The beep is back on my iPhone — wife’s, too! I can’t take credit for it, though. Alan Fry was the first to break the beep barrier, then detailed his success in the comments section of this blog.
It’s reminiscent of the story of the 4-minute mile. For years, people said it couldn’t be done. Then Roger Bannister did it in 1954. During the 12 months that followed, 30 other people around the world also broke the barrier. It wasn’t because there was some technical or training advancement; it was only because they now knew it could be done.
Alan Fry is the “Bannister Of The Beep.”
Freeeeedomm ...from annoying, time-wasting voicemail instructions!
If you have an iPhone and you want to get rid of the annoying robo-lady after your own voice, here’s how to do it:
1. Call AT&T from your iPhone by dialing “611.” It’s a free call.
2. Navigate through the menu — press 1 for the first prompt, zero for the second, then zero again for the third. Don’t let them send you to an Apple representative — who are great when it’s an actual Apple problem — because AT&T owns this issue 100%.
3. Now you’ve got a live person on the line. Be nice. They can’t help you directly, as their customer service interface doesn’t give them the ability to make this modification. Even if they kick you up to “Level 3″ support, the Level 3 technician still can’t access the feature set that controls the voicemail prompts. They might even tell you, “That can’t be done,” or “There’s no way to get rid of the prompting.” Don’t argue.
4. Kindly tell them you would like to open a ticket and have it sent directly to the “voicemail team.” They are the only ones who can make this change for you and you never speak with them directly. The purpose of the ticket should be to “change prompting from full to none.”
5. Once they’ve created a ticket, get the case number from them so you can reference it later if needed. The ticket number will start with “CM,” then today’s date, underscore, and a seven-digit number (example: CM20090911_1234567). The ticket will also be tied to your phone number, so you can access it that way if you don’t have it in front of you.
6. Verify that they’re sending this ticket straight to the voicemail team, then thank them for their help.
7. It could take and hour, or it could take 3 days. Once your ticket makes it to the top of the pile, the voicemail team will implement the change. You’ll get a phone call from a real person notifying you the issue has been resolved. If you think it’s taking too long, you can always call “611,” give them your ticket number and ask what the “estimated completion date” is for the case.
8. That’s it — you will have successfully taken back your beep.
This is the process that worked for me — twice. Of course, your mileage may vary. Working for a live-operator directory assistance provider has taught me how quickly things change in telecom; especially the cellular/wireless industry.
Again, be nice to everybody along the way, and don’t argue if they say it can’t be done. You and I both know it can.
So what are you waiting for? Go take back the beep!
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Very Nice Chris!
I still don’t understand what’s really going on at ATT. We know it can be fixed on ATT. So let’s talk about Verizon this week and see what we can figure out. My wife is verizon she just got back from a verizon store and asked them to turn off the lady. Verizon rep said
“IT CAN’T BE DONE!” sorry lady we can not take off our lady.
They told her the only thing she could do is turn off her voice mail.
My wife doesn’t want to hassle them. I do. My wife says don’t worry I can live with it. She is already giving up! I’m not but I need your help!
What do we know for sure about verizon?
Can we start a recap on verizon?
I just got off the phone with AT&T and they said there was no voice mail team and that this could be solved by going into the personal options (4) on voice mail, chosing 2 (administrative options) then pressing 7 for cut through / paging options. From there you can press two to turn off the prompts.
I purchased my iPhone last year and I don’t have the message and therefore have no option 7. I am trying to resolve this for two other lines on my family plan. Why is this so hard (other than the reason of you’re working with a telecom company)?
@Garrett:
Don’t bother with the “pressing 7″ routine — that’s for turning off paging prompts. Just call back until you get a CSR that’s a little more helpful. You can always request that they kick you up to “Level 3″ support, where your odds are better.
I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to get my beep back with AT&T. Could someone give me their successful ticket number, so that I may use it as a reference? Thanks! -Jen dancernellie [at] hotmail.com
Called AT&T they say that there is not a “level 3″ support and that there is not a “voicemail team”. I was wondering if there was anyone that has had success with this process, and if you could email me with your ideas! Thanks,Crystal- Crystal.elledge@yahoo.com
I am an iPhone user and an AT&T customer service rep. Here is what you tell a rep to do because there is no voicemail team. You tell them to submit a case under a different category because voicemail is not an available option and use absolute courtesy and avoid trying to coach the agent. I just submitted a case for a gentleman and plan to do follow up with him to see if it gets resolved. You may email me for further questions.
I’m the person that Tanner is referring to in his 02/22/2010 comments. We did indeed get the outgoing message changed to my voice only. Unfortunately, it was not as successful on my wife’s phone.
She’s got the additional problem of some XXX-Rated “spam” being sent to her phone via MMS from 914-615-1237. A call to customer service resulted in the recommendations of a new phone number or paying $4.99 a month for “Smart Limits” so we could prevent the offending number from texting her. She needs to keep the number because she’s looking for a job, and it’s the number on her resume.
So 60 bucks a year to end the harrassment. Wow. Her cell number’s been on the government’s “Do Not Call” list for awhile now, so that’s obviously not working…
It gets tiring being a consumer. Kind of makes me want to try living “off the grid” for awhile.
