topic Re: Turn off voicemail in Get Support

Turn off voicemail

Chuckc — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 12:39:08 GMT

How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?

Re: Turn off voicemail

GinYVR — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 19:20:27 GMT

@Chuckcbesides the work around.. no there is no way to turn off the voicemail completely.

Re: Turn off voicemail

Lieux — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 20:08:04 GMT

@Chuckc wrote:
How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?

Someone suggested to change the phone number in your settings of your phone and you will never receive voicemail!! Depends on your phone model...

Re: Turn off voicemail

dabr — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 00:46:39 GMT

@Lieux wrote:
@Chuckc wrote:
How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?
Someone suggested to change the phone number in your settings of your phone and you will never receive voicemail!! Depends on your phone model...

But I wonder if the number you change to would mean someone else is going to get the headache of receiving unwanted calls from unknown callers...maybe that's the reason most for these spam callers:)

Re: Turn off voicemail

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 00:47:40 GMT

@dabr wrote:
@Lieux wrote:
@Chuckc wrote:
How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?
Someone suggested to change the phone number in your settings of your phone and you will never receive voicemail!! Depends on your phone model...
But I wonder if the number you change to would mean someone else is going to get the headache of receiving unwanted calls from unknown callers...maybe the reason most for these spam callers:)

The idea is to forward to a bogus number like all 1's or something. The problem is that then any caller will eventually get a nasty recording and wonder if the line is invalid.

Re: Turn off voicemail

Lieux — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 00:49:50 GMT

@dabr wrote:
@Lieux wrote:
@Chuckc wrote:
How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?
Someone suggested to change the phone number in your settings of your phone and you will never receive voicemail!! Depends on your phone model...
But I wonder if the number you change to would mean someone else is going to get the headache of receiving unwanted calls from unknown callers...maybe that's the reason most for these spam callers:)

Hi hi hi... it was something like that. 55555555555 a number impossible!

Re: Turn off voicemail

dabr — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 00:50:46 GMT

@Lieux wrote:
@dabr wrote:
@Lieux wrote:
@Chuckc wrote:
How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?
Someone suggested to change the phone number in your settings of your phone and you will never receive voicemail!! Depends on your phone model...
But I wonder if the number you change to would mean someone else is going to get the headache of receiving unwanted calls from unknown callers...maybe that's the reason most for these spam callers:)
Hi hi hi... it was something like that. 55555555555 a number impossible!

Haha...makes sense:)

Re: Turn off voicemail

CS_Agent — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 18:14:11 GMT

Hello Chuck,

I hope this helps:

1- Call your voicemail by holding the number 1 on your dial pad.
2- Select option 3 to “Manage your greetings”.
3- Select option 4 to “Manage your Extended Absence Greeting”.

4- Record an Extended Absence Greeting. (Just record dead air for 3 seconds)
4- Select option 4 to turn on Extended Absence Greeting.
5- Select option 5 to block callers from leaving a message after hearing the Extended Absence Greeting.

Have a great day.

Re: Turn off voicemail

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 18:16:01 GMT

Well...apparently the mods are all caught up with the queue to be posting extraneous answers on a mostly dealt with thread.

Nice.

So ask away everybody with your autopay problems and your $10 credit texts. They're standing by.

Re: Turn off voicemail

srlawren — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 05:50:00 GMT

@CS_Agent wrote:
Hello Chuck,

I hope this helps:

1- Call your voicemail by holding the number 1 on your dial pad.
2- Select option 3 to “Manage your greetings”.
3- Select option 4 to “Manage your Extended Absence Greeting”.
4- Record an Extended Absence Greeting. (Just record dead air for 3 seconds)
4- Select option 4 to turn on Extended Absence Greeting.
5- Select option 5 to block callers from leaving a message after hearing the Extended Absence Greeting.

Have a great day.

