Ann Arbor Undressed : Two Sides To Every Story

Check out a Blackberry....mine works too well

Yikes! That's freaky! I bet you almost had a heart attack. Makes me want to keep my t-Mobile(that I have had no problems with) past my contract. I was thinking of changing.

Sounds pretty frustrating. Apple sounds like they are overloaded in many area. Technology is great when it works which seems to be most of the time.

Good thing you checked it out Missy and discovered the problem before any feelings got hurt.  All phones are subject to this problem.  Technology is not perfect, so always stay aware. 

Always good to get such lessons and remember them and give the benefit of doubt.  I have hesitated in getting the iphone (even thought my nephew swears by them) because I don't think I would be happy with ATT.  I just decided to get the EVO (Sprint) and have to wait cuz they are on back order. 

I have an iphone and have never had this problem.

Hmmm makes you wonder how many times this has happened and we are blogging....please check your messages...might be worth while to check our phones every now and then to see if voice mail is really working...thanks...

Ya gotta love Apple...but I'll probably be jumping on the bandwagon if the iPhone ever comes to Verizon. And anyway, even this post is wrong: it says there are 2 comments, but here I am looking at 3 comments as I type this. Oh well, nobody's perfect I guess...

Technology is so great until it fails. What is worse is that so many agents won't take, "my phone wasn't working" as a valid excuse, until it will happen to them. Life happens.

Your post reinforces why when its important and I leave a voicemail I also send a quick text message and email stating the same info... redundant,,, yes,,,,, helpful ,,,,, for sure.  Glad your phone got fixed, I bet you couldnt believe all the voice mails.wow

Missy- I too have an iphone. I love, it has yet to "miss a voicemail, it's  thing is to hold e-mails and not notify me. I have to check for emails constantly.  I've done a restet, sometimes it works, sometime not. But yes you are right, there are 2 sides to the story.

I doubt this is an Apple specific, or provider specific.  There's so much that happens to get a voicemail to us, any little hiccup and we're toast.  Sometimes it's a good idea to periodically reboot our smartphones just to get them baselined in case something is hanging up.

It is so nice to read a post with sanity and understanding!    The same thing happened to me on both sides -- leaving a message for a developer that he never received (luckily, I wasn't the only one who had done this and he knew it) and not receiving messages that I had on my voicemail until 4 days later.  It happens.  Sometimes we all need to take a deep breath versus jumping to the most dramatic conclusions.   You hit the nail on the head, Missy, when you said there are two sides to every story.  I like to say there are three sides, one being what actually happened.

I hear so many issues with the apple phones, I'm glad I haven't gone that route. When I get calls and my phone says no VM, I always go into my VM to double check. Not sure why it's not logged, but at least they're usually there...

Hope you got appts with those leads!

Well that makes me mistrust my Iphone a bit. But it looks like you have it all worked out. I know when I am traveling sometimes I don't get voicemails because of the carrier that is providing the covereage in that area.

Learning to say I'm "sorry that happened" is the best tool to have in conjunction with technology tools. If we didn't have voice mail (now at least 40 years old) they would have had to call you until they reached you, on your home phone. Imagine going back to that.

Every so often that happens to me. Fortunately, the voice mails seem to be internal company voice mail messages, which probably says more about my company's routing system than a cell phone tower or my smartphone. Although, I am learning that voice mail is my friend. No matter how hard I try, I can't answer two calls at the same time on the same phone.

Missy,

I find my 2 pigeons totally reliable -- especially in Florida where we seem to have problems with most things that require electricity!!

Technology is wonderful when it "works" and just as frustrating when it does not.  We have also had the days late voicemail saga - different carrier/phones.

Missy, in the past 10 years, it's happened to me 2 or 3 times that I didn't get messages and they showed up a few days later. I lost a listing because of it. Ouch is right!

I've told people in the past that if I don't get back to them to call me again at one of the other numbers just to be safe. They usually know I always call back!

