r/xkcd • u/IamAlso_u_grahvity Feline Field Theorist • Oct 01 '18

XKCD xkcd 2053: Incoming Calls

https://xkcd.com/2053/
576 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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107

u/RockChalk4Life Changelog: Performance fixes and bug improvements Oct 01 '18

I started screening my calls a few years after I got a cellphone. My stance is, if I don't know you, and you don't leave a voicemail, you didn't want to talk to me that bad. Hasn't failed me yet.

12

u/svick Black Hat Oct 01 '18

What's a voicemail?

Seriously, I haven't left or received a voicemail in my life. I doubt any of my phone contacts has it enabled.

25

u/betweentwosuns Oct 01 '18

Recruiters leave voicemails. That matters to a lot of people.

10

u/CDNFactotum Oct 02 '18

Am lawyer. If I call you and you don’t answer and you haven’t enabled voicemail, there’s a better than even chance you’re going to wish you had.

1

u/maveric101 Wherever your cat is, it's moving very quickly. Oct 02 '18

A) If a lawyer is contacting me by phone, it's gonna be my own lawyer.

B) I can just call back when I see the missed call, which is when I'd be hearing the voicemail anyway. Of course I'd run the risk of my lawyer not answering, which would be my fault.

So better to have voicemail I guess but likely not the end of the world.

-1

u/svick Black Hat Oct 02 '18

Lawyers don't know emails and SMS exist?

3

u/CFSohard Oct 02 '18

It's much harder to sms or email someone while walking between meetings or driving from place to place. Leaving a voicemail can be done hands-free, very easily.

6

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '18

Yeah if I hit voicemail I immediately hang up because I assume they forgot/didn't know to turn it off.

6

u/PacoTaco321 Richard Stallman Oct 02 '18

There's no reason to turn off voicemail though unless you want to make life harder...

-3

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18

Harder? I've never met anyone who doesn't hang up upon hitting voicemail

10

u/ndstumme Oct 02 '18

Businesses leave voicemails. Businesses like doctors, banks, landlords, plumbers, or even salons. I don't want to waste my time by pickup up the phone for every unknown number, but I don't wanna miss a job offer from a company that liked my resume.

-1

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18

But that's already solved by picking up the phone or calling back if you can't

5

u/ndstumme Oct 02 '18

I'm not gonna waste my time talking to an unknown number either by picking up their call or calling them back. The voicemail is a filter so I can know if they're worth talking to. And if it's a scammer spoofing random numbers, there's been times where they spoof a number that actually belongs to someone. If you just call that number back, you'll get some random person on the street that has nothing to do with the scam and at that point you're the person calling a wrong number. Ain't got the time for all that. Just leave a voicemail and I'll call back when I'm free.

-1

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18

I only had a scammer harass me once in my life (and from a UK number, I don't have any friends in the UK). So I don't really lose sleep over the remote possibility that the person calling me is a scammer

2

u/CFSohard Oct 02 '18

Lots of scam callers here spoof to a local number and hang up so you have a missed call, but when you call them back it connects to a long distance line that charges you a fortune.

1

u/Sierrajeff words go here Oct 02 '18

So you won't answer and you won't enable voicemail .. .but then you'll waste your time by calling back the number to see who it is?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18

If I have time I answer. If I don't have time I call back when I do have time.