Tech guru David Pogue posted a follow-up article today in The New York Times blog:
Despite the progress, there is still some confusion over the iPhone being spared the canned operator recordings. Poque claims for the second straight day that “Apple negotiated a special arrangement with AT&T to eliminate them.”
If this is true, AT&T has either forgotten or chosen to ignore the terms of their negotiations. Several comments from iPhone users and a video from me demonstrate we do indeed have to put up with the annoying prompts with absolutely no way to opt out of them.
I attempted to get someone from Apple to clarify their policy today, but failed to ever connect with a real person in Cupertino.
I’ll try again next week and let you know what I find out. I realize the Take Back The Beep Campaign is not an iPhone-only issue. AT&T is my carrier, though, and they’re getting an undeserved pass on the iPhone with the false assertion they’re free from this problem. I’m going to focus on them more than the others.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
isn’t there a way trough congress or the fcc to take back the beep
thanks for addressing this. we have the same issue on one of our iphones. nobody at apple or att has any idea about this. i hope you can get to them. it seems completely random as to whose phone number these instructions show up on. again, thanks.
I got an original iPhone two years ago and recently updated to the 3GS (I skipped the 3G). My voicemail gets tagged with relatively short automated message (just under 8 seconds) “At the tone please record your message. When you are finished recording you may hang up or press 1 for more options.”
I have the same freaking problem. 3GS iPhone and the message after the beep.
I’m sure this must have been mentioned by someone else, so I don’t see why you don’t feature this bit of information (oh wait, yes I do) ,but you can SKIP not only the automated instructions, but the message of the person you called (since, after all, you do already know who you reached right?) by pressing 1.. if you hear a lady’s voice instead of a beep, try #.