why do 2degrees charge for voicemail calls?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › why do 2degrees charge for voicemail calls?

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Biddle Corp

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#1043375 14-May-2014 08:10

Dialing your own number works fine on VF - it's what I've done for 10+ years to avoid paying for VM. I don't recall if the same trick works on other networks, but there have been many discussions on here in the past about it.

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reven

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#1043376 14-May-2014 08:21

updated my voicemail contact to mynumber +",*" (, == pause).

called it a couple of times (testing out how many pauses/waits to do). hopefully i didnt get charged.

that way you have to enter your pin, but thats better than being charged :)

richms

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#1043435 14-May-2014 09:32

Voicemail is archaic. Disable it.

It's absurd to have to call up and listen to a poor quality over compressed voice recording of someone reading out numbers and names, having to transcribe it to a temporary storage like writing it down and then reentering it back into the phone to get back in touch with them.

People can text or email. If they can't be bothered then they are probably not worth the hassle.

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reven

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#1043444 14-May-2014 09:37

richms: Voicemail is archaic. Disable it.

It's absurd to have to call up and listen to a poor quality over compressed voice recording of someone reading out numbers and names, having to transcribe it to a temporary storage like writing it down and then reentering it back into the phone to get back in touch with them.

People can text or email. If they can't be bothered then they are probably not worth the hassle.

if only people behaved that way. My dad (67) wont text, he doesn't have a smart phone so wont email. So he will leave a voicemail. If you're driving and you call someone hands free, you might leave a voice mail, but you wont text/email :)

I wish the 2d app could show a list of your voicemails, and listen from within the app, and better yet do voice to text to show the content. but i dont see them adding that any time soon if ever.

jtan

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#1043446 14-May-2014 09:40

Just chiming in here - I'm on 2degrees (Pay Monthly) and would appreciate if voicemail calls were charged using minutes - I get a reasonable amount of voicemail messages a month and it is quite annoying to find a corresponding reasonable amount of extra charges with each bill even though I have so many free minutes remaining.

I had totally forgot that you can access the voicemail system by calling yourself and pressing *, so will look at doing this now moving forward, but it would be easier if this was set by default.

Other than that, very happy with 2degrees service, keep it up guys.

Cheers.

jonathan18

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#1043460 14-May-2014 09:48

jtan: I had totally forgot that you can access the voicemail system by calling yourself and pressing *, so will look at doing this now moving forward, but it would be easier if this was set by default.

Brilliant! I never knew of this ability, and it works perfectly. Proof I can have my cake and eat it too...

jtan

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#1043502 14-May-2014 10:34

jonathan18:
jtan: I had totally forgot that you can access the voicemail system by calling yourself and pressing *, so will look at doing this now moving forward, but it would be easier if this was set by default.

Brilliant! I never knew of this ability, and it works perfectly. Proof I can have my cake and eat it too...

It's also quite useful in cases, say where you left your phone at home (or if it ran out of power) and needed to check if there were any important voicemail messages - You can call your phone off another phone (incurring the cost of the phone call) and can press * to access your voicemail. :)

allio

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#1045610 15-May-2014 15:28

PhantomNVD: Or just ring your own number directly, hit * and input your pin?

Just tried this and ended up leaving myself a blank message, punctuated only the sound of me futilely hitting the * key over and over. Didn't get to the voicemail menu at all. What did I do wrong?

PhantomNVD

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#1045747 15-May-2014 19:28

Dunno... Just tested it again, I Get the "you've got through to..."

I hit * and go straight to "welcome to 2degrees voicemail please enter your pin, followed by the hash key"

This on a $19 prepay carryover plan on iPhone4...

Only variable I can think of might be that it's an 021 ported-from-vodafone number maybe?

whitecd

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#1045748 15-May-2014 19:34

sbiddle: Some newer VF plans include free voicemail.

My understanding is every Telecom plan (apart from some corporate plans) and all 2d plans charge for it.

Why? Because they can...

Telecom have free voicemail on all ultra plans

1eStar

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#1045854 15-May-2014 21:40

Skinny has the option of no voicemail, but plays a greeting. Obviously people don't listen to the message, as they often ask me, "so did you get my message?"

SaltyNZ

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#1046001 16-May-2014 06:59

1eStar: Skinny has the option of no voicemail, but plays a greeting. Obviously people don't listen to the message, as they often ask me, "so did you get my message?"

Yes, so does 2degrees.

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

rugrat

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#1046292 16-May-2014 14:18

I have voice mail turned off. Get a text with missed call and phone number of call, then I call back number.

That works for me, maybe not everyone. Also get text with missed numbers even if phone was off when call was made.

For someone on a $39 plan though, it does seem a bit rough not to just take 1 minute off remaining minutes, looks like only on specific plans they do this.

shk292

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#1046379 16-May-2014 16:04

PhantomNVD: Dunno... Just tested it again, I Get the "you've got through to..."

I hit * and go straight to "welcome to 2degrees voicemail please enter your pin, followed by the hash key"

This on a $19 prepay carryover plan on iPhone4...

Only variable I can think of might be that it's an 021 ported-from-vodafone number maybe?

Just tried this on Telecom prepaid... and got charged 20c

ripdog

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#1046982 17-May-2014 14:15

whitecd:
sbiddle: Some newer VF plans include free voicemail.

My understanding is every Telecom plan (apart from some corporate plans) and all 2d plans charge for it.

Why? Because they can...

Telecom have free voicemail on all ultra plans

No they don't. My mother is on an Ultra plan with Telecom, and she always has a string of 20c Voicemail listings on her bill.

One of the reasons I'm switching her to Share Everything. She calls a lot too!

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