Just wondering if anyone else finds it incredibly stressful when a company/ service provider etc makes repeated phone calls to try and contact you for something not at all important? Is it the norm?
I’ve had an incredibly stressful week including hospital admissions for me and my daughter, a close family member coming down with covid, a very poorly child etc so not been great at answering my phone/ keeping up with things as much as I usually would… and it’s made me realise just how many companies will repeatedly ring, sometimes several times a day to try and make contact despite being able to text/email/ leave a message.
Some examples:
I enquired about a training course on Monday, emailed the company and was told they had a special offer on for the next 24 hours. I emailed back and said unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to commit in the next 24 hours, but if they were happy to extend the offer to the end of the week I’d be able to speak to more candidates and find out whether or not it was viable. They replied to say this was fine, they’d look forward to hearing from me etc. I thanked them and confirmed they would hear from me before the end of the week. Except they then tried to ring me on Wednesday morning, but I didn’t answer as I was in hospital. They left a voicemail which I listened to when I got a minute, deduced it was not important and made a mental note to send over an email that evening. Fine, except the company then rang me a further four times over the course of the day. Even if I hadn’t been in hospital I would have been working so still wouldn’t have been willing to discuss something non urgent and prior to the deadline that had already been agreed, so I found this really frustrating.
Second example is that I missed an appointment (physio) on Tuesday eve. Total mistake, my daughter was very poorly and it just skipped my mind. I remembered 20 minutes before the appointment and fired over an email (which I could do whilst rocking her to sleep). They gave me a phone call at my appointment time which I couldn’t answer, but then left me a voicemail to say that they were trying to rearrange the appointment. Again, mental note made and I would get to it the next day as they were due to close in 10 minutes anyway and she said they had received my email, so I knew they weren’t waiting for me to show up etc. Except the next day they rang me a further 3 times. To rearrange an appointment that isn’t urgent and when they had already left a voicemail and have my contact details.
Others have been things like my dentist ring to push my appointment for a check up back 10 minutes, which isn’t until the end of January. They rang once in the morning and then twice in the afternoon, but didn’t leave any sort of message to say what was wrong.
These are just a few examples (admittedly the most extreme!) but all week I have had people ring for non urgent things when a text/email would have easily sufficed. But more than that, they’ve then continued to ring when they didn’t receive a timely response. Surely if I was able to return the call I would do… or is that not simple etiquette anymore?
I find it really anxiety inducing to have missed calls on my phone, but also find it really frustrating answering the phone at an inconvenient time thinking it might be important only for it to be something not at all pressing or important. AIBU to feel this way?!