you are CHARGED for Visual Voicemail

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Level 1

10 points

you are CHARGED for Visual Voicemail

After talking to three different ATT reps and chatting with an ATT online rep, I was told by every one of them that you are charged for visual voicemail.

First of all, all THREE of the ATT reps I talked to via phone and they all gave me conflicting answers, but when I made them go check with their
supervisors, I was told at the end of the phone conversations that I WAS BEING CHARGED. They couldn't explain why and for what I was being charged until I chatted online with an ATT rep. FYI, in the phone conversation I had with second ATT rep, I had an apple rep on the phone, too. The apple rep was surprised; he had no idea that we are being charged.

Here's the lowdown if you don't want to read the transcript of my chat:

When a caller leaves you a voice message, the time they take to leave you the voice msg is TAKEN OFF OF YOUR ANYTIME MINUTES. Of course, you can listen to the audio file of your voice msg as many times as you like without being charged for it. I accuse ATT for false advertising. Their advertising makes it look like Visual Voicemail is 100% included and that there is no extra charge. I have the 450 minute plan, and about 100 minutes of those will be taken off because of voice messages people leave me.

Now just to be fair, the online rep told me that he needed to confirm the information. When he emails me back, I will post his answer to this forum.

Below is the transcript of my conversation with him:

1:06 PM *-CATHERINE N: If I listen to my visual voicemail on the iphone, will that take off of my anytime minutes?

1:08 PM *-CATHERINE N: HI Justin_B

1:08 PM Justin_B: To *-CATHERINE N Welcome to AT&T Data Support Live Chat! Hello Catherine N, I will be glad to provide you information on using the Visual Voicemail feature.

1:08 PM *-CATHERINE N: thankyou

1:10 PM Justin_B: To *-CATHERINE N Actually, I believe the Visual Voicemail is counted towards the data plans that are added for the iPhones

1:12 PM *-CATHERINE N: you believe? can you confirm that? I just talked to three different att reps on the phone, and they all said that I'm charged for listening to visual voicemail.

1:15 PM *-CATHERINE N: I just tried an experiment. I turned the iphone into airplane mode and listened to my visual voicemail messages successfully. So I assume you are right.

1:16 PM Justin_B: To *-CATHERINE N Hm, well the airplane mode would turn off both voice and data communication. Our Customer Service would know better than I would though. I had a co-worker here look at his account to see if the voicemail was going towards his minutes and they actually are showing up as calls.

1:16 PM *-CATHERINE N: so I am being charged?

1:17 PM Justin_B: To *-CATHERINE N It looks like it will count towards the minutes

1:18 PM *-CATHERINE N: if I'm in airplane mode, how come I can listen to the visual voicemail msgs?

1:20 PM *-CATHERINE N: and if I'm in airplane mode (off network), how can att track when and if I listen to my visual voicemail msgs?

1:20 PM Justin_B: To *-CATHERINE N The voicemail center sends a call to your phone to record the messages locally and saves them to the phone. It looks like the minutes are counted depending on the length of the messages.

1:20 PM *-CATHERINE N: just to confirm, your co-worker has an iphone? he's listening to his visual voicemail msgs and seeing that they're showing up as calls?

1:20 PM Justin_B: To *-CATHERINE N Yes

1:22 PM *-CATHERINE N: so I'm charged for the length of the voice message the caller leaves. but if I listen to that message 20 million times (pressing play on iphone), I won't be charged for listening those 20 million times

1:22 PM Justin_B: To *-CATHERINE N Exactly

1:24 PM *-CATHERINE N: are you reading this information anywhere, or is this your own assessment based on your experiment (which, btw, I appreciate your doing)

1:25 PM Justin_B: To *-CATHERINE N Unfortunately, the information I have on Visual Voicemail doesn't specify what happens in regards to the billing. However, we are testing it here by leaving messages and then looking at current usage from the online account. He was also able to listen to all voicemails while in Airplane mode.

1:27 PM *-CATHERINE N: and to confirm another thing. I get charged for every voicemessage a caller leaves me even if I don't listen to their visual voice msg? For instance, if Sally, Ben, and Tom call, but I only listen to Sally's visual voice msg, I still get charged for Sally's, Ben's, and Tom's calls? I'm concluding this based on the info you gave me earlier.

1:28 PM Justin_B: To *-CATHERINE N Based on what we have found it looks like that would be correct. I would like to confirm some of this with our iPhone people just to be sure though because it also looks like from the current usage online that these minutes may count as Mobile to Mobile. Do you have an email address I could reach you at?

1:29 PM *-CATHERINE N: CAn I have a transcript of this conversation?

