? AT&T doesn't make you use their voicemail message. It's an option to use their default one, just record your own.

@outlulz: One of the reasons I'll stick with AT&T when my contract goes way, at least for now.

@outlulz:
it's referring to the instructions that are played in between the greeting and the "beep".

For Alltel, it was "3".

For my voicemail message, I always start with "Press X to skip this message" for the benefit of friends and family so they won't have to remember which network I'm on and which button to push.

It also helps to have a short message, like Agent Casey from Chuck: "Casey. *grunt*".

Better yet, don't leave a voicemail. Voicemail is so passé. Use text. I'm much more likely to respond to a text than listen to a voicemail.

Sprint/Verizon used to have an option that the user could set to turn on "pager notification" which resulted in the computer voice adding "To Page This Person, press now" ...

To the person saying that one carrier lets you record your own greeting: All carriers let you record your own greeting, it' just a matter of whether the user sets it or not.

Frankly if you're leaving a short message the 15 seconds doesn't really matter because they charge you by the minute and round up ... so even 20-25 seconds listening to a voice mail greeting doesn't really matter as long as your message is less then ~30 seconds, it all costs 1 minute.

My old cell provider wouldn't allow you to delete a message until you had listened to the entire thing. Extremely infuriating. I think hitting 7 (delete) even may have started the message over, or maybe just skipped back a few seconds. The worst were those marathon messages where you had already spoken to the person, rendering the message completely irrelevant, or the times you had to listen to a message over again to write down a phone number or something. Greedy bastards nickel and dimeing me to death. Now I'm with Virgin, much better.

@zacox: [consumerist.com]

I leave this voice message:
"Hello, this is Dallas May, Please press # to leave a message."

Done.

Is this really a complaint? Whether it's 5 seconds, 15 seconds or 59 seconds, it all counts as 1 minute on your minutes. This guy is just bitching about nothing to make himself popular.

Sprint will actually let you disable the automated options portion of the greeting, its in the voicemail options menu. It will play only what you record and leave off the instructions that take up so much time. Great feature, hard to find and they don't talk about it though.

@zacox: Because text messages are SO much more affordable at $1300/MB. Not everyone purchases a text message plan, so every message you send them costs 10-20 cents vs taking a few minutes to listen to their V-mail.

Text messages are also limited in usefulness as they are ony available cell phone to cell phone (or computer to cell phone using some application or website. If I am calling from a business or using a landline, I have no ability to leave someone a text message explaining why I need to speak with them.

@josquin021: Aye, but on AT&T, those instructions can be completely turned off so the voicemail prompt is literally just your greeting followed by the beep.

@JustinSane07:

Addition not your strong suit? Say you're going to leave a 31 second message. If the outgoing message is 10 seconds, then it matters if the instructions are 5 seconds (5+31+10 = 46 seconds = 1 minute) or 20 seconds (20+31+10 = 61 seconds = 2 minutes).

@outlulz:

Why should you have one at all?

I wish Pogue would have educated his readers as opposed to championing a drive to tell the phone carriers to remove something that at least ATT and Sprint allow you to turn off. SMS cost or standardizing voicemail key commands seem more important than this.

Consumerist, please educate your readers instead of driving them into this unnecessary drive.
(P.S. Thanks for the skip commands, that's good posting.)

This sort of thing is why it's better not to have friends in the first place. This way you don't get a bunch of people calling you leaving messages that all just say, "Call me back", anyway.

(I don't know what the voice mail equivalent of making your own soup is. Maybe it's the missed call list...)

@Devidence: Thanks for posting this - I'll try to do this later today.

@TechnoDestructo: Mostly so that people that accidentally call a wrong number know who's phone they're leaving a message on. My voicemail is just "Hey it's XXX, I'm unavailable, leave a message" *beep*

@outlulz:

I have a couple of AT&T phones for my business. With the iPhones you can turn off the carrier instructions completely, for the other phones they will not allow you to do this.

tim

unfortunately if you hit * and it's T-Mobile you'll be prompted to enter your PIN because that's how you access your voicemail remotely. If you're just trying to leave a message you'll then have to hang up and call back because there's no way back to the top of the tree.

I don't even leave messages.
I just call, and if I even BEGIN get their message, I just hang up.
Their missed call records will tell them it's me that called, and to call me back.
Doesn't cost any minutes, wastes no one's time, not bugging anyone.

