Fine, don't leave one.

People constantly call my place. Ring, ring, ring ... click, and the answering machine comes on. And then you hear:

"Doooooooooooooo ..."

Nothing. Just a dial tone. They don't even leave a message.

And that makes me wonder whether the caller really had anything in any value to say in the first place, if it wasn't even worth leaving a quick message. After all, we always say:

"Well, if it's important, they'll call back."


(Although, what if it was their one call from the police station, and they just wasted it to talk to your answering machine? But I guess if that were the case, they really would have regretted hanging up without leaving a message. Serves them right.)

But then, we all do that. We've all done it at one time or another -- be honest, sure you have -- and at the time, we had our reasons for just hanging up on the machine without so much as leaving a message. So, let's have it out, then. When do you decide not to leave a message, and why?

4 comments:

S said...

- when it's not important. XD

- when I know that by the time they get to the voice message, I will have talked to them in person or by some other means already.

- sometimes, if they don't need to call me back, I'll hang up and hop online to send them e-mail instead.

Master Bull said...

I find that if I want to ask a hot, sexy girl out on a date, leaving a message on her answering machine will guarantee that she NEVER picks up the phone when you call.

Therefore, when people don't leave messages on your answering machine, it's because all the hot, sexy girls who call you are simply afraid you won't call them back for a midnight rendezvous!

Ben said...

Yeah, sometimes it's really not important, but the reason I don't leave a message (hoping to email/IM them instead) is because calling someone is lower on the reach-out procedure for me. My first instinct is to IM them (or leave an IM with them even if they're offline) or email them, and then call (depending on the urgency).

Huh, it must be all those hot sexy girls calling me and not being able to get through. That must be it. Ah, all those midnight rendezvous I've passed up! Funny that I don't have the same issue calling them. But they all seem to have the same phone number, I noticed: some deli shop in downtown whose owner denies knowing who the girl is. Haha, what a kidder, that owner. He must be the father of many lovely daughters.

I sometimes don't leave a message if I know that I'm just going to call again.

Or if I'm calling a mobile phone and know that my number will show up in the missed calls. (I figure that if you see my number in the "missed calls" list, you should take it as you missed my call and should call me back.)

Or if I just wanna know something real quick, and if you're not gonna answer, then fine, I'll get my answer somewhere else. And later on, I'll blame you for wasting my lifeline and making me lose the $1 million question.

Malek said...

If I call someone and no one answers, I almost always leave a message. If I don't, it's usually because I realize I've called the wrong person.