Comment by pedalpete
1 year ago
That's my approach as well, but I had the same number calling me for 3 weeks and I finally answered. It was my electric company, something had gone wrong with a payment.
They have my email address, they send me txts all the time, but apparently collections is still making phone calls. Had to be the dumbest thing I'd seen. Once I answered and found out the issue, I paid the bill properly, but I wonder how far it would have gone before they cut off my power, while they kept sending me emails and txts about things that have nothing to do with my bill.
For some places their internal processes require positive contact with the account holder, in other words they can't trust that an email or text will be read (or read by the account holder). They definitely should've tried at least once though, especially if you opted for that as your primary communication method.
That seems strange to me.
I mean: I think it is perfectly OK to have a policy that requires real people to make real phone calls for some things -- especially things that might not fit into automated systems.
But I think it's very bizarre that these real people would not also leave a voicemail message stating the purpose of the call.
(There's tons of reasons for people to not answer the phone that extend beyond screening unknown numbers.
Like: I might be happy to answer the phone for a strange number but I'm crawling around under my car and my hands are covered in greasy road funk. Or I'm with a client. Or I'm at work and my boss is an overbearing prick. Or...)