@CS_Agent while this is a great suggesiton (one I've made myself in the past Workaround for diabling Voicemail ), @Chuckc specifically said he didn't want to do this:

@Chuckc wrote:
How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?

(Bold added be me for emphasis.). @CS_Agent, please read carefully before responding.

Re: Turn off voicemail

GomezAddams — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 22:18:02 GMT

The ONLY thing you can do is try to get a NEW PLAN.

Major problem they give the feature away for free with every account.

I am now looking at other carriers that I can pay for what I want.

Why piss off customers!? They are charging more money,
alot of people do not like it = A LOT OF CUSTOMERS WILL LEAVE

Re: Turn off voicemail

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 22:28:50 GMT

@GomezAddams wrote:
The ONLY thing you can do is try to get a NEW PLAN.
Major problem they give the feature away for free with every account.
I am now looking at other carriers that I can pay for what I want.
Why piss off customers!? They are charging more money,
alot of people do not like it = A LOT OF CUSTOMERS WILL LEAVE

Over voicemail!? Do you pay less when you get a fast food burger that already comes with cheese and ask for no cheese? No. Do you pay less to not get a fortune cookie? No.

A couple options have been offered by others here.

Re: Turn off voicemail

srlawren — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 22:36:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@GomezAddams wrote:
The ONLY thing you can do is try to get a NEW PLAN.
Major problem they give the feature away for free with every account.
I am now looking at other carriers that I can pay for what I want.
Why piss off customers!? They are charging more money,
alot of people do not like it = A LOT OF CUSTOMERS WILL LEAVE
Over voicemail!? Do you pay less when you get a fast food burger that already comes with cheese and ask for no cheese? No. Do you pay less to not get a fortune cookie? No.
A couple options have been offered by others here.

@Anonymous yeah, I have to agree with you. @GomezAddams you're likely going to end up paying more for less elsewhere. There are two options noted above: 1) record an extended absensce greeting saying you're not accepting voicemail messages, or 2) call forward to an invalid number like <your area code> 555-1212 to avoid calls ever reaching even an outgoing voicemail greeting.

Re: Turn off voicemail

computergeek541 — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 01:04:31 GMT

@GomezAddams wrote:
The ONLY thing you can do is try to get a NEW PLAN.
Major problem they give the feature away for free with every account.
I am now looking at other carriers that I can pay for what I want.
Why piss off customers!? They are charging more money,
alot of people do not like it = A LOT OF CUSTOMERS WILL LEAVE

Most of the plans these days will include some form of voicemail. You won't save any money by not using it. In the past, some carriers have allowed customers to have features disabled/"excluded" from being active even though they were included. I remember when Rogers had to disable Name Display for some people because their phones wouldn't ring.

Re: Turn off voicemail

pm-smayer97 — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 07:29:40 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Well...apparently the mods are all caught up with the queue to be posting extraneous answers on a mostly dealt with thread.
Nice.
So ask away everybody with your autopay problems and your $10 credit texts. They're standing by.

I wish that were true... They keep taking forever to reply to mine... 5days + often times, and sometimes I have to follow up and wait another 5 days + 😕

Re: Turn off voicemail

pm-smayer97 — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 07:31:05 GMT

@srlawren wrote:
...

(Bold added be me for emphasis.). @CS_Agent, please read carefully before responding.

Unfortunately, they rarely do... wasting a lot of time back and forth 😕

Re: Turn off voicemail

pm-smayer97 — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 07:42:41 GMT

@Lieux wrote:
@Chuckc wrote:
How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?
Someone suggested to change the phone number in your settings of your phone and you will never receive voicemail!! Depends on your phone model...

That actualy does NOT prevent a caller from going to your voicemail....it only prevents YOU from accessing yoru voicemail if you press and hold "1" to get to your voicemail (the default shortcut to dial voicemail on all carriers).

