Lessons in Voice Mail Ettiquette

I was out of town for pretty much all of this week (see previous post), and returned to my office today for the first time. I had 14 voice mail messages, which wasn't really too bad. I'm discovering that some people really need to learn voice-mail etiquette. Note the following examples:

• Example #1: Leaving me a message on Monday, and then leaving the same message again on Tuesday. This is especially annoying when I changed my voice mail greeting to say "I'll be out of the office until Thursday, April 24 ". Leaving the first message was fine, but the second message just told me that this person either did not pay attention to the fact that I was out of town, or has an annoying, needy personality.

• Example #2: Talking so fast that I either cannot understand the caller's name or phone number. Seriously, there have been times I've had to listen to a message 3 or 4 times just to catch the person's name or number.
  

• Example #3: Related to #2, this is my annoyance at people who leave their phone number, but same the numbers in an odd cadence. The correct way is to say it the way it's written, example: "My number is 313-555-1234". The wrong way: "My number is 313-55-51-234. Say that in your head, then imagine you're trying to write it down as you're listening to it. I have people do this more times than you can imagine. It's another case where I need to listen to it several times to get it. I don't have time for that people!

• Example #4: Getting a message from someone I don't know (who also violated #2 above), saying little more than "please call me back, it's very urgent". I'm thinking - 1) I don't know you, so why would you call me in an urgent situation and 2) I don't know if it's urgent because you've told me nothing of the situation, therefore 3) I'll call you back at some point today, but not right now.

This is all I can think of for now, although I'm sure there's more I could come up with.