Hey I love my Iphone. I switched about 6 weeks ago because of all the apps for Iphone. No I am not drinking the kool aid but it is fun. Not sure what happened here, but it was an easy fix once I figured out what was wrong...just needed resetting.

I am still learning to use it, but there is no going back.

Only two sides to a story...funny, I thought more sides, variations when the "he said she said" starts and everyone gets sucked away further and further from the truth that causes miscommunication, misunderstandings. VM, any device is supper when it works. Spam filters on emails that catch, bury the email make charges of you never sent me an email, you liar happen. The excuse is used so much that when it really happens, something gets lost, the damage is done, hurt feelings fester, tempers flare.

I am with you on returning calls but once in awhile there are TECH issues that interfere with even the best intenioned of us! Foks who've done business with us over the years KNOW we return calls! And also like you I LOVE my iphone and would not trade it!

Missy,

I too have an iphone...and I love it.  You have reminded me of the importance of resetting it.  I probably don't do that enough....

Thanks for sharing, Missy.  I have found that for every person involved in a situation/transaction, there's that many "sides" to the story....even better...the sides are constantly changing! LOL!  And it is very possible that every last one of them are true and accurate.  Helps me be patient during times of complicated misunderstanding.

Thanks for sharing, Missy.  I have found that for every person involved in a situation/transaction, there's that many "sides" to the story....even better...the sides are constantly changing! LOL!  And it is very possible that every last one of them are true and accurate.  Helps me be patient during times of complicated misunderstanding.

I had a similar situation happen where there was such a dry period between receiving any messages at all.  I thought my business just tanked for that day, but needless to say, I had to reboot my phone by pulling the battery out and putting it back in again so everything would reset.  I had 30 messages, at which 15 were useless, and the other 15 not urgent, but needed following up on.  Life threatening no, but embarrassing as all get out.

Hi Missy, I've had the same thing happen with my Blackberry.  Someone will say, "I called you the other day", and I never received the message.  Days later, when checking messages, that particular message will show up.  Frustrating!  I'm thinking about a Droid X, anyone have any experience with that particular phone?

Excellent post.  I agree that there are two sides to every story and  as long as you know the truth you can live with yourself.

Missy, that's happened to me too.  Technology is wonderful and terrible!  I noticed some of the comments already said what I wanted to say. "Often there are more than two sides to a story."  But we all need to remember that what we think we know may not be everything there is.

The wrath of Caulk unveiled.

Good point, Missy.  Too often people jump to conclusions (I hope to never do so again but probably will).  I agree with Glenn's comment above.  A simple, "My bad" goes a long way in my book.

Missy- You are absolutely right= techical difficulties are frustrating both for the sender and the receiver indeed. Glad you pointed this out!

HI Missy,

Pfanntastic Post, I guess we now need a back up system for the vm, texting, and phone calls, may be we can go back to the old pager, or how about the pink message slips,,,;0)

Happy Selling.

What a nightmare!  I am glad you were able to get it fixed easily...thankfully I haven't had that problem with my iPhone and hopefully never will!  It is easy to jump to conclusions and assume that people are ignoring voicemails (emails too - I have had important emails go to my spam folder before!).  Thanks for the reminder that there ARE 2 sides to every story!!

Thanks for sharing this with us! I had no idea this could happen. I just got an Iphone too, but I know.

Unfortunately there will always be glitches with technology.  The better we can adjust to those changes (and at times lack of tech service), the better off we'll be.  It happens!

Missy - I hate to hear this happened to you, but its a great segway into how important our people skills are in an age of technology. I would have been on the phone to each person that left me a VM and apologized right out of the gate and then explained. Technology empowers us to an amazing level, but when it fails it can be terrible...

Darn- I was going to click to feature! Someone beat me to it. 

