- 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!
