Our answering machine message features my husband’s voice, and it announces both of our names fully (since I hyphenate). So when someone calls, they hear, “You have reached the number for ManOftheHouse and Kathryn Petro-Harper. Please leave a message.” That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?
Yesterday a woman left the following message: “Oh, I was trying to reach the Smiths. That sounds like your voice, Gregory. This is Somebody’s Mommy, and I’m calling to try to set up play dates for Kid 1 and Kid 2. Please give me a call!”
Sometimes, if the caller leaves a number I’ll call back and tell them their message didn’t reach the intended party. But other times I feel a little mean. I figure that if the announcement is clear (I mean really, it’s not a generic “We’re not here right now” message), and they are stupid enough to ignore the information and leave a message, they get to deal with the consequences without my help.
In this case she didn’t leave a number. But please, can someone explain why people do this?
I have two guesses about that:
(1) Her behavior could indicate how inattentive we can be at times, and how stupid our actions can be when we aren’t paying attention to what we’re doing; or
(2), it could be she was so firmly convinced she’d dialed the right number that she couldn’t really believe she had the wrong one.
If it’s #2, I hope for the sake of her family that she isn’t always so adamantly convinced she’s right.
It’s fun to speculate about this.
Lol!!!
It’s because she has two kids, young enough to require “playdates.” My guess is that they were tugging at her and whining the entire time she was leaving the message and didn’t really get a chance to hear a thing.
Oh, the things you will learn! 🙂
It’s as puzzling as the people who, when I answer the phone, ask if this is MISTER MyLastName. I don’t have a deep voice at all, it’s very clearly female. I think sometimes people don’t allow evidence to contradict what they firmly believe.
Do not feel guilty about not suffering fools gladly. People should be responsible for their own actions and if they can’t listen to a message or leave their phone number, well, they’ll eventually live and learn. Or, in some cases, maybe not. As this case demonstrates, it’s not your responsibility to babysit adults.
What really baffles me is the occasional wrong number caller who repeatedly calls back, arguing and insisting that this is the Smith’s number and who am I and what am I doing in the Smith’s house and why won’t I put one of the Smith’s on the line and…
Yes. Because they’re stupid.
There’s one more possibility. The woman has small children and is on the verge of insanity just being around small children all day. She dialed randomly, was delighted to hear an adult voice and hoped you’d call back so she could talk grown-up stuff with someone, anyone.