We had two people from loss mitigation call us and leave Nestor a complaining message about our office that they have been trying for days to reach us, NOT

 One of them we are getting fired, he lied straight up- and that is a violation of that bank's ethical policy. 

Missy - an excellent point. I had this happen as well, with VMs coming in a day later. The same is also true of emails. Sometimes they do not get delivered (I had problems for a couple of weeks on my email account and only found out becuase someone who knows I always write back wasn't geting a response). We always assume technology works but as we all know, that ain't tru.

Thanks for the reminder.

Jeff

I'm glad you posted this, Missy.  Over the years I have found you to be an extremely valuable voice of reason around these parts!  :)

I'm actually rather exhausted by all of the posts these days in which Realtors are slamming and bashing other Realtors for a multitude of sins.  I've been guilty of it in the past as well, but I'm thinking it's time to curb it. 

Maybe I'll write a post titled, "MOM!  He's looking at me!"

I hope you have a great weekend.

Something to think about but I tend to believe it's not the reason most agents don't return calls! 

Glad you got it fixed.

MIssy, great post. OF COURSE there's another side of the story,and there are valid reasons why that other person (agent, mortgage broker, attorney - anyone!) doesn't call back right away or at all. What we all have to keep in mind - and have no way of knowing sometimes - if the reason IS valid in that instance (like in your case), or not. If the person is *on vacation*, if they usually don't respond to calls/messages quickly...

When it's something very important, I will call any number I have, email and call again. If it's a person I dealt with before, and KNOW they get back to you quickly, I will suspect something is wrong if there's no feedback soon enough. If it's someone new to me - it's harder to tell, what's going on...

I think your example is the exception to the rule.  Not returning phone calls happens all the time and they all cant be because a phone is malfunctioning.  I would be so upset if my phone did that in such a large number, maybe one call would be excusable but 19 is too many.

Missy, I see you have a google voice number.  I do as well and I use that for my voicemail.  I get a text when I have a message and an email of a (somewhat inaccurate) transcript of the message.  Of course, they could have tech issues as well but so far no problems.

But your post is a good reminder for people to occasionally turn off their phones.  Some service providers send out over the air (OTA) updates and the phone only upgrades upon reboot, much like some computer upgrades.

This has happened to me with my iPhone and I only have to reboot it when I realize that I may be missing a voicemail or two .......or twenty.  How fun is that?

That's a terrible techincal problem.  It's good to hear the "other side of the story".  Sounds like you responded within 24 hours.  The frustration that most of us experience is the 24+ hours of delayed response.

Everyone I know with an Iphone with ATT is going through this right now. Happens sporadically after the most recent updates are downloaded. Many trips to ATT store for us, but it seems like you have pretty good in-house technical support ;-)

I have had that happen on rare occasion.  It is always frustrating though.

Missy,

That happened to my I-phone because they did an update and the voice mail had to be set up again.  I had some clients called that day on my house phone so I found out right away something was wrong and Apple fixed it.  I love my i-phone and Apple support is also great! 

A good Realtor knows how important it is to be responsive to calls...picking up the phone whenever possible and returning messages.  To not receive messages is a killer.  Of course, with cell phones, they'll always be dead zones and drop offs.  I have had this experience myself many times...other Realtors as well as clients stating that they have left messages that I never received.

In my area, a particular carrier is considered to be better than some others which is why I stick with them.  Additionally, I try to do the cell update frequently (this post is a reminder) to get the best reception as possible.  I live in a bit of a valley, so that is a problem as well.  I think we need to try to be somewhat forgiving and give the benefit of the doubt in this day and age of technology that is wonderful but not always perfect.

Missy - I feel your pain.  I love my iPhone and it usually returns the love but I do find myself apologizing for technology at a time when it's function is critical to my business.  It's a frustrating and vulnerable place to be when you have to apologize for something outside of your control.  We are fortunate to work in an industry that gives us a LOT of practice with this activity and being humbled by things outside of our influence.  I hope you get your issues resolved and avoid future mini heart attacks!

