Thursday, April 15, 2004

People Do Not Listen

I guess my phone number is one digit off to a doctor’s office because on occasion I’ve gotten messages on my answering machine by people who are cancelling their physical therapy appointments or other doctors’ office managers calling to get files sent over on so-and-so’s x-rays. Usually I’d just erase them, but a couple of weeks ago I had five messages in one day. So I decided to change the message on the machine, getting away from the normal “Hi, you’ve reached [my name]. Leave a message and I’ll call you back.” Instead I decided to get the point across:

Please listen carefully to the following information. You have reached [my name] at [my number, including area code]. This is a private residence. If you believe you have reached this number in error, please hang up and try again. If not, leave a message. Thank you.

I figured that would get through. So when I got home last night, there were two messages. One was from a woman who was cancelling her 7:00 a.m. physical therapy appointment and the second was from Dr. Sanchez’s office requesting a call back from Angie regarding the results of the angioplasty.

I’ll be glad when I change phone numbers in two weeks – maybe I’ll have a number that’s close to a dating service for open-minded lifeguards.