[Warning: Rant ahead.]
Due to the influx of robocalls, phones--whether wireless or landline--are all but useless for anything other than calls made between established parties. Nothing groundbreaking in that statement; you've likely had the same experiences.
Face it, voice calling generally sucks. There, I said it.
If you call me and I don't recognize the number on my CallerID,
I won't pick up. Simple enough. And if you don't leave a message, I'll never know you tried to
contact me. Because if it's not really you and instead it's a robocall, picking up the phone merely confirms to the autodialer on the other end that my number is valid. This only leads to more robocalls--a lot more robocalls. I don't have time for that noise, and I have work to do here.
Yeah, I really want to hear about my "vehicle warranty" for the 14th time today...ummm...nope.
It all comes down to the dilemma of "I hate to miss a legit call" vs. the "do I really want to add to the junk call problem?" Better to err on the safe side and not feed the monster. Legit callers leave messages.
There are some tools available to manage the telemarketing spam, but they are blunt tools at best. Incoming calls often spoof local area codes and exchanges, sometimes even spoofing my own number, but the calls usually originate from overseas. Thus, blocking certain area codes has little effectiveness. It's not practical to block 612, 651, 952, 763, unless I want to ignore the three million people who live near me.
The phone being relegated to a voicemail-as-a-screening device is an unfortunate consequence. However, that's the reality of phone communications today, due to the saturation of telemarketing spam. With COVID-19 and so many people being at home, the scammers have capitalized on the situation and ramped up their robocalling. Unless/until the FCC and telcos implement a better way to respond to this problem (unlikely), the situation will never improve.
I have unlimited calling in my cell plan, yet I'm hard-pressed to remember a month when I used more than 300 minutes. Generally, it's been calls between myself and people I know, and those calls are short and to the point. As is the case with most people, my smartphone is primarily an Internet device, with voice calling a distant second. Nature of the beast.
As such, I don't answer unknown phone calls. If you call me, then by all means, leave a message and I'll call back.
However, good old 1980s technology is still at hand: email. It isn't exciting, and granted, the platform has its share of problems, including spam. But email can be more effectively managed. Email spam filters are more sophisticated, culling out the vast majority of junk messages and leaving legitimate emails in my inbox to be easily reviewed. Which makes for a much better signal to noise ratio.
Email is more reliable and it works better for me, and better for my clients. Email gives both parties time to collect our thoughts, compose what we want to say, and ask for or send document attachments. The platform provides a record of a conversation, in the event there are questions later.
Once I have established contact with a client by email, we can then exchange phone numbers and I can proceed to do all of the needed interviews and other communications over the phone to help the client with their estate planning needs.
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