I stopped using my carriers VM system for that very reason....have your calls divert off to your office VM that is attached to a land line...much more reliable. If you have the Cisco Voip system it will copy a wave file of the VM to your email as well....Great System

It has happened a couple of times to me.  On one of them I had 22 messages, and they were from the previous month for different reasons.  I lost some business do to this misshap.  The second time, there were only about 10 late messages, and it only took about 4 days to get them.  The company is Sprint.

I didn't know I had to turn off my phone every so often.  Gotta love AR for finding things you would never know otherwise.

It has happened a couple of times to me.  On one of them I had 22 messages, and they were from the previous month for different reasons.  I lost some business do to this misshap.  The second time, there were only about 10 late messages, and it only took about 4 days to get them.  The company is Sprint.

I didn't know I had to turn off my phone every so often.  Gotta love AR for finding things you would never know otherwise.

Missy, something is going on with technology for sure - even in this thread there are plenty of double message from different people! I just deleted mine, and I'm 200% sure I only pressed the button once to submit my message. 

Oh that's terrible!  I hope you didn't lose too much business.  I am growing to hate voicemail.  This happens to me not all the time, but often enough that if any number calls me that I don't know, and doesn't leave a message, I call it back.   Thanks for sharing, you are right, there are two sides to every story!

Sigh ... as we used to say when teaching computer classes ... "It's a FEATURE!"

Happens to me frequently. I'm giving up my Blackberry and moving to Droid.

Missy,

Great post and I love that you told it so well.  Last Sunday, we had an appointment.  We got there early and stayed in the parking lot listening to music, and noticed that they had not arrived.  They are always punctual, so after 10 minutes we got concerned and called.  It turns out they were there, just had a new car!  You have to check your assumptions to see if they still are right!

Missy, I have Verizon and there have been a few times that I didn't get a vm until a day or two later....I am glued to my phone and everyone knows it.  I always remind clients (and myself) to never ASSUME anything when it comes to technology...whether it be fax, vm, email....always double check.  Did you get it?

Yikes! Sorry that happened to you, Missy. Glad your deal closed, though. (And hopefully the couple of leads didn’t turn too cold.)

Missy, we depend too much on technology. One way to CYA is to call, email and text. No joke! We have issue with Sprint texting. I would receive a text sometimes after an 1 hr of sending it. I had once got mad at the wife for not responding to my text and I know she was with a client. I was checking up on her. Then she walk in the door and I hear her phone ring tone for a text and I ask, "did my text just came in on your phone?" Her reply was "Yup".

Wow, good thing you figured that out quickly...or at least before you hit the 20 VM's mark.

That's exactly what I thought happened to that listing agent. So, instead of talking bad about him I just continued to call and leave messages. My BAD! REO Agents don't return calls - they are too busy with their 30+ bank properties to tell you they received your clients offer. LOL

WOW!  Never heard that one before.  But I do occasionally turn the IPhone off completely and then back on when something seems amiss with the email (like when I know there should be some and it's not picking it up.  It seems to reset itself and everything gets back to "normal".

WOW!  Never heard that one before.  But I do occasionally turn the IPhone off completely and then back on when something seems amiss with the email (like when I know there should be some and it's not picking it up.  It seems to reset itself and everything gets back to "normal".

Missy - I'm glad you posted this. Sometimes there are technical difficulties. For some reason, many people think technology is infallible. This goes to show that we all need to be a bit more lenient when using technology to communicate...

Well we would know that something was up with you Missy if you didn't make the call back but the others...it's tough sometimes to redeem oneself & that's why technology is what it is!

Missy - I have had people tell me that they left me vm and I have not received them. But wow - 19 that is a lot. Glad you got the settings re-set.

Sometimes there are just glitches in system.  If you are known as a realtor who returns calls, then the people understand about the glitches.  But, if you choose not to return your calls promptly all the time, then there is no excuse!!

