Calling voicemail is not IN Calling

there was a thread about that here awhile ago...

this is the way i believe it works... since the voice mail system for vzw is NOT on ur phone, calling to check ur voice mail is not necessarly IN... when you are transferred to voice mail when calling yourself then you have been transferred to the voice mail system..
I'm sure someone else here can give u a better explanation.

I also remember reading that it used to be if you used *86, then it would use minutes, but people began to realize if they called themselves it counted as IN-Calling. Verizon has since changed that...

 

Very few wireless companies count voicemail calls as mobile to mobile calling. Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, Alltel, and SunCom all count checking your voicemail from your cell phone as regular airtime. Cingular and I believe T-Mobile are the only wireless providers I can think of that count voicemail calls as MTM calling.

 

If you want to start a lawsuit, be my guest, but trust me, Verizon has their back covered on this one.

 

Usually the ones that are not charging for it are not doing so because of billing system limitations.

 

Is that why Veriozn didn't used to charge for calls to your own number/voicemail?

 

You mean this is a CDMA vs GSM thing???:biggrin: Just kidding.

Seriously, I forgot that Verizon charges for this. Cingular used to, under tmda, but dropped that a few years ago I think. It makes a big difference in anytime messages for me...I always get VM that says 'call me back' instead of using the full minute just to give the message (like pick up bread). Ugh! At least now that is not wasted money to check VM

 

hahaha... good point.
i usually wait to check my VM until night time starts... and i usually have my cell phone on me at all times and i never miss calls due to lack of service here SO if i have a VM its cuz i ignored a call cuz i didnt wanna waste minutes if im at my house, sometimes i miss calls cuz of service, but i'll call my cell from the house phone and check my VM that way.

 

what if you call from another vzw phone to your phone and check vmail. will it be IN that way? even though its a hassle.

i usually will call my cell from the house or work if I need to check my vm.

 

i have wondered the same thing, but i have yet to try it....
what may happen is like i said earlier, when u press * to log into voicemail, it might consider that a transfer to another system... and then still use minutes... I'm not sure, if any has tried it post your findings here plz.

 

I wish there was something I could do about this. But to really get it free just call it from a landline.

 

As wireless continues to evolved so do the databases that handle the billing. In the past it may have been to complicated to compute those calls as charged.... Just think of the millions of calls being processed by the number of subscribers and add in LNP, can you imagine how complicated just computing a bill would be.

When I worked for a smaller carrier we would create our own plans within the limits of the billing vendor. You can only do as much as your billing system will support.

If you have 45 million customers, and you can figure out a way to add some incremental revenue by charging for voice mail retrieval (something that most customers are not going to complain about.) Why not, think of the extra revenue that comes in from that airtime.

Charging for retrievals is not that bad, some companies charge you airtime when people leave you messages. (some prepaid systems cannot tell the difference of a call to the phone or a call transferred to voice mail.)

 

Good explanation, Thanks, wbb.

 

Calling your number from a different Verizon phone, not picking up and accessing your voicemial that way will be considered an IN call. Hope this clears it up.

 

The Verizon voicemail server is not a mobile phone.

 

But you could argue the same for carriers who count calls to voicemail as a Mobile to Mobile call.

 

Cingular charges me to check voicmail......... every minute counts against my overall usage...

 

I never answer my phone during important meetings or the toilet! VoiceMail is good.

 

Must be pre pay service or a really base plan? You must have M2M on your plan to get no charges for checking VM.