h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My youngest was off school today after being ill during the night and wasking up with a sore throat.
At work later in the day the phone rang and fortunately I answered the call. A robotic voice said "This.. is.. a.. personal.. message.. for.. Mr.. Vestboy.. or Mrs.. Vestboy's wife.. please.. press.. 1.. if.. you.. are.. one.. of.. these.. people..."
And on it went to give me further options. This was an incoming call! In my office we are on a switchable system and the phones don't make the normal bleeps when you press the keys. So I was madly pressing 1 and nothing was happening other than the message repeating itself in a horribly monotonous robotic way.

Eventually it said to phone the school. I phoned the school and immediately got an answering machine. I left an angry message saying that the whippersnapper had been off school because of the lurgy but would be in again tomorrow. And that I didn't like being phoned up by a machine.

When I got home I told my son about this weird experience - he's 13. Then the phone rang again. It was the robot back again. "This.. is.. a.. personal.. message.. for.. Mr.. Vestboy.."
This time I was able to press 1.
I was then put onto an answer machine and asked to give the reason why fudgeknuckle hadn't been in today...
Grrr.

But surely you don't expect them to employ a person to phone you up? That would be doing a robot out of a job.

They had two robots one to make the call and another to take the messages!

Well, robots have rights too y'know.

*carefully examines EV for signs of microchips, electric sockets or batteries.*

*word ALERT lights up in red in both eyes*

So long as it's not TILT you're OK.