Voice Mail usage minutes

[elhota]

I'm on the $15/month plan.  I just noticed that whenever there is a message left in my voice mailbox the minutes are being charged as an outgoing call.  Are messages left in the voice mail supposed to be charged as outgoing calls?  I find this to be very UNFAIR.  I receive quite a lot of automated calls and robocalls that I purposely do not answer- and yet if it goes to my voice mail I am still being charged minutes for them??

[dust2dust]

The previous customer mentioned did contact support and they basically said tough, that's how it works.

It takes minutes when the number is called and it drops to voicemail. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

So interesting find with your testing.

@Williamlu1166 

[softech]

@frankysplace   there was another post with a new account last week talking about minutes being used for voicemail , even checking voicemail from landline.  I am not sure if it is VoLTE related, but it is possible, especially the new user likely activated after Feb 22 and hence would be on VoLTE as well

Can you open a ticket with PM support and let us know how it goes?

[frankysplace]

Since the upgrade to VoLTE. I noticed that when someone leaves me a voicemail minutes are being used. This was not the case when I was using the 3G for voice. I am also on the 15 dollar a month 100 Canada wide minutes with unlimited incoming calls. FYI you can turn off VoLTE in cellular settings on the iPhone and switch back to 3G voice calls. On the 3G network you can setup conditional call forwarding to use other voice mail services like YouMail. But once you switch back to VoLTE your phone will default to PM voicemail. I just started testing this when the upgrade to VoLTE was turned on for my account. 

[Anonymous]

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@missorange wrote:

@Anonymous  I am not on that plan, I dont know there is a bug, as everytime someone called me, they went to voicemail, I could see the mins usage in the detailed usage page, I got confused at the beginning, but when I see the summary in the front, it is not counts.

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Ok thanks...so then you're on the $10 plan?

The $15 plan is a newer plan and *might* have different functionality.

If you're not on the $10 plan either then where do you see this minutes counter? I'm probably wrong but I don't think any of the other plans have a line down in data & add-ons on the overview page.

[missorange]

@Anonymous  I am not on that plan, I dont know there is a bug, as everytime someone called me, they went to voicemail, I could see the mins usage in the detailed usage page, I got confused at the beginning, but when I see the summary in the front, it is not counts.

[Anonymous]

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@elhota wrote:

Thanks.  This is good to know.  The other poster indicated that if the voice mail is accessed from another phone it shows up in the detailed page but is not counted in the summary page

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*Shouldn't*

But folks with the $15 plan might want to verify all that.

@elhota: If that's in reply to me then yes I know. I was asking @missorange if they were also on that plan.

[elhota]

This is good to know.  Yes, I am on the $15 plan. 

[elhota]

Thanks.  This is good to know.  The other poster indicated that if the voice mail is accessed from another phone it shows up in the detailed page but is not counted in the summary page

[Anonymous]

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@missorange wrote:

When you call from your own phone for the voice message, yes, it should show either on the front page or detailed usage page.

But when you called from other phone, they does not count the mins usage in your front page, but you do see that mins in your detailed usage. 

I checked, even it shows on the detailed message, but they do not charge you for the mins. You can double check it again, if they charge you, you can ask MOD for the help.

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Are you on the $15 plan?

There are policies and then there are "bugs".

[missorange · Accepted solution]

When you call from your own phone for the voice message, yes, it should show either on the front page or detailed usage page.

But when you called from other phone, they does not count the mins usage in your front page, but you do see that mins in your detailed usage. 

I checked, even it shows on the detailed message, but they do not charge you for the mins. You can double check it again, if they charge you, you can ask MOD for the help.

[dabr]

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@elhota wrote:

I'm on the $15/month plan.  I just noticed that whenever there is a message left in my voice mailbox the minutes are being charged as an outgoing call.  Are messages left in the voice mail supposed to be charged as outgoing calls?  I find this to be very UNFAIR.  I receive quite a lot of automated calls and robocalls that I purposely do not answer- and yet if it goes to my voice mail I am still being charged minutes for them??

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I left a voicemail message on my phone (have same plan as you) to see if it was being counted as minutes used.  I didn't see any difference in the usage with a message left on my voicemail but once I retrieved my message it showed up as usage (just what I would expect).  However, I can't say anything about retrieving voicemail using another phone because it's a feature I've never used...tbh I don't even remember if I set up a PIN for that and what the PIN is, so unfortunately I couldn't try that out.

Hopefully, you've contacted the moderators and they can clarify how minutes can be counted if retrieved from another line.  Another point...it might be worth your while to have one of the add on minutes (200 or 400) which don't expire until used up, so that you always some minutes to fall back onto if you've depleted your plan minutes.

[Anonymous]

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@elhota wrote:

By 'counter' are you referring to the 'Total Usage' minutes in the summary page?  When I add up the minutes from the detail calls, the total amount of minutes is less than the 'Total Usage' minutes.