Missy, I had not heard of this reset on cell phone voice mail problems. Many emails get unreturned cause people put you in a Junk folder. You try with communication but it still foils you.

Sometimes technology does fail.  And sometimes some of us forget to turn the ringer back on after being in a "no-phone" meeting.  Ooops.  Anyway, all we can do is apologize and ask forgiveness.

stuff happens.  One of my agents... and I won't mention her cell provider cause I'm not here to bash.... has put on her outgoing message.... "If I don't call you back in a few minutes.... please call me again because sometimes I don't get my voicemails for 24 or 48 hours"  And then it happened to me.  No beep, no message showing I had a VM, but after I had a missed call I checked again and had two voicemails... one of them a day old.  UGH!  So I'm thinking of changing my outgoing message to say the same.

We've had similar slow delivery from our email providers servers too.

Technology is great when everything is working properly. People expect us to be available 24/7. Love it

Technology is great when everything is working properly. People expect us to be available 24/7. Love it

Missy, I'm not sure that's an Apple issue. I had the same problem when I was a simple AT&T user. In fact, that's one of the reasons I no longer use AT&T for cell service.

Missy - I had phone problem once and it wasn't until a client e-mailed asking if I was alright because I wasn't answering my phone or returning their call, which I usually do right away, but wasn't.

There are three sides to the story. Yours, Theirs and Apples.

Technology is not always our friend!

Technology is sometimes just outracing our ability to use it.

I'm having a problem with a tenant right now along the same lines. Now, the tenant is a pain in the rear, but he seems to be honest . . . just a real stickler and real demanding. His lease came up for renewal and he wanted some repairs done. The list was actually quite reasonable. Now, remember: He wanted them done, and we agreed to it. But two different service providers insist they made repeated calls to him and left voice mails which he never returned. He absolutely insists that he never received the calls. So we've told him that we're instructing the service providers to inform us of any communication problems immediately--kind of like the message that Tammy (#73) suggests on the message--If your call isn't promptly returned, get back in touch with us.

I decided to go with a Droid (Droid Incredible) rather than an iPhone--partly because I'm with Verizon and don't want to change--but the technology is amazing . . . and daunting. Beyond science fiction. Imagine an app that lets you tap two phones together, and information is instantly transferred from one to the other! Or an app in which you speak into the phone and it instantly speaks back the same same sentences in another language! Or you take a picture of a building or landmark and your phone instantly displays a map of the area and information about the building and surrounding area!But the point is--when you have these devices (don't even call them phones, anymore) at either end, plus sophisticated technology connecting the two, it's inevitable that glitches will occur.

Hi Missy,  Yikes !  That is really scary !  Sometimes you can inadvertantly reset a function and not know it.  Glad to see things are back to normal - whatever that is these days !

Oh gee. A feature...lol will respond later, on my wireless Sprint card...ha ha...seriously.

Missy - there is two sides to every story and sometimes 3 and 4 lol - I have an Iphone and this problem has not happen to me yet (knock on woods three times).  

I just hope lazy agents reading your post don't get the idea of covering up with an excuse like this.  

Hope all is well with you.

A good thing to remember, and to give the "non-responding/non-responsive" person the benefit of the doubt.  It's hard to do sometimes, when we're chomping at the bit waiting for an answer.  But, there may be a logical reason.  

Ouch! Technology can get the better of us. Was there any explanation offered by the phone techie? sorry, didn't have time to read all of the comments.

Missy. I make it a point of checking my missed calls. If I have quite a few and no VM then I know I have an issue. But you are right there could be very valid reasons why folks don;t return our calls. One is the caller doesn't leave a return number. Even better is when they talk so fast I can't understand I word they say. Just s few more reasons why I prefer ALL communications be done by email.