I was switching from Sprint because they deleted all of my calendar events during a phone replacement. I was told by AT&T that I could disable the robot voice by switching to the basic voicemail after getting my iphone. This ended up being false information.. with sprint it was actually very easy to disable the voice, I basically just disabled it in the star menu. I’ve been on the phone for hours trying to get this resolved, I will give the above directions a try, if it doesn’t work I guess i’m back to Sprint. I just don’t think it looks as professional when someone calls an 800 number and the robot voice gives away they are using cell phone. I’ll let you know if I get my beep back.
I WANT MY BEEP BACK.
I’m Using a 2009 Iphone 3GS, I have a personal voicemail greeting… ‘hey you’ve reached Bret I’m not available’ etc etc… then when I’ve finished with my greeting ROBO LADY comes on telling the stupid people how to leave a voicemail correctly and when you’ve actually finished doing so, you can politely hang up like a normal person…
I DONT NEED THAT, nor do I want stupid people calling if they dont know how to leave a message.
I need some help ladies and gentlmen, there is so setting in the Personal options/adminstrative options in the voicemail setup for AT&T I called AT&T and general support told me to go into the voicemail personal options/admintrative options you can fix it in there she said. FALSE.
So as determined as I was,….. I called back, I wanted LEVEL 3 Support baby! and I got it. he said Sure I know how to fix it, he made a change or two (apparently) and told me the LADY is no longer there (wahooo) I called myself from a different phone… and guess what….. is the lady still there???? Yes.
AT&T is now closed I’ll call in the morning. but any more information or updates on the lovely robo lady?
Regards
Bret.
Ok, here is my update:
It wasn’t as easy as with sprint. But basically the guy above was right.. I’m glad I found this post.
The customer service lady said it couldn’t be done after talking to her manager. Basically you have to get through to tech support. Once there, the tech support guy will probably not know what to do. So tell him your situation about the beep and if he gets stuck say “I don’t know if this will help. I found a post on the internet, the post said the tech support has to make a trouble ticket for the engineering team, or something like that, if that exists” Try not to be too bossy, and let the guy feel like he’s somewhat figuring it out himself. You are just steering him gently in the right direction
You could also try mentioning “The post said the ticket mentions voicemail from full to none” like the post above. After submitting the trouble ticket, the engineering team called back the next day and informed me my beep was back! Good luck.
If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact me:
support [at] computerrepaircity.com
Just to clarify on my post above, it is indeed the “engineering team” that handles this request, and not the voicemail team. So that is where tech support will have to send the ticket.
I just called AT&T. I explained the situation and said I was supposed to ask for the engineering team. I was put through to technical support. A woman who seemed very knowledgeable about the situation said it wasn’t possible for AT&T to set my greeting to just a beep. She seemed to know about the Take Back the Beep campaign and said they did remove the numeric page option but that there were many voicemail systems throughout the country and it wasn’t possible to remove the automated instructions that come after my personalized voice mail greeting.
I’ve been on with AT&T customer service for 20 minutes trying to resolve this… Good people trying to help but it’s as though no one has ever requested this before. Wish I had read all the comments before rushing to call them… the “engineering team” reference and asking to get to tech support first might have saved me some time… more later…
Hang in there, Mark, and let us know how it turns out. Just remember it CAN be done!
I tried several times unsuccessfully to do this tonight, and was unable. I have an iPhone, along with several other conventional phones on a Family Plan.
When I called in, I got business customer support (I have a FAN discount account). The rep was unable to help. His manager “James Burke” was quite difficult the entire time and initially refused to let me speak to any higher technical support team. No one knew what “Level 3 Support” was.
Eventually, he connected me to someone on the technical support team. The guy in technical support said that he thought he knew how it could be done, but that it requires setting up a voicemail box on a “different voicemail platform” that can have the prompt turned off. Because I have three phones on different platforms, he indicated it would complicated if not impossible to make it work.
Based on the other responses here, I think this is still not the right answer, but after 20 minutes on the phone tonight, I’m giving up tonight and may try again tomorrow.
I use T-Mobile for my cheap cell phone. T-Mobile’s bypass to the beep is the # key. My outgoing message is ” Hi this is Tessalin. Press the pound key to leave a message.” My grateful callers then press # and are transferred straight to the beep. Now, if everyone would use a similar message tailored to their own service provider’s bypass we’d all benefit – that is, everyone except the cell phone companies.
This is ridiculous. Of course it can be done, by someone on a provisioning team, but there is no such thing as a “voicemail team”. They are part of our switch technicians. There is no dedicated voicemail team. If you can get someone to file a ticket for you that’s great, however you could just be an adult about it and deal with the prompts, which are there for the caller who wants to leave additional information such as a callback number or expedited message preference. You are actually only hurting your callers by removing the voicemail prompts.
@Insider – My biggest reason for removing the prompts is that I use my iPhone for incoming business calls. When a caller hears the prompts, it’s obvious they’re calling a cell phone. I think a traditional voicemail sound, which has no prompts, is more professional.
