Don’t get me wrong: voicemail itself is fine, just fine. The concept of leaving a voice email (really, that’s all it is) for someone else for perusal at that person’s leisure is a good one.
But the interfaces on these things are horrible remnants of the 1950s, requiring illogical key presses and strange paths.
For instance let’s say I get a message on my phone at work (it has happened once or thrice). In order to get that message, I need to:
- Hit the voice mail button (SO PAINFUL)
- Dial my extension number, even though I’m calling from my extension
- Dial my password, which is always “bosco”
- Tell the system I want to listen to messages (dur!) by pressing “2”
- Listen to details on the message including who sent it and when; takes 10-15 seconds
- Press “0” to play the message
- Listen to the actual message
- Delete the message, if I like, by pressing *3 (star-D for delete)
- Cry over this silly long process
It’s really bad, isn’t it? I had to make a cheatsheet for this because it’s so not as I would expect. In an ideal world, I’d dial voicemail, enter a password, and then get the messages. That’s it. No double-secret confirmations, no wacky-ass “want to listen?” key presses (and come on, “2”? why?) and juuust a little easier deletion.
That’s why I use email.
Posted in Technology