I often talk about the importance of having a system and policy in place for when you publish that email address or email form on a website. You set expectations as to when you will reply and you stick to it as much as possible.

This is such a basic thing that I think many don’t even think about it any more, which is perhaps why the problems is still so persuasive.

But what about phone numbers.

Sometimes I think dusting off the Phone app and calling is a more efficient way of finding the info I need. So when a particular department at UPEI publishes the phone numbers of those who I wish to call, I expect at some point someone might answer. Except out of the the 16 listed numbers no one has answered all week.

And to make matters worse, when trying to leave a voice mail message, I get an error stating that they don’t subscribe to the service!

Does this have any real world effects? In this case, likely not. But under other circumstances, like if this was a business, I would have taken my business elsewhere long ago.

So I’m back to email. Maybe that will work. Or not.