1:30 PM Justin_B: To *-CATHERINE N In the file drop down of the chat room there is are Print and View options

[End of conversation]

So there you have it. Stay tuned for the online rep's answers. If you want to read this post further, below are extra sets of questions I emailed him after our online chat:

My old questions that I need answered are:
1) Do I get billed for every voice message that a caller leaves? If yes, then why? Other att wireless customers do not get charged for callers leaving voice msgs on their mobile phones.
2) What if I don't listen to ALL the visual voice messages? Am I still charged for the visual voice messages I don't listen to?
3) You mentioned in our online chat that you weren't sure if the minutes were counted as mobile-to-mobile. Can you explain this? What is your answer?
4) If I'm charged, am I charged a flat fee per voice message or charged by time?

My new questions are:
1) Assuming that I DO get charged for every voice message a caller leaves me, will I get charged when they leave voice msgs for me on nights and weekends? (I have 5000 minutes on nights and weekends.)
2) If other att callers leave me messages, will I get charged? (I have mob-to-mob included in my iphone plan.)

Message was edited by: Host

Posted on Jul 4, 2007 12:38 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 4, 2007 4:31 PM in response to iphoneDiva

NO WAY! Just did a test, my nights start at 9 adn its 730 hear so nights have nothing to do with this, but i just check my usage, setting/usage/call time and made my mom call my phone and leave a 4 minute long message on my voicemail and i listened to it 10 times and the usage is still the same, therefore the person leaving the message and you listening to the message are not charged to your minutes! thats why we pay 20 bucks for unlimited voicemail! check the chart! and if we do get charged! you know we can fight it and not have to pay!

http://www.apple.com/iphone/pr/20070626plans.html

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Answer 2

Cliffr39

Level 1

135 points

Jul 5, 2007 1:28 PM in response to iphoneDiva

you can still call in to your voicemail service just like a standard cell phone did/does. That is when airtime is charged.

Read the owners manual for the iPhone. Voicemail begins on page 29. Page 30 says:
"The message downloads to iPhone and plays". You can only download via internet/data therefore they cannot charge airtime.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iPhoneUserGuide.pdf

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Answer 3

Jul 5, 2007 2:23 PM in response to iphoneDiva

Holy cow people... doesn't ANYONE use Google anymore? Or search Apple's FAQ's? Geeeeeez...........

From the Apple Store's iPhone FAQ:
Is Visual Voicemail time charged as airtime?
No. Visual Voicemail is included as part of your unlimited data plan.

Link:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?node=home/iphone/faq

Click on 'Data and SMS', then 'Is Visual Voicemail Charged as Airtime?'

You're welcome. End of argument and back stabbing.

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Answer 4

brianguy

Level 1

30 points

Jul 4, 2007 12:59 PM in response to iphoneDiva

I have been a Cingular customer for a while now, and I can tell you that not only are you charged minutes for when a customer leaves you a voice mail message, you are also charged minutes for call forwarding in general (Cingular treats someone leaving you a VM the same as a call forward to the vm phone number).

So if you forward your iPhone to an office land line, for example, and someone dials your cell number, you will be charged minutes for the entire conversation on your office land line.

This is not new nor specific to the iPhone, and I suspect that all cell carriers do this.

Fortunately, the minutes packages available are fairly generous, compared to what was offerred a few years ago (anyone remember having a 50 minutes per month plan back in the early to mid 90s?)

It's definitely good to be aware of where all they will try to nickel and dime you! Most dangerous areas can be 411 (ouch!), call forwarding, test messages, and MMS. Contrary to other threads here, you will not get nickel and dimed for true e-mail (e.g., POP3, IMAP), as this is covered by the unlimited data plan (unlike SMS).

Cheers,
Brian

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Answer 5

iphoneDiva Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 4, 2007 1:42 PM in response to brianguy

Hi Brian,

You wrote:
"I have been a Cingular customer for a while now, and I can tell you that not only are you charged minutes for when a customer leaves you a voice mail message, you are also charged minutes for call forwarding in general (Cingular treats someone leaving you a VM the same as a call forward to the vm phone number)."

But according to the Answer Center on ATT's website, it says:

You will not be charged for receiving the following items associated with voicemail in your home calling area:

* Numeric pages
* Voicemail messages
* Message Waiting Indicators on your phone

You can read it here <long URL hrefed by host>

So apparently, ATT doesn't charge non-iphoners for when callers leave voice messages on their cellphones.

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Answer 6

Jul 4, 2007 1:34 PM in response to iphoneDiva

There are two parts to the Voicemail messages. a) The message left on the system by a caller AND b) receiving the message. It seems the receiving part (mentioned in iphonediva's list) is included with the 'free' Voicemail but the leaving a message part might be covered by the daytime minutes, night/weekend minutes or M2M minutes and therefore count towards any limits. Our next bill will be an interesting read.

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Answer 7

Jul 4, 2007 1:40 PM in response to iphoneDiva

Okay, this is really no surprise. As a long time cingular customer, when you CALL your voicemail to check your messages, you are using up your airtime minutes the whole time you are on that call. All that has changed is that instead of having to CALL your voicemail, it is getting automatically pushed to your phone.

