Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with voicemail

Believe it or not, George isn't at home!

nomnomnom — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:19:07 -0800

I always hate my voicemail / answering machine message. I feel really lame whenever I say any of the little scripts I have heard or thought up. NEW VOICEMAIL MESSAGE SCRIPTS please! All ideas welcome, from simple to funny to irreverant. (Or even pre-recorded messages I could download, good songs, anything!)

I hate the sound of your voice.

thebazilist — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:30:52 -0800

I don't want people to leave me messages. What's the best way to say this in my outgoing message? I'd like my voicemail to be a polite- and professional-sounding version of the following:

"Hi, this is Thebazilist. You can leave me a message, but I'll probably get back to you faster if you text me or e-mail me at [my e-mail address]."

Normally I shouldn't care if it sounded snarky, but I'm applying for jobs right now.

When I call places like Jetblue, they're always interrupting my hold to tell me that I should go to their website instead. Will my message be annoying? Should I not even do this?

(Reasons: it just takes a lot of time to check voicemail, and also I feel that "tug" of guilt or obligation more when I know I'm going to have to hear someone's voice needing something from me. I know, I'm terrible.)

I already know about things like Callwave, but right now I want to try to work this "free" option.

Voicemail to ringtone?

ilikecookies — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:32:56 -0800

Is there an easy way (meaning minimal downloading of stuffs) to convert a voicemail into a ringtone? PC and non-jailbroken iphone (and I wish to keep it that way). Thanks.

Help me access my voice mail!

silverstatue — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:55:01 -0800

How do I access my office voice mail from home? this is surely my dumbest question yet. i'm on vacation but i need to log into my office mailbox, and i cant remember how.

i know that when i dial my office and the main greeting starts, i type my mailbox number which is 107; then my greeting starts and i'm SUPPOSED to do something at that point to make the robot say "enter your password, then press #". but what?

i THOUGHT it was something like * 6 # but that doesnt work. i've tried # 6 * but that ends the call. i'm desperate!

i dont know what our voice mail system is. um... when you listen to messages, it says "To listen to new messages, press one, then press two." When you want to delete stuff, you press 3.

i'm hoping someone else has an office voice mail system that sounds like this one and can help me out? i just need to know the sequence i have to push to access my own voice mail box. help!

(i realize this sounds impossible to answer. but i am desperate)

Stop lying to me, phone!

stepheno — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:07:31 -0800

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.

Yes, I've asked the company. Officially, it's impossible.

embrangled — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:56:11 -0800

A question for IT and telecoms boffins: Help me understand voicemail. Specifically, what would need to go wrong with a mobile phone company's voicemail server for it to randomly connect customers to the mailboxes of complete strangers? Is it more likely to be an isolated technical glitch, a systemic network security problem, intentional foul play, or something else?

Verizon Voicemail callback

l33tpolicywonk — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:22:43 -0800

Verizon voicemail - Is there an option to return the call of the person who left the message? My Verizon phone's voicemail has an option to leave a "reply" for someone who has left a message - basically, give them a voicemail - but it doesn't have an option to just call back the number. Is there a key I'm missing or an option in the menu I'm not using?

I upgraded my cell phone (ATT) and now people can't leave me voicemails.

mahamandarava — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:22:24 -0800

I'm an ATT Wireless customer and I just upgraded my phone (to Samsung Eternity). Everything works fine, except that people can't leave me voicemails. If my number is called and not answered, the caller just gets a recorded voice saying that "the customer is unavailable" or words to that effect, and no voicemail. However, if I press down 1 on my new phone, I can get into my voicemail system just fine and access my old saved voicemails. The ATT website says to access voicemail and follow the prompts to set up the voicemail, but I don't get any prompts to set up voicemail - just my old messages - so I can only imagine my voicemail is already set up from the last phone. I know this is an ATT customer service issue, but it's Saturday evening here and customer service is closed until Monday morning, and I want to receive voicemails now! Anyone out there have any idea how to get this working, or will I just have to wait it out until Monday?

How can visitors leave a voicemail / audio message on my website?

sinbarambam — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:17:39 -0800

How can visitors leave a voicemail / audio message on my website? I've looked for a little script that would allow visitors to record their own voice and to leave a message on my website that would either be emailed to me or that I could retrieve somewhere later.

I found references to the Odeo programme which used to be able to do this back in 2006 but that appears not to be the case anymore.

Has anyone come across something like this?

How to get a certain non-800 phone number to FAX & voicemail?

ggruschow — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:16:11 -0800

How to get a specific non-800 phone number to FAX & voicemail? I'd like to get a certain 312 phone number that's unused, and get it routed to a system that can accept both FAX and voicemail for me that get routed to my email. It'd be an added bonus if the voicemail system offered a "press 1 in case of emergency" type thing that could forward the call to my cell phone. Double added bonus if it can accept SMS / MMS messages from cell phones.

