Disable Voicemail

[Kateg]

Hi, 

I am very confused, as every answer on the internet, relating to Public Mobile and Disabling Voicemail, is giving conflicting information!

I have an iPhone 7 and I do not want people to be able to leave me voice messages. I have contacted apple, who have confirmed the VM feature is monitored through my  phone plan operator. 

Please can you tell me if disabling my VM is possible and how I go about doing this? 

Thanks,

[Respublica]

@srlawren

Thank you for being such a helpful person in this community. I include in my greeting for my callers to "Please text me at my xxx-xxx-xxxx phone number." This is to let them know that I prefer to receive text rather than a call.

The reason is I usually take the public transport and I do not enjoy taking a call in a crowded bus or train.

Just a personal preference

[srlawren]

Thanks @Respublica!  I can't take credit for the idea, nor do I recall whom I first saw suggest it.  But I can take credit for listing out the steps, I suppose!  🙂

There is another technqiue where you can remove your voicemail access number from your phone, and the phone would then just ring and ring.  I think for most people, this approach with a simple outbound extended greeting suggesting an alternate method of contact is better, rather than just leaving your callers totally hanging.

[Respublica]

@srlawren 

I confirm that your step by step instruction works. Great solution to those who are not into Voice Mail. Thanks!

[srlawren · Accepted solution]

@Kateg there is a simple workaround: 

• dial into your voicemail and log in with your PIN. 
• In the main menu, press 3 (manage greetings),
• then 4 (manage extended absence greeting),
• then 2 (record a new extended absence greeeting) and record a message that indicates to your caller you are not accepting messages. 
• Then press 4 to turn on extended absence
• Finally, press 5 to dissallow anyone to leave you a message.  Problem solved!

NOTE:  I can confirm this configuration does indeed work, and prevents the caller from leaving a message. I walked through it to make sure I had the right directions, and then tested by calling myself from another phone.  When you dial in, it plays the extended absence greeting you recorded, and then a system voice says "Thank you for calling, goodbye." and the call disconnects.

In my test extended greeting, I said "Hi, this is <my name>.  Sorry I'm unavailable right now.  At this time, I am not accepting new messages.  If you need to reach me, please send me a text or email, or try me again later.  Thank you.".  But of course, say whatever you like in yours!

To return to receving inbound messages, should you wish to at a later date:

• dial into your voicemail and log in with your PIN. 
• In the main menu, press 3 (manage greetings),
• then 4 (manage extended absence greeting),
• then 4 to turn off your extended absence greeting

After doing this, your previous personal greeting goes back into effect automatically, and callers can leave you messages again. Yes, I tested this, since I wanted to restore the ability anyway. 

Hopefully this helps!

[Luddite]

@Kateg Try the procedure quoted by @Indexx earlier in this thread. 

OR "call" ##2002# then click click "Dismiss" BUT seems you cannot reactivate voicemail without assistance if you do it this way: http://iphone-tricks.com/tutorial/1555-how-to-turn-off-voicemail-on-iphone