the new york times' david pogue started something last week, and you probably want to be a part of it.
On Thursday, on this blog, in my e-mail column and on Twitter, I launched “Take Back the Beep,” a national campaign to restore your time and money from the country’s cellular carriers. I’m referring, of course, to the obnoxious, drawn-out, 15-second instructions that Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile tack on to your own voice mail greeting. You know: “To page this person, press 5. When you have finished recording, you may hang up. To leave a callback number, press 1,” etc.
the response, pogue says, has been overwhelming. pogue currently lists these links for you to complain to your carrier:
• verizon: post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/FJncH
• at&t: send e-mail to: customerissues@attnews.us
• sprint: post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/9CmrZ
• t-mobile: post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/2rKy0u
a patch suggested by pogue's readers: in your outgoing message, tell callers your carrier's secret code to cut to the beep: (it’s * for verizon, 1 for sprint and # for t-mobile or at&t.)
that is so odd. I have always been frustrated by that and yesterday (yes, just yesterday) I "went off" on a voice message to my sister about this exact thing. And I did not read the NYT article. Of course, when I realized what I was doing (leaving a message for Sprint on my sisters voice mail), I forgot why I called her. Sometimes I forget who I am calling after I listen to that LONG message. And what are the "additional options" ...how many more can their be? Leave a message or hang up. Done.
ReplyDeleteI have Sprint - I just went into my voicemail and changed my settings to not read the instructions in the voicemail message. It took a few seconds. Is that not available on other carriers? Am I missing something?
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