Man, I'd pay good money if I could get all that. Does anyone know how to do it, if it's possible, or even where to start? I assume I can do this by spending weeks setting up an asterisk system and paying the local phone company an obscene amount, but it seems like it should be simpler/cheaper than that.

Thanks, I love you in advance.

Help me put grandma's voice on the computer!

misanthropicsarah — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:21:34 -0800

How can we get voicemail from the cell phone to the computer? My partner has several voicemails from her grandparents on her cell phone. She'd like to forward these voicemails to our email/computer for more permanent storage, as they're special. How can we do this? Ideally for free.

Verizon cell phone service; Samsung SCH-a930 phone; Windows PC.

We don't want to get Skype or anything like that.

I see that got voice was recommended last year but it doesn't look like they have a free solution any more.

Free group voicemail solution for small groups?

cocoagirl — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:24:37 -0800

Is there an easy, and free, way to send group voicemails and SMSs? I am now responsible for getting out the "school's canceled!" message for my son's daycare and would rather not dial 28 home and cell phone numbers to leave the same brief message. What I'd love to do is plug all the numbers in my cell phone, create a group, create a message, and push it to the group.
I have the following technology, and so far I can't figure it out:
- Blackberry curve (t-mobile)
- Land line (Verizon)
- Grand central account
- OS X
- Phone numbers and email addresses for all parents

I don't care if it's text to voice, text to text, voice to voice, or voice to text, but I do need the message to show up on cell phones and, by voice only, to land lines (not all families have both). I'd be fine with two solutions (one for cell phones and one for landlines) if it means only two interactions instead of 28. And I'm willing to entertain other software/services, but again, free and easy is the name of the game.

P.S. I saw this question circa 2006 and I don't think the free voicemail account works because people shouldn't have to call every slightly snowy day to check "how 'bout now, is school closed now?" And SayNow's service seems to require a bit of set-up on the recipient's end about how to receive messages, etc.

Ready to go POTS-less. Need good voicemail.

dammitjim — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:14:51 -0800

I'm looking for a good personal voicemail service that can replace a home phone number. I want to avoid having a regular landline, using my cellphone for all calls, but I don't want to give out my cellphone number to credit card companies, etc. However, I do want to selectively allow those types of parties (Doctor's offices, etc.) to reach me, since sometimes they won't leave messages for privacy reasons.

Here's what I'd like my dream voicemail service to do:
- Have local numbers, in multiple locales, so I can have two numbers in two different cities go to the same service
- Take messages for me, and send me a text message or email that I've received a message
- Autodetect and receive faxes
- Have a web interface (or something) that allows me to select a whitelist of numbers that I'll allow to forward to my cell phone
- And for extra credit, allow me to dial into the service to place outbound calls, so I can "appear as" my voicemail number when contacting one of these institutions, for purposes of activating credit cards or whatever

The whitelist feature is the one that I'm unable to find while looking at the websites of various vendors. Any help? Any comments like "I wanted this too until I tried it and discovered that it actually sucks"? Those are good too.

Why does my phone SMS me when I check voice mail?

jessamyn — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:41:03 -0800

Why does my cell phone send me a text message whenever I retrieve my voice mail? I'm a little new to cell phone land. I've had a RAZR v3 with Cingular/AT&T for maybe a year but I've only lived someplace where it worked for the past few weeks so I'm still learning some things.

Whenever I check my voice mail (I think, it may only be when I save or delete a voicemail) I get an SMS at the same time, but it's not from anyone or it seems to be from my phone. It looks like this [pic1, pic2] and there's no text to the message, just that.

I don't care terribly, but it's a little disconcerting to be checking voice mail and having the phone buzzing in my hand, so if this is turn-offable, I'd love to be able to do that. Can someone explain what is going on here? My apologies in advance if this is a total "duh" question that you are embarassed for me not knowing.

Real to reel...

ryecatcher — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:10:35 -0800

Any way to save the voicemails on my iPhone to my macbook pro? Problem: I have a lot of saved voicemails on my phone that I'd rather not delete. But my memory is getting full.

Is there a solution to this? I'm running 2.0 software.

Thanks!

Two iPhone questions...

dobbs — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:49:01 -0800

After being lied to repeatedly by my credit card company (PC Financial), I have two iPhone questions: 1) How do I get voice mails from my iPhone onto my computer? and 2) how do I record calls made on an iPhone? I have the 1.0 version of iPhone and an iMac if that makes any difference. Thanks!

Easy and cheap voice mail solution please!

my homunculus is drowning — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:40:28 -0800

My small business needs a permanent phone number with several easily customizable voice mail boxes. Skype seems like it may be a solution for me, but there are many other products out there as well that seem to be more dedicated to doing exactly what I need.

I have very little technical know how in this area.

