How to phrase voicemail message for home security when on holiday?

patwa_2

Hello,

I'm not sure how much phones are used with regard to finding people's location or lack thereof for the purposes of committing crime, but I was thinking of my upcoming holiday and the answering machine message that I should leave for callers.

For my mobile, I'll be instructing them to call another number, the one for my global SIM, but am not sure how to phrase the message so that it doesn't give the impression that I'm not there. I'm not worried about this unduely, but wouldn't giving people an indication that you're not home encourage any would be criminals? The same goes for how to let people know when I'll be back, which just takes us right back to the initial problem.

H.

planetf1

How about deleting the personalized message and leaving it to the default?
Doesn't give anything away?
Or just sign up to free voicemail from BT or phone provider and disable own ansaphone?

patwa_2

Hi, that would indeed solve the problem except that it would mean missing all calls. I need to have a way of giving my new number to callers but still maintaining some kind of security. Whereas I could give it to most contacts directly, I get a lot of business calls that would cost me future sales if they left a message, and didn't receive a response for over a month because they didn't have the new number to call.

Maybe I'm just over-exaggerating the security aspect?

H.

thesaint

I don't have a solution for you, but, how many criminals call your phone in a month usually?

elite_2

Not very moneysavng:eek:, but most answerphones have a system where you can dial in to retrieve your messages...

Or you could just say "there is no one available to to take your call at the moment, if you need to get hold of me urgently please call...."

countingthepennys

Cant you transfer the calls to another landline or your mobile?I know it can be done but havent a clue how to do it!Try asking your phone provider BT etc

rjm2k1

Just say you are not available at the moment but can be contacted for anything urgent on xxxxxx, but as asked earlier, how many criminals call you per month?

patwa_2

OK thanks, just going to go down the unavailable at the moment route.

If I were remaining in the UK I'd use VoIP to route the call through to my e-mail where I could retrieve the messages. But where I'm going the net is not very stable and connections really slow, so will just give the mobile as an alternate number.

H.