dead message

A voicemail or message left on an answering machine that is nothing but a few seconds of dead air.

Left by people who cannot, for some inexplicable reason, hang up the phone BEFORE the end of the outgoing message, but instead wait until the recording begins.

Lisa calls her friend Eric, and reaches his voicemail. Lisa has no intention of leaving a voicemail, but listens to the entirety of Eric's outgoing message (including the beep) before hanging up.

Eric's voice: Hey there, I'm not around right now. There's going to be a beep in a few seconds; you know what to do.

*beep*

Lisa: .... *hangs up telephone*

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drop dead message

A useless (toy) computer message with no remedial action suggested.
The general meaning is that this is the end of the line and you made the wrong choice in the beginning. Also, a message with remedial action suggested that could have been automated.

I just got a drop dead message that says "UNABLE TO OPEN FILE" as in wouldn't it be nice if the genius programmer would tell us more specifically what the problem is and what we might do about it. If the message says "You must dial a 1 before this number", one wonders why the system couldn't just make life a bit easier.

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