Picked that up from a friend in Lebanon.

@tpfannes: Not true. I have a blackberry on ATT and do not have the carrier message. It's all the same voicemail server on the backend, so, it's just a config setting when setting up your voicemail.

I think these voicemail messages are ridiculous--

Anyone who uses their cellphone for work-- it is incredibly inefficient to be playing phone tag and to have to sit through these ong messages when a simple "This is Bob in Sales, push 1 to leave a message" would do.

This is also an example of how the "marketplace" does not self-regulate when it comes to obscene profit.

Sign up for an invite for Google Voice and skip all the silly tricks the cell companies try to pull.

I got my invite in less than 2 weeks after asking for one.

@outlulz:
You can turn it off with Sprint as well. I don't think that's a good reason to keep doing business with the overpriced AT&T.

@mizike:
Wow. That would be really annoying.

I always tell people not to even bother leaving me a VM. I look at caller ID to see who it was, and then I call them back. I never listed to the VM messages.

Cingular? Way to keep up with the times.

NO! I don't want to send a fucking FAX through voicemail! NO! I don't want to page you my number! I don't need other options! WHY THE FUCK DO YOU ASK ME TO SEND A FAX!?!?!? Might as well ask me if I want to send my message through carrier pigeon or morse code! It's a fucking joke and it pisses me off to no end and is why I hate leaving people messages. I absolutely hate it and would gladly go to prison for the rest of my life if I could meet the pricks who "invented" this shit and rip out their tongues.

i have sprint. the only crappy part about turning the crap off is that i don't get to hear what phone number it came from. so i get "hey, it's me..." and sometimes i'm not sure who "me" is.

@Ichiro51:

Yea, I have my Sprint phone to go directly to the 'beep' after im done talking on my message. I wish more people I talk to did that too.

@lotussix:

I dunno, I have all the options turned off for people and I still get the phone number. I think there is an option for that as well...

I'd venture to guess most of us know the provider by the sounds of the applicable automated voicemail message - but for those who don't, these tips aren't very helpful..but I guess it's the thought that counts :P

@Devidence: I did this the day I set up my account with Sprint a few years ago, but then I'm one of those people who like to hear and understand every single option in any configuration menu deal.

@josquin021: How would I go about doing that on AT&T without having an iphone?

@structuralpoke: Reply fail. Should have been directed @ Manksgloob

@Ichiro51:

No problem. On Sprint:

call voicemail
option 3 - personal options
option 2 - greetings
option 1 - change main greeting
option 3 - add/remove caller instructions played after greeting

@lotussix: and looking at your missed call #'s is so difficult because?...

@JustinSane07: and 1:01 counts as 2 minutes.

@lotussix:

I think that is something different. You don't want to turn off the stuff it plays when you listen to voicemails, you want to disable the instructions when you call someone elses voicemail. On sprint you can disable this, I don't know about the rest.

@winshape: It still is 3--I just called myself to see if it switched to the Verizon system. There's no message before my recorded greeting either, but I have no idea if there ever was.

Why does a voicemail call cost minutes anyway. Isn't it an in network call, and shouldn't that be free?

@outlulz: or, if you are calling someone with at&t, as soon as any message starts, you can hit 0 (zero) and it skips everything to the beep to start recording. Not true for some others (i've tried), but always true for at&t.

@emis:
Well, it does matter in the sense that it's annoying as freaking hell to have to listen to it every time.

No, I do not want to page this person, nor do I want to leave a callback number. Just let me leave the damn message you binary bitch.

@JustinSane07:
Well, it is a complaint in the sense that it's annoying as freaking hell to have to listen to it every time.

No, I do not want to page this person, nor do I want to leave a callback number. Just let me leave the damn message you binary bitch.

@madog:
Yes. Someone who shares my pain.

I work at a cell phone store and believe me its not some evil tactic to screw people out of minutes. They make the automate voice mail super easy because 90% of the people using cell phones are complete idiots. Thats why its set up for 5 year olds. Besides 15 seconds still count as 1 minute so it doesn't matter if its 5 seconds or 45 seconds you are still getting charged for 1 minute.

@aswearengen: If you are checking your voicemail it doesn't cost minutes but if you are leaving a message on someone else voicemail it cost minutes.