Visual Voicemail. It seems like such a simple concept, a system that delivers voice mail like… well, mail.
Voice mail systems are linear. They make you listen to messages like an old-fashioned tape answering machine, one after the other in the order they were received. The iPhone’s Visual Voicemail lists your messages on the screen, allowing you to simply touch the one you want to hear instead of waiting through prompts and other messages.
Convenient, yes. But what’s more important is the time and money the user saves. Voice mail is a cash cow for cellular phone companies, since we all use our precious minutes (someday, minutes will be currency like dollars). For example, here’s a new outrage from Verizon which simply underlines how they rape their customers (and explains why they turned down the iPhone, which would have required them to install the Visual Voicemail system):
Verizon’s latest attempt to needle customers comes as a longer, inescapable greeting that subscribers must endure each time they check their voicemail. Reader Ben, one of Verizon’s unwilling test subjects, writes in to share the ‘new and improved’ script.
“You have one message whose retention time is about to expire. You have two new voice messages. You have nine saved voice messages. First voice message.”
That’s almost three times longer than the current greeting. If you try to escape to your messages by pressing “1,” you’re rewarded with a one second pause… and the greeting continues.
This is a good 25 seconds wasted every time I call to get voicemail. A year ago, you could just hit “1” as soon as you called and it would play. But not any more. And of course, multiply that 25 seconds times millions of customers and they are simply stealing. It was an intentional feature being disabled to increase profit. It’s just wrong. [Consumerist]
Verizon first crippled their phones so that subscribers would have to pay Verizon for the privilege of downloading ringtones and pictures to their phones; now they are using any means necessary to get every last dime out of subscribers’ pockets. I can’t fathom why so many people are loath to switch away from Verizon — maybe Verizon has made it such a pain in the ass to cancel that it’s not worth their trouble?
one reason I chose <s>Cingular</i>ATT over Verizon, even though they work in the Metro. But I hate them too.
I have Verizon and kinda dig it. However, I hate talking on the phone so I’m never near my limit. Also, for just 5 bucks a month I can text up to 250 time, which I’ll never use up. But the servcie is good, phones aren’t bad, and most people are on it so the “In” network saves you as well.
So, if you’re like me, and let’s face it- most people aren’t- Verizon ain’t that bad.