Also, I just noticed that the call minutes that are showing up in the detail pages are more than what is showing in my phone.  For example, one call that is showing as 58 seconds in my phone is showing as 1:12 in their detail page.  So they are overbilling the minutes as well!

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Yes. The front overview page. Remember that calls get rounded up to the next minute.

When you say charged I think of it more as consuming the alotted minutes. Voicemail is like a call forward. So it calls from your phone out to the voicemail access number. Therefore in the details log it looks like an outgoing call. But again...it's the front page counter that matters.

[Anonymous]

 @elhota 

Thanks for the reporting. I understand your not wanting to consume your minutes. Thanks for what you have done so far.

Sucks. So then it looks like the new $15 plan might be taking minutes for voicemail. Unlike the $10 plan.

Or who knows maybe after some maintenance updates they've changed things up. Maybe I should check again. 🙂

Edit: So it all works the same for me as it has been.

[elhota]

I think it will increment.  The phone call that I did not answer and the caller left a voice mail msg did increment.

I do not want to try this experiment because I don't want to accumulate any more minutes this month.  I'm already accumulating way too many unnecessary minutes and don't want to use up my monthly allotment!

[elhota]

I just checked.  They did charge me for the minutes that I used to retrieve my messages using another phone (my landline)

[elhota]

By 'counter' are you referring to the 'Total Usage' minutes in the summary page?  When I add up the minutes from the detail calls, the total amount of minutes is less than the 'Total Usage' minutes.

Also, I just noticed that the call minutes that are showing up in the detail pages are more than what is showing in my phone.  For example, one call that is showing as 58 seconds in my phone is showing as 1:12 in their detail page.  So they are overbilling the minutes as well!

[elhota]

I am retrieving my voice mails.  But I am calling from my landline to retrieve them to avoid using up more minutes from my cell phone.  The minutes that are showing up in my usage details are the ones for when the caller is leaving the message.  The time of the call is the same time as when the caller is leaving the message.  However, it is being categorized as an outgoing call instead of an incoming call.

[srlawren]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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So if you call your phone and let it ring and let it drop to voicemail and leave a message...do you see the counter increment?

This is an observation I'm interested in.

The $10 plan does not.

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@elhota but do the above from another phone (like your landline, work phone, spouse's phone, etc).  @Anonymous is right, you should NOT see the counter change on the Overview page in your self-serve account if you do the above.

[Anonymous]

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@elhota wrote:

I retrieved the voice mails using my landline phone but the charges are still there (not reversed).  Are you saying that if I use my phone to retrieve the voice mails, they will reverse the charges?  Or will they charge me for that as well (I retrieve them using my landline because I don't want to be charged the minutes for retrieving them with my cell phone).

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Using the phone to get voicemails will use minutes. Using a different phone will not.

For the $10 plan that's true. That's why I'm interested in your observations.

[Anonymous]

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@elhota wrote:

It's the usage details that lists all the individual calls

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Right. All activity will show up in the usage details. For limited plans like the $10 and your $15 ones, it's the counter on the overview page that matters.

So if you call your phone and let it ring and let it drop to voicemail and leave a message...do you see the counter increment?

This is an observation I'm interested in.

The $10 plan does not.

[dabr]

@elhota  Are you retrieving your voicemail?  Because as far as I'm aware that's the only time voicemail calls will count against your plan minutes.  If you know they might be robocalls/spam it's best to just leave there and eventually they will expire.  Another way to not exhaust your limited minutes in your plan is to only answer if the person is in your contact list.

[elhota]

I retrieved the voice mails using my landline phone but the charges are still there (not reversed).  Are you saying that if I use my phone to retrieve the voice mails, they will reverse the charges?  Or will they charge me for that as well (I retrieve them using my landline because I don't want to be charged the minutes for retrieving them with my cell phone).

[elhota]

It's the usage details that lists all the individual calls

[sunflowershine]

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@elhota wrote:

I'm on the $15/month plan.  I just noticed that whenever there is a message left in my voice mailbox the minutes are being charged as an outgoing call.  Are messages left in the voice mail supposed to be charged as outgoing calls?  I find this to be very UNFAIR.  I receive quite a lot of automated calls and robocalls that I purposely do not answer- and yet if it goes to my voice mail I am still being charged minutes for them??

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@elhota The voicemail will be charged until you retrive it from the phone. Besides, you can block the phone number if you have that function in your phone. Hope that helps!

[Anonymous]

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@elhota wrote:

I'm on the $15/month plan.  I just noticed that whenever there is a message left in my voice mailbox the minutes are being charged as an outgoing call.  Are messages left in the voice mail supposed to be charged as outgoing calls?  I find this to be very UNFAIR.  I receive quite a lot of automated calls and robocalls that I purposely do not answer- and yet if it goes to my voice mail I am still being charged minutes for them??

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Are you talking about the call details deeper down or the counter on the overview page?

Like 14 of 100 minutes.