That said, some phones have the ability to redirect calls when you are busy or do not answer to specific numbers. That is where you can use a fake # BUT be aware that this may cause you to use up minutes on a metered plan (because this would be using the phones call forwarding feature, which is different than the default going to voicemail that some people mistakenly name "call-forwarding"; though similar, they are actually not the same).

Otherwise, PM does NOT offer a way to completely turn off VM. The closest you can get is to prevent accepting a message using the Extended Absence Greeting feature.... AND your Extended Absence Greeting can be mostly blank... so they get a "pick-up" then a virtually immediate hang up. That is as close as you are going to get.

Re: Turn off voicemail

GinYVR — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 08:28:00 GMT

@LieuxI thought changing the phone number in your case is just changing which number your phone dial to access your voice mail.. so eg if your number is 416 5555 1234, your phone will usually dial that to access voice mail.. but if you change it to 416 5555 1235 then your phone can't retrieve it.. it doesn't solve the problem of people leaving your messages though. People will still get to you.

@Lieux wrote:
@dabr wrote:
@Lieux wrote:
@Chuckc wrote:
How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?
Someone suggested to change the phone number in your settings of your phone and you will never receive voicemail!! Depends on your phone model...
But I wonder if the number you change to would mean someone else is going to get the headache of receiving unwanted calls from unknown callers...maybe that's the reason most for these spam callers:)
Hi hi hi... it was something like that. 55555555555 a number impossible!

Re: Turn off voicemail

pm-smayer97 — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 08:48:38 GMT

@GinYVR wrote:
@LieuxI thought changing the phone number in your case is just changing which number your phone dial to access your voice mail.. so eg if your number is 416 5555 1234, your phone will usually dial that to access voice mail.. but if you change it to 416 5555 1235 then your phone can't retrieve it.. it doesn't solve the problem of people leaving your messages though. People will still get to you.

@Lieux wrote:
@dabr wrote:
@Lieux wrote:
@Chuckc wrote:
How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?
Someone suggested to change the phone number in your settings of your phone and you will never receive voicemail!! Depends on your phone model...
But I wonder if the number you change to would mean someone else is going to get the headache of receiving unwanted calls from unknown callers...maybe that's the reason most for these spam callers:)
Hi hi hi... it was something like that. 55555555555 a number impossible!

That is exactly correct. That is what I jsut said a moment ago just below 😉 VVVV

Re: Turn off voicemail

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 14:30:00 GMT

@GinYVR wrote:
@LieuxI thought changing the phone number in your case is just changing which number your phone dial to access your voice mail.. so eg if your number is 416 5555 1234, your phone will usually dial that to access voice mail.. but if you change it to 416 5555 1235 then your phone can't retrieve it.. it doesn't solve the problem of people leaving your messages though. People will still get to you.

@Lieux wrote:
@dabr wrote:
@Lieux wrote:
@Chuckc wrote:
How can I TURN OFF voicemail? I need to turn it off, not just extend rings to answer after 30 seconds, nor simply not accept messages - I need it to never pick up. Can I REMOVE the feature somehow?
Someone suggested to change the phone number in your settings of your phone and you will never receive voicemail!! Depends on your phone model...
But I wonder if the number you change to would mean someone else is going to get the headache of receiving unwanted calls from unknown callers...maybe that's the reason most for these spam callers:)
Hi hi hi... it was something like that. 55555555555 a number impossible!

I didn't interpret Lieux saying to change *accessing* the voicemail.

The idea that he was referring to is to change the call forwarding options. These options are usually picked up in the phone automatically from the provider except the always forward option.

There's forward when the phone is busy, forward when the phone isn't answered and forward when the phone is off or out of range. The provider would usually insert their voicemail access number in those options. This provider (probably everybody else) can even know which way the caller got to them and you can set a different greeting for each.

You can change these options to something else. This is the trick that is being suggested. Forward it to some non-existent number and a caller will never get to voicemail. They'll get a nasty error and you'll see that you missed a call but it won't get to voicemail.