Do an prepaid providers include access to voicemail in call minutes provided?

Forums › New Zealand Mobile and Wireless › Do an prepaid providers include access to voicemail in call minutes provided?

TeaLeaf

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#284101 31-Mar-2021 10:30

One thing I find frustrating with prepaid is voicemail. The minutes included, are not usable to access your voicemail, with Vodafone, I leave $1 there just in case I need to access voicemail.

Do any of the providers allow access to voicemail via the minutes included in the prepaid plan?

Wakrak

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#2684582 31-Mar-2021 10:37

No.1 reason why I changed from Skinny to 2degrees. Their cheap plans were similar enough to justify a shift so I didn't have to pay extra for voicemail.

Senecio

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#2684583 31-Mar-2021 10:39

You could take my Father in-law's approach. His voice message reads

"Hi, this is Joe Bloggs. Don't bother leaving a message, I won't listen to it. Please call back later or send me a text message".

Wheelbarrow01

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Chorus

#2684653 31-Mar-2021 11:21

Spark have recently launched a visual voicemail app - this allows you to recieve transcriptions of voicemail as text direct to your phone. I haven't used it so cannot say how good it is.

The app is free for on-account customers, but for prepaid customers it's $1 every 4 weeks - but this price also gives you unlimited access to listen to your voicemails.

https://www.spark.co.nz/shop/mobile-plans/visual-voicemail.html

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

Dynamic

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#2684666 31-Mar-2021 11:46

Consider contacting your provider's call centre and ask for your voicemail to be turned off. I did this to my kids mobiles, and its commonly done for things like SIM cards in automatic gate controllers, etc.

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sbiddle

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#2684690 31-Mar-2021 12:12

Vodafone include it in included minutes - just dial your own number and enter your PIN.

It's all I've ever done for the last 17 years or so since I moved away from an old school BellSouth plan that included free voicemail.

jonathan18

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#2684719 31-Mar-2021 12:46

Given Kogan’s use of Vodafone’s network, unsurprisingly their plans also include voicemail.

I’ve been with Kogan for nearly 1.5 years now and, other than the inability to get VoLTE working on my phone, I’ve found them fine - especially the last six months where I’ve managed to line up two of their $1 for 3 months of their 15GB/month plan! That’s coming to an end so looking to go back to Skinny, so must remember to get the voicemail turned off as I’m just not willing to pay additionally for this.

Groucho

524 posts

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#2684741 31-Mar-2021 13:22

Voicemail is free with 2degrees - https://www.2degrees.nz/help/mobile-help/calling-features/voicemail-for-mobile

I rarely use voicemail myself but have just realised from this page why on some occasions when I check it I get the message saying I haven't set it up and prompts me to set it up.

"Your Voicemail account will be deactivated after 60 days of inactivity (i.e. where no messages are deposited or retrieved)."

GRRR.

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TeaLeaf

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#2684753 31-Mar-2021 13:35

sbiddle:

Vodafone include it in included minutes - just dial your own number and enter your PIN.

It's all I've ever done for the last 17 years or so since I moved away from an old school BellSouth plan that included free voicemail.

This is who I have been using and having the problem with. Perhaps its because Im not ringing my number but rather the voicemail number, 707 or something similar. Ugggh, well let me give them another try.

Would this work on Spark as well?

TeaLeaf

6325 posts

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#2684755 31-Mar-2021 13:40

Groucho:

Voicemail is free with 2degrees

And you can use the quick dial.

More than anything, its just my personal phone, not my work phone, so I dont use it a lot, its really only for people to call me, and as I have it on silent as I like to filter calls haha I get voicemail reasonably frequent, that $10 call plan just stands out.

Time for me to get a 2degrees sim :-) Ive got Voda and Telecom/Spark (still have Telecom sims lying around), but only one of the mid sized 2deg sims.

steve2222

498 posts

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#2685208 1-Apr-2021 09:27

On Skinny they have an option that allows you to leave a recorded message but disables the ability for the caller to leave a VM. So I just have a message that says for callers to either txt me or email me. Once that message has played the call disconnects.

Tzoi

424 posts

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#2685213 1-Apr-2021 09:42

Wheelbarrow01:

Spark have recently launched a visual voicemail app - this allows you to recieve transcriptions of voicemail as text direct to your phone. I haven't used it so cannot say how good it is.

The app is free for on-account customers, but for prepaid customers it's $1 every 4 weeks - but this price also gives you unlimited access to listen to your voicemails.

https://www.spark.co.nz/shop/mobile-plans/visual-voicemail.html

It's good enough to figure out who is calling and why, but the transcription is far from perfect, and for things like finding the call back number, I have to listen to the message to make sure that the number is correct (generally it's not)