Hi Missy,

I have an iPhone too.  Different city, same issue.  The funny thing is that this is happening with all the carriers around here.  Even a few with Verizon have mentioned that they have problems like that.   So I don't know that  switching would make sense for me. 

What I've been doiwing is what Broker Bryant has been doing.  Then I just call the numbers and say "i'm sorry I missed your call..." etc.

Missy - Ouch indeed! Never had that problem with my blackberry... Ahh technology... Don't you love it?

Missy - Ouch indeed! Never had that problem with my blackberry... Ahh technology... Don't you love it?

Hi Missy -- I wonder if texts would fall into this non-deliverable status as I have found that texts can go through even if calls seem not to go through or be logged.

Missy: Don't you love it when the technology that is supposed to help us actually hinders us? Hopefully your problem was resolved and won't happen again! Take care.

So you have Bob Stewart as your personal assistant to check the functionality of your cell phone? Must be nice!  I wonder if he does tech support calls as well...   ;) 

Oh My Gosh, Missy!  First of all, great post--I have issues with voice mails on occasion but, when you're getting them and then it drops one, it's hard to know that you missed it unless they phone you back.  Technology isn't ALL it's cracked up to be sometimes!!

But, this is what you HAVE to see:

GREAT minds, I guess!!

But, yours is MUCH better--clearer and crisper--PLUS it's an Apple!!

I'm new to this board. I found it through searching online to learn about real estate, because I want to start in the business. I have the same problem with my motorola droid by verizon. People say that they have called and I never got the message. The suggestion about forwarding all your calls to a landline is the best. The information age has gotten too crazy because we are always on the go. Sometimes a regular cell phone works better.

The resetting issue is a little scary. How often does Apple suggest that this be done in order to be sure you're receiving all messages?

I have a iPhone and have used it for years. I actually got one the first year it came out. I am thinking about going back to a standard cell phone BUT not because of a problem. I have the iPad and LOVE it. So I am thinking that I can downsize to a regular phone and use my iPad for all the applications that I love.

I have not lost my voicemails however I had a friendly apple tech tell me to turn the phone off every once in awhile to let it reset itself. I turn it off one night a week.

Missy, I love this post.  It's always good to find out why someone was unable to return a call.  Sometimes there is a good reason. You have taught me something about cell phones!

Missy aside from the iPhone VM issue there's the side to this post that I like a lot.  That's that when we have an issue about something (call backs or what ever) sometimes there's a reason that person is acting the way they are...  a very good point for all of us to remember.  Congrats on your feature AND your new phone!

Missy I love this post and am glad so far I do not have an iPhone. I will stay with my Treo for now even though it is bulky,it does receive VM

You better tell everyone what you did or changed. Because now I am paranoid that I may not be getting my messages on my iPhone.

Melissa, most folks here that use the Iphone just turn it off weekly. I knew when people kept telling me they left me a VM and then I didn't get it

EVERYONE: I just spent 30 minutes answering all the comments with two windows open, and now they are GONE! Sorry no time to redo my comments back to you.

That has happened to me to with my Blackberry.  I think you need to shut the phone off completely every once in a while. 

and yet another reason for me to stick to my blackberry :-)

Yes, check out a Blackberry.  They are GREAT!  The only way to go.

Patricia/Seacoast NH

YIKES...what a bummer. At time technology can be great and then something like this happens:)

If I get a few incomming calls with no VM, I'll reset my iPhone and viola! There they are. Sometime you just gotta do that. I don't think that's the case with a majority of the posts about the agent not calling back.

Fortunately I haven't had that problem, but I'll certainly watch for it. That can be embarassing.

Goodness, Missy!!! That's a doozy, to be sure. And there are so many other possibly valid reasons beside a technological glitch for not being able to return calls...

So far my blackberry has not failed me.  I am due for an upgrade soon too.  Love to see your happy face here there and everywhere I go.

I am hearing Verizon may have the iphone or some announcement about it in Jan..yahoo!