“There’s not anybody who really cares about using voice messaging the way I envisioned it.” According to Gordon Matthews, the inventor of voice mail, he never anticipated that his automated message system would be used to confuse and frustrate business callers. He didn’t foresee how many ways businesses could devise to misuse his system.
When asked what aggravates them most about modern phone communication the majority of people will say that it is voice mail. Pressed for details, they explain that it is the automated answering process that companies use to screen and direct calls that bugs them, not the basic messaging-taking function.
Companies are spending large sums of money to antagonize their customers and it only seems to get worse. When a person needs help with a problem and can’t reach another human, the situation deteriorates rapidly. Using the numbers on your touch tone pad is fine when you want to verify your bank balance, pay a bill or have a dry newspaper delivered; but when your pipes are backing up, your new computer just crashed, or a tree just fell on your brand new SUV, call processing may not be the...