My second biggest reason is that it’s just plain annoying. It’s 2010. Do we really need to be told to “begin speaking after the tone” and “when done, hang up?”
Thanks for clarifying the distinction between “voicemail team” and “provisioning team.” We’re operating completely in the dark when we talk to AT&T Tech Support, so we’re kind of at the mercy of whatever terminology that particular CSR is using at the time.
I maintain that this process is very “adult” as it requires a lot of patience and diplomacy to accomplish what should be a simple request. What seemed to help me – although I’m not out of the woods yet – was to reference previous case numbers filed that concerned this issue. I’ll follow up after I make more progress in case anyone wants the details.
After being on hold and talking to 3 agents over 25 minutes I gave up. Does anyone have a successful case number?
I’m a product development engineer with technical knowledge and have owned both the original iPhone and iPhone 3G. I have finally decided I can’t hold out for the iPhone 5 (now likely to be released in October instead of the usual June time frame). I proactively called AT&T customer support this morning to find out if I would potentially lose my “straight to beep” feature during the upgrade. I also mentioned I would likely be downgrading my $30 unlimited data plan to the $25 2GB plan. The initial customer service rep didn’t know what I was talking about for the first 10-15 minutes. Even once she did, the conversation got nowhere and so I asked for technical support. I eventually got on the line with a woman in tech support who was just as clueless. I mentioned phrases like “full to none voicemail option” and “cut through paging” and was told she didn’t know how to do any of this. I mentioned that the “engineering team” should be able to enable or disable this voicemail option. I was put on hold again while she spoke to a supervisor. Ten minutes later I’m told there is a feature called “cut through paging.” Really? I just told her the same thing 10 minutes earlier. She proceeds to tell me that I may lose this feature when I switch to the 2GB data plan and that my original unlimited data plan utilizes a different voicemail system. She says to me several times, “you can just keep your unlimited plan to make sure you don’t lose the feature.” I reiterate to her I’ll just be throwing away an extra $5 every month like I have been. I genuinely felt like she wanted me to keep on paying a higher rate instead of actually trying to figure out how to ensure that I don’t lose this feature. I was persistent and was put on hold again while she spoke to another supervisor. When I got back on the line with her, I was told I can access my voicemail menu and enable/disable cut through paging. At this point she was rude and made it difficult for me to even find out how to access this menu from the iPhone. Hold down the number “1” I was finally told. Next, hit “4” for options and then “7” for cut through paging. I finally got off the phone after 59 minutes of vagueness and ill informed reps feeling like I’ll be taking a risk upgrading my phone.
So, I tried these voicemail options just now on my iPhone 3G. And guess what? The tech support specialist was wrong. First off, after hitting “4” for options you need to then dial “2” for administrative options. At that menu, there is no option “7” for cut through paging. I just spent 59 frustrating minutes on the phone trying to ensure I don’t lose a feature and in the end got nowhere. This tech support specialist didn’t even know the correct menu options for voicemail on the iPhone. Seriously? I am so disappointed lately with AT&T’s lack of interest holding on to long time customers and actually trying to figure things out and find solutions. I am now leaning towards a Verizon iPhone 4 with its known network limitations.
@Polska — Send me your e-mail address. I may have a case number that will get this resolved for you.
So I followed the instructions, got transferred to the Tech Support department. Guy was super cool, I mentioned the blog and how I didn’t want to step on his toes but that it talked about making a case and that it may need a “higher level” of tech support. He was grateful because he hadn’t heard of the issue before and was stoked to learn about it as he was helping me with the process. Got the case made Friday, and today I got a text that it had been completed. Just called my VM and I got my beep back! Thanks guys for all the help!
I too, have been humbly trying to get AT&T to switch off the lady. And having actually worked for AT&T in the past, I always talk to the CSRs with respect and patience. (By the way, I’d like to thank Chris for pointing out to his readers that sometimes lack of knowledge on the job isn’t always due to stupidity on the employee’s part, but often from the employer not properly educating their staff. AT&T changes policies, procedures, terminology and job titles SO often that it’s impossible to keep up) However, my results have been the same as so many others here. The reps don’t know where to direct me, and don’t know how to handle my request. Even when mentioning “voicemail team”, “engineering”, “caller prompt from full to none”…it doesn’t help. Every single person I’ve talked to has been more than gracious throughout it all but unfortunately when you call customer care you could be getting any one of thousands of reps across hundreds of call centers. Getting the one who has all the know how to handle your particular problem is kind of like hitting the slots.
Could someone give me any additional info that might help me take back my beep? Thanks.
@Yukio — Send me your e-mail address. I may have a case number that will get this resolved for you.
What we’re hearing now on a consistent basis is that there are two voicemail systems being used by AT&Tnow. If you’re on the old system, they can implement the change. If you’re on the new system, there’s nothing anybody at any level can do.
Why is it that “new & improved” is rarely both?
well, you may laugh, but I tried my own little trick. I recorded the sound of pressing the “1″ key after I was done recording my announcement, in an effort to trick the system into thinking the caller pressed “1″. Didn’t work…but it sure would’ve been easier than this runaround!