AT&T To Shorten Minute Eating Voicemail Messages And Other Carriers Take Heed To "Take Back The Beep" Campaign, Except Verizon

"Take Back The Beep" Campaign
David Pogue is telling us that the campaign, "Take Back The Beep", has made carriers look into the doubius practice of collecting minutes by prolonged voice mail messages.
Sprint has provided an option to take the lengthy messages off by yourself, even though they tend not to publish it and make it bit hard. So if you are a Sprint customer, be nice to your callers and take off the message;

"Access your voicemail box. Press 3 for personal options.
 Press 2 for greetings.
 Press 1, to change your personal greeting.
 Press 3 to add or remove the caller instructions.
 Follow the prompts to turn instructions on or off."
AT&T has mentioned to David in an email, "David: All the messages we got from customers really made us look again at how we handle voice mail, and we are going to make some changes. I commend you for raising the issue."
T-Mobile has mentioned that they got the message loud and clear, if they would do any thing seem to be seen. But continuing the campaign might help.

Verizon is another matter all together, they have an option to turn off messages, by turning off the voice mail!
So keep on sending those messages to them.


* Sprint is off the hook as they provide means to turn off the messages.
* Verizon: Post a complaint.
* AT&T: Send e-mail to: customerissues@attnews.us.
* T-Mobile: Post a complaint.

Message Patterns; (from the campaign)
* Sprint: “[Phone number] 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 also hear a similar message when you call in to hear your own messages. “You. Have. 15. Messages. To listen to your messages, press 1.” Duh.


You can read more about the campaign and the results at David Pogue post