Voicemail-haters of the world - UNITE!
Reddit had an article regarding this Guardian author's hatred for Voicemail, to which I can only say "Bravo!" Up until a little over a year ago my feelings were exactly the same. I can't stand listening to Voicemail. Mostly because it seems like the Voicemail lady speaks at 3 words a minute... "Welcome to X voicemail.... you have...................... 25................. new messages. First message... received.............. Saturday......... at................. 9........... thity........ six...... PM....... 1....... minute......... thirteen................ seconds." I'm already 3 minutes into the call to retrieve the messages and I'm no more informed than I was before I called in to get my messages. And of course, I can't remember which key it is to get her to shut up and play the damned message already. Furthermore, Verizon - my cell provider, Vonage - my home service provider, and Voicepipe - my office provider, all use different keys to get the lady to hurry up. (Interestingly, the lady sounds the same for all three.)

Happily, when I switched my home service from POTS to VOIP, I immediately activated the email voicemail attachments. ("...And there was much rejoicing -yay!") Since I spend the majority of my day in front of Thunderbird, I can get my messages pretty much instantly and then delete them through the web interface. My office also switched to VOIP around the same time, and as long as I'm in the office or somewhere with internet access, I leave that to email the messages as well. The bonus with VoicePipe is that the message isn't saved, so I don't have to log on to their God-awful web interface to delete the message.

Now if I could get Verizon to email my messages and allow me to delete them through a web interface, I would be VERY happy. If any other provider offered this, I'd switch instaneously. I'd also have the added benefit of not having to threaten The Wife to never leave me a voicemail. I have a list of missed calls. Don't leave a message on the cell. If I've missed your call, I'll call you back. Better yet, text message me.

Posted: Friday, 2:05pm | Topic: /Rants