I've never gotten on well with telephones, but this system has it in for me. At last, I thought, a phone system I can master. The phone system, for reasons known only to the merry pranksters who designed it, then generates a busy signal from the number it hasn't even made a token effort to reach. A bit of technological deception that has led me to unjustly accuse the most taciturn of being incurable chatterboxes after getting my ninth busy signal of an afternoon. I am too stupid to be trusted to use the communications infrastructure.
Incoming calls have their own charm.
The system apparently is equipped with a random annoyer feature, designed to cut down on incoming calls by connecting customers with the person least qualified to deal with their request - me. In the course of a day I field calls from folks who want to advertise their daughter's piano recital, arrange payment on large, long-standing debts or insult the publisher's parentage and personal judgment. As for voice-mail, I think I am among the electronically homeless. Now that it's getting warmer, I think I might set up my Weber and communicate with smoke signals from the roof. I think it's in the company policy manual somewhere.