I don't have to make out going calls with this phone number (though it would be nice).

I don't have a lot of money.

Cancelling voicemail feature on verizon

seekingsimplicity — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:31:35 -0800

I am a verizon cell phone customer and just got rid of our landline. We are a family of 5. Three teens. I hate getting voicemail. Should I cancel this feature on my cellphone? Do any of you run your life just fine without voicemail? My kids all text me. For example, a friend just called me and left a message to call her back. I do not want to call her back! If I did not have voicemail I would not be obliged to call her. I know it sounds like I am mean but I just hate the phone. Any ideas?

Where to find intelligent American female voices?

zaebiz — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:15:40 -0800

Some colleagues want to set up a voicemail system in the US for a small tech company in Australia and we need some intelligent, welcoming American female voices that sound at ease with technical jargon to do our answering messages. Any adult age. Slight accents ok. I haven't really been impressed with the sound of professional voice models - they're a bit too slick for our image. Any other suggestions? I've read one of the cheapest options (not my idea, I promise!) is to call phone sex lines and ask them to record un-sexy professional messages. I'm really not into that idea though. You can sort of tell the way a person talks whether they have some confidence in technical matters. ... and whether they have umm other things on their mind.

Undelete a T-Mobile voicemail?

rajbot — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:11:54 -0800

Asking for a friend: Is there a way to recover a month-old voicemail message on T-Mobile? This is on a BlackBerry.

My friend hung up without actively doing anything to the voicemail while it was playing (i.e. didn't hit 7 to delete or 9 to save), and now when she calls to check her voicemail, it is no longer there. It's an important family message.

Maybe the NSA has an archive of it somewhere?

Thanks.

Voicemail to RSS Embed - What are my options?

stuboo — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:15:29 -0800

Is there a service that will allow me to seamlessly embed a recorded voicemail into an RSS feed? I was hoping http://drop.io would do the trick, but it doesn't embed the audio file into the RSS feed. It comes out as an attachment.

Going completely Skype, wireless and mobile?

zaebiz — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:22:35 -0800

I live in a semi-rural area and am incredibly frustrated with my area's landline phone provider. The provider has a monopoly in the area and delays fixing constant faults for many weeks. I want to go completely Skype, wireless and mobile. What are my options? I already have mobile phone access from another provider and am aware I can also get broadband for the area. I also have a mobile phone with basic internet access. I live in Australia not far from a major city. The provider is Telstra. However will consider any overseas service which is effective. Frankly, I don't really like the intrusiveness of telephone calls in any case so would be happy with a voicemail service retrievable over the internet perhaps. I could get phone numbers in cities that my friends and relatives live in so it would be cheaper for them in any case.

Recording from voicemail

bonaldi — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:50:43 -0800

I have a voicemail message on my mobile that I'd like to keep -- how can I get it on to my Mac for posterity? Both the Mac and phone (a Nokia N80) have Bluetooth, but that's about it as far as connecting the two goes. Is there any way to set the Mac as the phone's bluetooth headset, perhaps?

Help me find a call answering service.

LongDrive — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 03:55:31 -0800

Does anyone have any experience or can recommend a live call answering service? Scads of details inside. It took alot of will power not to title this post 'Temporary Secretary'...

Anyway, I am a small business owner located in Australia that primarily deals with international clients in Europe and North America. I have two international Skype IN numbers that I forward to my Australian mobile when I am out of the office.

I am going overseas for six weeks to promote my business, and the thought of new business calls going to voicemail leaves me a bit uneasy. I thought I could get my Skype IN numbers forwarded to some sort of Answering Service that could take my calls, but this is sort of a new thing for me, and am not familiar with the options out there.

Basically I am looking for a service where when someone dials either of my Skype numbers, it will go to a real person who answers with my company name and greeting, and will take messages that I can collect somehow. Ideally I would like to use a service based in a country where Skype has hardware (ie, not Australia, as call quality is pretty poor), and has no ongoing contracts (as I will only need this service for 5-6 weeks, but possibly ongoing), and would have 24/7 availability.

Usual showering of rubies and good karma applies to all helpful parties.

Corporate Voicemail on the Cheap.

mikespez — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:34:43 -0800

What's the cheapest/easiest/best way to implement a corporate voicemail system for a small organization? I'm part of a college student-run philanthropy, and currently, our office phone line has a regular password-protected voicemail system connected to it. This proves insufficient, because there are more then 20 people who receive voice messages on that line.

What's the best, low-cost way to implement a voicemail system where each person has their own mailbox (i.e., someone calls, can "press 1 for marketing, press 2 for press" or can simply just enter an extension to be directly connected to someone's voicemail-box).

I'd prefer a hardware solution, rather than a software package or online service —but I'll consider all options. Cost is sort of an issue, being as we are a nonprofit, but used E-bay equipment may be a solution.

Thanks!