David Pogue posted an article about the annoyance of the extra 15 second instructions on voice mail messages, and also all the long user instructions when retriving your voice messages. Tim also posted an article , agreeing with David that this is a problem. I have a lot of respect for David and Tim, but this time, sorry, they are just wrong here!
I think this is a lot of noise over nothing, and is not the big money grabbing problem everyone is making it out to be.
Have we really become so busy that 15 seconds is now an annoyance? Or is this all about the supposed extra millions of dollars the carriers are cashing in when we spend those extra minutes? And, do we really know what to do at the beep?
Taking these backwards: The beep and what to do: OK, we can all talk at the beep, but do you know what button to press on a Sprint or T-Mobile voice mail system for more options? I don’t. What about AT&T? I have no idea. How do you set urgent for example? Did you know there is a button you can press to skip the instructions message and go straight to beep? No? Why not, they tell you EVERY time you listen to that 15 second instruction that bothers you, but most, now complaining about these instructions, have no idea at all how to do any of this. (Maybe it should be standardized! That would be a good gripe.)
Ok, the message saying to hang up when finished is silly I agree, so maybe we can cut 3 seconds, but in reality most people still have trouble leaving a voice mail, and are not sure what to do at the end. They talk to fast, or pause too long and get cut off, they forget to leave a phone number or don’t say their name. No, people STILL do not know how to leave a proper message in many cases and often need more help than not. And most have have no idea how to use extra options, like page, priority, erase ad start over, etc. And many people still think they MUST press a key at the end or the message is not saved. So, there are plenty who still need instructions. You may just not be one of them, and good for you. So how come you don’t just skip over the instructions? They really do tell you how!
On the supposed millions of dollars in gain: Bull S&^*t! Sprint, for example, does not charge you for Voice Mail retrieval time, so no extra costs there. They also let you set “expert” mode, and turn off the instructions at the end of your message, all of which take about 15 seconds to set up, but of course, you need to listen to the instructions to know that. And, if you have an iPhone, there are no instructions at the end of your outgoing message when someone calls you, seems Apple made AT&T remove it for the iPhone.
Also, many people these days have either unlimited minutes, so there is no additional charge there, or so many regular minutes that they never go over. With AT&T’s roll-over minutes, they help too in not going over, so no money made there either. And the rest of you, well, give me a break, if 15 seconds on a few dozen voice mail calls each month (12 to 15 minutes a month max) is making you go over your allotted minutes, then maybe you should try talking on the phone just a tiny bit less on each call. 15 extra second is noise in your total number of minutes available each month, and if you are going over, eliminating that 15 second VM message prompt will not change that anyway. So I suspect that the carriers these days are making very little if anything at all on these extra minutes.
15 second delay in your life: Sorry, I think this is just a lot of noise over very little, if anything at all. OK, the messages are mostly stupid messages that many of us do not need to hear anymore, yet a lot of people, especially the older users, have no idea what they should do when leaving a message. And if helping them leave you a message means you get delayed 15 seconds, seriously, get over it. I am sorry, but really, if a 15 second delay in your life a few times a day is causing you so much grief and pain, you have much bigger issues than a stupid voice mail message promot taking up your precious time.
This is just not something to get so upset about, it is not making tons of cash, and there are many ways around it.
Now, if you need something to get upset about, go after SMS messages cost. These little shot messages cost the carrier nothing to provide, but are BILLIONS of dollars of profit for all the carriers. These messages are “inserted” into quiet spaces of voice conversations and into partially filled data packets. They use literally no extra bandwidth, and put no strain on the system, even if EVERYONE used them at the same time.
Why are these not included in a data plan anyway? They are data! You get unlimited email, at 15 to 30 times the bandwidth of an SMS. You get unlimited browsing, at 30 to 50 times the bandwidth of an SMS, and even unlimited video viewing, and many thousands of times the bandwidth each second over an SMS. Yes they cost 20 cents a message if you do not pay for a package, of $20 to $30 a month for unlimited usage. To me, that is an outrage! When you send an SMS instead of an email or making a phone call, you actually REDUCE the load on the network. Yet, you get “charged” for that.
Even worse, AT&T includes SMS messaging in their data plans, unless of course you happen to have an iPhone, in which case you can pay an additional $5 to $20 to send and receive SMS messages. How come?
What to get angry at your carrier, get angry at that. That truly IS a rip off, and there is no way around those charges. An God forbid you do not take a plan and someone starts sending you messages anyway. You cannot refuse them, they are five for a dollar, and the cost can add up quickly. This is something to be angry about.
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