just that on an almost daily basis, but I can understand why she does it. She's quite naive about voice mail, and she just doesn't understand that it works differently than the answering machine sitting on her night stand. She really believes I can hear every word she's saying no matter how many times I try to explain to her that I can't hear the voice mails until I call to check my messages.
The rest of these people really don't have that excuse, though. For instance tonight I received a voice mail from a friend who was calling to find out what type of prenatal vitamins I took while I was pregnant. Mind you she called me from her cell phone, but she still left me the following voicemail.
Hey girl. Are you there? Hello? Pick up your phone! Seriously, I need to ask you what was the name of the prenatals your doctor gave you. Hello? Oh well I guess you're not there. Just call me back.
When I checked my voice mail I had to laugh that yet another person had left me a voicemail like this, and she'd done it from her cell phone. It's not like she doesn't know how voice mail works, and it's not like she accidentally called my cell phone since she doesn't even have my home phone number (which is also on a voice mail service and not an answer machine).
Then all of a sudden a thought popped into my head. I wonder if these people are leaving me these messages because of my settings in Youmail, since that's what I use for my cell phone voice mail. Sure enough when I checked the voice mail logs I realized that every single one of these people were set to receive the "smart greeting" message when they called.
The smart greeting is the default message I have set to play if I haven't chosen a personalized greeting for the caller. When this message plays it says "Hello (insert person's name), Jenn can't get to the phone right now. Please leave a message." I still don't get why all these people think I'm on the phone with them, though. The voice sounds nothing like me, and it tells them I can't answer the phone and to leave a message. All I can figure is that some people think it's really me joking around with them.
The only other time I've had an issue with this message was when I first switched my voice mail to Youmail's free service. The first time my Grandma received this message she left me a message pitching a fit wanting to know who in the world was the woman answering my phone, and why did she refuse to let my Grandma talk to me! It was pretty hilarious at the time, but after leaving me a few more messages like that she finally figured out it was a recording lol!
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