Take Back the Beep Campaign (against extra long, minutes-eating voicemail instrux)

[Psephos]

Source: N Y Times

July 30, 2009 by David Pogue

Suppose you call my cell to leave me a message. First you hear my own voice: "Hi, it's David Pogue. Leave a message, and I'll get back to you"--and THEN you hear a 15-second canned carrier message.

* Sprint: " is not available right now. Please leave a detailed message after the tone. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press pound for more options."

* Verizon: "At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options. To leave a callback number, press 5. (Beep)"

* AT&T: "To page this person, press five now. At the tone, please record your message. When you are finished, you may hang up, or press one for more options."

* T-Mobile: "Record your message after the tone. To send a numeric page, press five. When you are finished recording, hang up, or for delivery options, press pound."

(You hear a similar message when you call in to hear your own messages. "You. Have. 15. Messages. To listen to your messages, press 1." WHY ELSE WOULD I BE CALLING?)

I, the voicemailbox owner, cannot turn off this additional greeting message. You, the caller, can bypass it, but only if you know the secret keypress--and it's different for each carrier. So you'd have to know which cellphone carrier I use, and that of every person you'll ever call; in other words, this trick is no solution.

These messages are outrageous for two reasons. First, they waste your time. Good heavens: it's 2009. WE KNOW WHAT TO DO AT THE BEEP. Do we really need to be told to hang up when we're finished!? Would anyone, ever, want to "send a numeric page?" Who still carries a pager, for heaven's sake? Or what about "leave a callback number?" We can SEE the callback number right on our phones!

Second, we're PAYING for these messages. These little 15-second waits add up--bigtime. If Verizon's 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That's your money. And your time: three hours of your time a year, just sitting there listening to the same message over and over again every year.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2009/07/30/technology/circuitsemail/index.html?8cir&emc=cir

---

The man has a point. A very good point.

I'm on Sprint. Turns out they're actually pretty supportive of cutting down on this, and have set up a customer forum for it. Follow this link for instructions on how to minimize the waste on a Sprint phone. Perhaps other carriers have something similar? One way to find out.

http://community.sprint.com/baw/community/sprintblogs/buzz-by-sprint/announcements/blog/2009/07/30/take-back-the-beep

Here is the general forum link:

http://community.sprint.com/baw/community/buzzaboutwireless/general/takebackthebeep?view=discussions&start=0

[tuvor]

1. "Bypass Cellphone Voicemail Instructions with One Star Pound"

By sheer coincidence, I happened to find this today.

http://lifehacker.com/5326511/bypass-cellphone-voicemail-instructions-with-one-star-pound

I hope this helps. No firsthand experience, since I'm with a Canadian carrier.

[Psephos]

3. whoa !!@@!! the phone pictured in that article is PURE FINGER CRACK...imusthaveit imusthaveit

lol

good find, btw...I love lifehacker

[TheMadMonk]

6. I have one. What are you offering?

Also spare extra long life double thick 1/2 lb battery.

[and-justice-for-all]

8. I use to have that phone...we also had a bag phone..nt

[Fridays Child]

4. Cool. I'm going to see if that works with my friend's phone. She's not on the same service as me...

...so daytime messages are charged against my minutes. And, JEEBUS! I think her provider must have the longest, most tedious voicemail instructions in the industry (it's either Alltel or T-Mobile).

[tularetom]

2. I never leave a meesage. My call gets recorded as an unanswered call

and whoever I called can figure out it's me by the number.

[maglatinavi]

5. messages

That is smart! I think I'll do the same... oh! the corporate world! How they have so many tricks to cheat us...!!!

[Angleae]

7. Provided the phone in question was turned on at the time.

If it's off, it won't record it as missed.

[Blandocyte]

9. The Go-Go's said We Got The Beep

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