My voicemail is stalking me.
In Paris (and I assume the rest of France), they really want to be sure that you know you have a voicemail message. It doesn’t matter who the call is from—your mother or Nicolas Sarkozy—cellular providers clearly feel it’s important, imperative even, that you listen to your voicemail messages.
While having a meeting over tea in a café the other day, my cell phone rang. I ignored the call. A minute later, the phone rang again. The caller ID was “123,” the number I call to get my voicemail. I hit “ignore” again. Less than 15 minutes later, though, my voicemail called me again. I apologized to the two women I was interviewing and hit “ignore.” But my voicemail would not be ignored, and called twice more over the next half hour. Not only that, it sent a text message: “Répondeur SFR: 1 nouveau message … Rappetez 123.”
Given the persistence of the voicemail system, you would think that my presence was needed to diffuse a major global crisis. Au contraire, it was merely a new ami checking to see if I’d be able to attend a show on Sunday. He (my friend) only called once. There is no option in voicemail to let the caller choose how many times I’d be notified that they’d left a message, so this isn’t a case of “stalking by proxy.” The last time I was nagged like this, it was my mother asking if I’d cleaned my room and finished my homework.
I haven’t decided how I feel about this particular “quirk” in the French cellular system. In almost all regards, French cellular service is far superior to its American counterpart. The calls are clear and the signals strong—even in the Métro. Texting is free, incoming calls free, but it’s outgoing calls that will drain your bank account (bills average $150 a month). Those who have iPhones can’t get the “visual voicemail” that Americans get, so I suppose the continual reminders is their way of saying, “We care about you.”
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As I said on Friday when it happened…. it’s trying to remind you take note of your social life!
Yes, but I feel like my Jewish grandmother keeps nagging me. “Did you call him back yet? How about now?”
You have hit it right on the nose here. The voice mail calling to tell you that you have a message is SO annoying. I do think that it is not all operators that do this. I have SFR and it does this and there is no way to turn it off (I tried), and Alain has Bouygues and it does not call him. It is almost enough to make you want to change operators.
I guess I unknowingly solved that problem by not having a cell phone there. Everyone back home had to read my blog to see what I was doing!
V