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Cellular forums Home > Archive > Verizon wireless > February 2007 > Voice Mail Indicator Does Not Work
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Voice Mail Indicator Does Not Work
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| Marilyn Sue 2007-02-16, 10:33 pm |
| My friend has had this problem over at least three phone models so it
is a software problem.
She does not get an indication when she has a voice mail. The phones
are always set properly for a beep and the indicator.
When she takes the phone in (and she has been to different Verizon
stores), they reset the phone and say "now it should work." It
sometimes does work for a brief time. That is, it works in the store.
She has to call her voice mail to find out if she has messages.
Of course, most people would have quit the company long ago, but
Verizon seems to have the best/only coverage for west Texas where she
sometimes travels.
FURTHER, sometimes the phone does not even ring when she gets a call!
She checks the list and sees calls that she missed WHILE SHE WAS
CARRYING THE PHONE AROUND.
This is incredibly annoying! Several times I have called to find out
what aisle she is in when we get seperated while shopping and her
phone has not rung. She gets the phone out to call me and finds I
have already called her . . .
What is going on here? How can she get this fixed? I have a Verizon
phone on the same account and have no problem. I get immediate
confirmation when I have a VM.
Thank you!
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| "Marilyn Sue" <GilThorp@gmail.com> wrote in news:1171683667.858505.215380
@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com:
> My friend has had this problem over at least three phone models so it
> is a software problem.
>
> She does not get an indication when she has a voice mail. The phones
> are always set properly for a beep and the indicator.
Two things have to occur to get the indicator.....
1 - SMS messages have got to be turned on, which is what they are
probably doing at the office when she takes it to "repair". I shut my
SMS off to stop paying for the spam and that turned off the indicator, so
I called them. They turned the SMS spammer back on and I got the
indicator back.
2 - She has to have enough signal when the SMS message comes in on that
channel to hear the call over the noise level, of course.
>
> When she takes the phone in (and she has been to different Verizon
> stores), they reset the phone and say "now it should work." It
> sometimes does work for a brief time. That is, it works in the store.
Stores have great signals. If they don't have great signals they install
"Cheater Repeaters", local building repeaters until they have great
signals so even the cheapest crap phones work wonderfully....
What does her signal bars look like at home?
>
> She has to call her voice mail to find out if she has messages.
>
>
> FURTHER, sometimes the phone does not even ring when she gets a call!
> She checks the list and sees calls that she missed WHILE SHE WAS
> CARRYING THE PHONE AROUND.
This wreaks of "oversold, overloaded system". If the towers are all
busy, the switch dumps the calls to voicemail and notifies you of the
voicemail waiting so you can pay twice for a 30 second message. They
can't deliver the call, so it has to go somewhere....
I experienced this on Verizon and still get it once in a while on Alltel,
here. My voicemail indicator beeps and I'm staring at 4 or 5 bars of
signal and the call never rings the damned phone. Then, I have to play
telephone tag with voicemail and callbacks to try to make contact with my
customer. I hate it, too. That's why I carry the phone.
I had another unexplained phenomenon on Verizon I haven't experienced on
Alltel in the last few years. I leave no-answer-transfer on, so if the
phone rings 4 times, it dumps the call to voicemail. I never change it.
To recover it, I have to call 611 for instructions because I can't
remember codes I never use. Suddenly, with no input from me at all, all
my calls are dumped to voicemail. I called 611 and had the TSR look at
how it's setup. It's setup to dump all calls direct to voicemail...my
phone didn't ring for 2 days. I have 611 reset it to no-answer-transfer
to voicemail. It would stay that way for a random length of time...then
revert back to either no voicemail at all or direct-to-voicemail again.
Never knowing at Verizon who is telling the truth, because the truth
moves depending on who you are talking to, noone could explain who was
changing my setup on the switch. Two times, I'd get no calls for a
couple of days. I'd call my own number and VZW was telling my customers
I was out of business by saying my number "had been disconnected and was
no longer in service". I BLEW UP, LOUD AND CLEAR to the local yokels
both times.
It's as if someone is rebooting the system and it reboots to a default
instruction file, not the system it was before it crashed. Of course,
they'd never admit that, even if smoke were rising from the building.
>
> This is incredibly annoying! Several times I have called to find out
> what aisle she is in when we get seperated while shopping and her
> phone has not rung. She gets the phone out to call me and finds I
> have already called her . . .
>
> What is going on here? How can she get this fixed? I have a Verizon
> phone on the same account and have no problem. I get immediate
> confirmation when I have a VM.
Aha! Your "get the phone out" comment may show one of the problems....
If the phone is buried in a handbag or coatpocket against your body,
including in a holster on your hip against your side, it gets a lot LESS
signal than it does if you are holding it up dialing or against your ear
with the antenna hanging out in clear air. If the signal were in the
"marginal" range, the signal in the handbag or on your hip may not be
enough signal to set the phone to ringing because YOU are absorbing its
signal. Humans and foliage are one big RF energy absorber at these
frequencies. ANY commercial building has a metal roof and walls filled
with metal rods, wires, etc., forming an RF shield. Go to WalMart.
Stand out in the parking lot and look at the signal in front of your
face. Now walk inside the store and it drops like a stone.
She wasn't hearing the call because the phone had a terrible signal and
doesn't make a big issue out of it in her handbag. Notice how cellphones
are made so they don't raise hell when the signal sucks? Think about why
cellphone companies wouldn't want that phone making a big stink about
their crappy signal.
It's still a UHF radio system. Borrow a couple of Family Radio Service
400 Mhz walkie talkies from someone and take them to the mall with her.
Talk to each other across the mall and notice how the signal goes in and
out something awful. Those walkies are running from 2-3 times the POWER
output at half the cellphone's frequency. Is it any wonder the cell
tower 4 miles from the mall can communicate with it at all?!
PS - If you're going to make a call, the BEST place is always at the
Verizon mall store under the Cheater Repeater...(c; The signal in the
mall pins the signal meter in there!
Larry
--
Vista has been out a week.
Is Service Pack 1 ready yet?
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