One of the most annoying parts about voicemail is the long message carriers force you to listen to before you leave a message. It has been carefully engineered to make sure you use more minutes listening to the 15 second+ greeting. That is kind of why I am glad to use Google Voice and PhoneTag. 🙂
David Pogue recently went on a mission to bring this annoying waste of minutes to incite customer wrath to force carriers to change their slimy ways. It looks like Pogue’s antics are paying off and carriers are listening. Gizmodo did a find job of rounding out the carriers reactions so far:
- AT&T is "actively exploring" how to make its messages shorter, and says that visual voicemail, which will make this issue moot in a few years anyway, is a priority.
- T-Mobile says the issue has their "attention," which is either a promising acknowledgment, or just a statement of an incredibly obvious fact.
- Sprint rightly reminds us that you can turn off extended messages on their service already, and explains how. Thanks, Sprint.
- Verizon would very much like David Pogue to shut his stupid face, please, because he said means things about them on
TVTwitter. Everyone else was cool!
Check out more info on David Pogue’s blog
DavidB Not Registered
Posted: August 14, 2009 at 2:49 PM EST
Nobody hears it when they call me. YouMail answers the phone when I can’t, so my callers never hear Verizon’s extended and pointless message.
Joe Not Registered
Posted: August 15, 2009 at 12:43 AM EST
Just press 1 whenever you get a sprint vm. It takes you right to the beep.