Live data from Hacker News

Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

bloomberg.com

81–90 of 112 posts

Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

#81

I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those that hate texting (older, in general). I enjoy being reachable by people (family, clients, employees, etc.) and I don't want them to have an obstacle to sending me a message. Certainly voicemail is an annoyance but it's also often the best option. Just last nigh…

I am 45 and hate my voicemail at work but normally don't text anyone outside of my IT department.

A solution may be a Google Voice type service for businesses. It would be so much easier to get voicemails in my email that are already dictated so have an idea what they are about and just "click" play if needed. One won't have to pick up the phone, type their password, and listen to each message. It's 2014 (almost 2015)!

Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

#82

I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those that hate texting (older, in general). I enjoy being reachable by people (family, clients, employees, etc.) and I don't want them to have an obstacle to sending me a message. Certainly voicemail is an annoyance but it's also often the best option. Just last nigh…

I'm 45. I prefer sms texts or emails to voicemail. I prefer sms texts or email to actuL voice calls too - it's just easier to share information. Of course sometimes phone calls are for just chatting and voicemails fail for that too.

Currently iMessages are causing considerable problems with silent fails and no option to send as SMS (which they used to have - not sure why that changed). All the other messaging solutions have some fairly big flaws too.

Also: i really really fucking hate the way I'll get a notification with a partial message, and then have to open the app to read the message. Opening the app to read the message has a delay of maybe a minute before the message downloads - why? Why can they show me a preview in a notification and then take an age to give me that same text in their app? This is particularly bad with Facebook's messenger app (so bad I'm tempted to delete the app and leave different contact details on FB) but als happens on Whatsapp and others.

Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

#83

I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those that hate texting (older, in general). I enjoy being reachable by people (family, clients, employees, etc.) and I don't want them to have an obstacle to sending me a message. Certainly voicemail is an annoyance but it's also often the best option. Just last nigh…

I'm near your age. Voice mail is slow and imprecise compared to text. If someone has a callback number I have replay it 2 or 3 times to get it written down assuming I can hear them clearly. Text is clear and unambiguous. If you want to talk in real time, let's use video. This is why I haven't had a phone in my house or at my desk for 2 years.

Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

#84

The first thing I do when I sit down at a new job is disconnect my landline or VoIP phone and put it in a drawer. HipChat, Skype chat, Email, text, or FB message, please. Voice is dead to me. I'm looking forward to the day when you can buy a SIM card from a cell carrier which offers only data and text, no voice call support. Also, am I the only one that is mildly disappointed that Coke's headquarters isn't shaped lik…

>> HipChat, Skype chat, Email, text, or FB message, please. I do not want people having that many ways to contact (interrupt) me.

The beauty of these channels is that they're all asynchronous by default. If you're busy, answer that IM later. If you're getting distracted, it's because you're letting it happen.

Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

#85
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't listened to my voicemail in probably two years. In the age of caller ID, what's the point ? I can see that you called me, and call back.

CLID is trivially spoofed; indeed there are CRM vendors that will do that for your sales force. Telco should fix CLID.

The problem is that "Telco" hasn't existed (at least in the USA) since divestiture of Bell System. Tariffed services include access to the PSTN as in terms of trunk lines (esp. PRIs), which allow end users to control call appearance including specification of the originating Directory Number (DN) that is passed in the SS7 call setup message (ISUP). It is even easier with SIP trunks.

This is a problem similar to DNS spoofing. Often a large organisation will have an 8xx number (toll-free) which they wish to appear for CLID on all outgoing calls from every line, every office.

How do you validate whether the toll-free (or whatever) CLID number passed is correspondent with the actual number of the OUTWATS trunk (or SIP trunk) used by a given caller? Trunk lines need not necessarily have a DN assigned to them if they are purely for outgoing service.

You would need to setup facilities to "sign" each originating call with a cryptographic certificate assigned to the owner of the number passed and then equipment on each terminating set to validate this.

This is an extremely non-trivial proposition.

Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

#86
post #82

I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those that hate texting (older, in general). I enjoy being reachable by people (family, clients, employees, etc.) and I don't want them to have an obstacle to sending me a message. Certainly voicemail is an annoyance but it's also often the best option. Just last nigh…

I'm 45. I prefer sms texts or emails to voicemail. I prefer sms texts or email to actuL voice calls too - it's just easier to share information. Of course sometimes phone calls are for just chatting and voicemails fail for that too. Currently iMessages are causing considerable problems with silent fails and no option to send as SMS (which they used to have - not sure why that changed). All the other messaging solutio…

The "send as SMS option is now hidden. If message you sent does not say "Delivered" under it, you can press and hold your message. There will be a "Sens as SMS" option in the context menu.

Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

#87
post #82

I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those that hate texting (older, in general). I enjoy being reachable by people (family, clients, employees, etc.) and I don't want them to have an obstacle to sending me a message. Certainly voicemail is an annoyance but it's also often the best option. Just last nigh…

I'm 45. I prefer sms texts or emails to voicemail. I prefer sms texts or email to actuL voice calls too - it's just easier to share information. Of course sometimes phone calls are for just chatting and voicemails fail for that too. Currently iMessages are causing considerable problems with silent fails and no option to send as SMS (which they used to have - not sure why that changed). All the other messaging solutio…

I also prefer SMS and email, for most conversations. I'm just surprised so many state that they would rather force someone else to send an SMS or email because they hate voicemail so much.

Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

#88

I think this makes a lot of sense for a business. Sadly, I still get occasional but important personal communication via phone calls and voicemail, where otherwise I would not be able to get it. Specifiaclly, doctor's offices don't use SMS or email. Their alternative is snail mail. Another source is random one offs such as the oil delivery guy confirming my delivery, or a relative trying to get directions to my house…

All of our doctors contact us through email. I think they use Epic, and we get all of our test results, appointment reminders, etc. there. With health care regulations forcing electronic records, we'll probably see more of this.

You cannot use straight email to communicate patient info. You have to send them a link to a site behind a login, which is a barrier to adoption. Even if that's OK, just sending an email to someone from, say, a psych clinic would expose them as a patient, which is not good either. You also cannot really indicate urgency. There is a difference between appointment reminders and "hey, your test came back positive". There are also some things that you prefer to discuss as you may have follow up questions. If your doctor calls you to tell you that you have HIV or cancer, you are going to ask questions. You don't want to get that news via SMS or email.

Basically, routine reminders and test results are fine over a secure site with email notifications, but for lots of other things email is less than appropriate.

Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

#89
post #67

I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those that hate texting (older, in general). I enjoy being reachable by people (family, clients, employees, etc.) and I don't want them to have an obstacle to sending me a message. Certainly voicemail is an annoyance but it's also often the best option. Just last nigh…

I haven't listened to my voicemail in probably two years. In the age of caller ID, what's the point ? I can see that you called me, and call back.

In the example from last night that I posted about, I left a very important voicemail about someone's health just before I walked into a hospital where I knew my phone wouldn't work very well. I know that the recipient of my voicemail appreciated my effort in communicating the situation. He would not have known the urgency of the situation had we gone into the phone tag dance.

I completely understand that voicemail can be annoying. I often prefer other means as well. I'm just surprised so many would refuse to use it at all.

Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

#90
post #80

I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those that hate texting (older, in general). I enjoy being reachable by people (family, clients, employees, etc.) and I don't want them to have an obstacle to sending me a message. Certainly voicemail is an annoyance but it's also often the best option. Just last nigh…

I'm 43 and I hate voicemail. It just takes so long to get the information. Dial a number, wait for connection, press more buttons, find a pen and paper to write down any important bits of the message etc. Just send me the info in written form.

worse yet are voicemail systems such as Lync that try to transcribe it for you - no need to look for pen and paper, because it's just gibberish most of the time. when I see a Lync "voicemail" message, it means that I email the sender and ask what they want.
Post reply on HN