Stop lying to me, phone!

July 22, 2009 3:07 AM

How can I rid my office phone of an (incorrect) persistent "You Have VoiceMail" alert?

It's a "Cisco IP Phone 7941", and it constantly displays a red light and the aforementioned message, which is really annoying for me as I end up logging in and checking my voicemail pointlessly a lot.

Voicemail is essential for me: I need to get a hold of different people all the time who are out and about constantly, as am I, here being a chemical plant.

The obvious solution is to call IT, but the last time I called them—about resetting the voicemail password so I could get in—it took many emails and phone calls and about two weeks to get diverted to the correct local person. The joys of mandated bureaucracy: I'm not allowed to just ask that same person again.

posted by stepheno to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Yeah, bureaucracies suck, but in my experience a stuck VM light/msg needs to be cleared on the server side (so to speak). Start complaining about how you missed a message or something to anybody who will listen (or is within earshot). We in IT hate these little lies, but they do work.
posted by rhizome at 3:58 AM on July 22

Before you do anything, unplug your phone and plug it back in. It's possible some local flash memory just needs to be reset.

Assuming that doesn't work, call IT before you do anything else. Explain it in concrete "It's making my job unnecessarily harder" terms. If they don't call you back by the end of the day, you'll have much more leeway when you take rhizome's Squeaky Wheel advice. Go to the IT office at the end of the workday, and don't leave until someone fixes it.
posted by mkultra at 7:00 AM on July 22

I'm also in a government bureaucracy and have the same phone. When I got my number my voice mail light was similarly stuck. In the end, I had to call a special phone number to get it to go off. The number was a ten digit regular phone number, but no one ever picks up, nothing seems to happen, but when I hung up, the light was off. Things are normal now.

So in short, unless you work for the State of Minnesota, you're going to have to call the IT folks.
posted by advicepig at 7:45 AM on July 22

Does the voicemail also go to your email? I have found on an older version of unity voicemail, a message marks as high importance would also trigger my message waiting lamp on the phone.

I'm not sure if you have unified messaging, but it is a thought.
posted by Climber at 7:55 AM on July 22

"a message marked as..."

Wow, I need more caffeine.
posted by Climber at 7:55 AM on July 22

I don't have the same phone but... This happened to me and a colleague had the answer. Next to the red light on my phone there is a grey slidey thing. It uncovers a button that allows you to scroll through the menu. On of my meny options is: Turn light off.

Why they don't come with manuals, I don't know.
posted by Gor-ella at 8:04 AM on July 22

Many thanks for all the suggestions—problem solved.

Turns out, I'm officially an office-tech noob: mkultra's advice worked a charm. (I'd originally 'plugged it out' but the cable I pulled didn't have an effect).

Cheers again!
posted by stepheno at 8:30 AM on July 22