Now personally I think this is kind of trashy, since it is like (or could be) pushed by EDGE and should cost you nothing for transfer. However, the business model of the customer of the phone getting airtime burned up for voicemail is still the same, it's just that it is being burned after the person leaves the message rather than when you actually initiate a call to your voicemail.

If you had a RAZR on Cingular (AT&T) right now, and you called to check your voicemails, then the time you are connected would be deducted from your airtime.

So I don't think this is as big a deal, but I do agree, given we are paying for unlimited EDGE, we should be getting it for free now.

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Answer 8

poyiboy

Level 1

41 points

Jul 4, 2007 1:55 PM in response to iphoneDiva

the voicemail you receive counts against your minutes. it is in your service summary.
Log-in:
www.wireless.att.com
Click on:
My Profile
Click on the tab that says:
User Information
Click on:
service summary

*also, i would not edit any of my information online. it seems as if there are some errors with the website. if you want to change something, i would suggest to talk to CS at ATT

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Answer 9

DrZaius

Level 1

0 points

Jul 5, 2007 5:03 PM in response to iphoneDiva

First of all, all THREE of the ATT reps I talked to
and they all gave me
conflicting answers, but when I made them go check
with their
supervisors, I was told at the end of the phone
conversations that I WAS BEING CHARGED....

First of all, as a "at&t rep" I'd like to take this time to thank you for your amazing and thoughtful opinion.

Secondly, you are charged for receiving your voicemail messages in the form of Airtime when you use your mobile phone to listen to them. You are charged data for checking your messages with your iphone's visual voicemail.

However, since you are required to have an unlimited data plan with a special APN in the switch, your data counts as $0.00/byte. Which makes you receiving your messages free.

The only reason that a person would be charged airtime for someone despositing a voicemail in the voicemail system is if that person is roaming internationally. Since we have to divert the call overseas, the person is actually using the network's resources and money to have that voicemail bounce in france, and come back to the states as a forwarded call.

You are not charged anything for anyone depositing a voicemail when you are in the domestic US, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Vigin Islands, or Guam. Not even airtime.

I hope this does clear it all up, and ends your frenzied panic attack over some minute/data usage for your $500+ phone you had to get.

Message was edited by: Host

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Answer 10

DrZaius

Level 1

0 points

Jul 4, 2007 4:08 PM in response to poyiboy

i'd like to add something as well. when roaming in
MEXICO, i do not have voicemail. my phone rings for
about a minute and the call terminates if i do not
not answer.

That would generally indicate a problem with your call forwarding settings that are set up for you. Either in your handset, or much more likely in the switch.

A call to Customer Care before leaving, or to International Wireless Care while roaming would be advisable if you still wish to have your voicemail when roaming internationally.

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Answer 11

Jul 4, 2007 4:22 PM in response to iphoneDiva

This is somewhat off-topic and I feel stupid for even asking, but perhaps DrZaius would be kind enough to answer... 🙂

Once my iPhone arrives (ordered online), I'll obviously be switching carrier to at&t. I've never been with Cingular or at&t before so I'm not entirely familiar with how their plans work. (There isn't an at&t store within 50 miles of me - but the online map shows plenty of coverage here.) My current provider has the concept of a "home region" network where they charge different rates than if you are outside of the small-ish home area. It seems to me that the iPhone at&t plan is national and there is no "home" network distinction. This would mean that minutes cost the same no matter where I am in the US, correct? What if I'm in an area without at&t coverage? Is that the only time when roaming kicks in?

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Answer 12

Jul 4, 2007 4:28 PM in response to DrZaius

While the diva was rude, it was stated that the 3 that were spoken to were morons, not all reps.
DRZaius, thank you for the information and for showing us that there are AT&T reps who are not morons.
🙂

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Answer 13

DrZaius

Level 1

0 points

Jul 4, 2007 5:05 PM in response to BigZaphod

This is somewhat off-topic and I feel stupid for even
asking, but perhaps DrZaius would be kind enough to
answer... 🙂

Once my iPhone arrives (ordered online), I'll
obviously be switching carrier to at&t. I've never
been with Cingular or at&t before so I'm not entirely
familiar with how their plans work. (There isn't an
at&t store within 50 miles of me - but the online map
shows plenty of coverage here.) My current provider
has the concept of a "home region" network where they
charge different rates than if you are outside of the
small-ish home area. It seems to me that the iPhone
at&t plan is national and there is no "home" network
distinction. This would mean that minutes cost the
same no matter where I am in the US, correct? What
if I'm in an area without at&t coverage? Is that the
only time when roaming kicks in?

the answer is 42

just kidding.

You are correct that we currently offer national plans. There is roaming across the united states, however you are not charged for roaming. i.e. going in an area where we have a roaming partner providing service, such as t-mobile.

Essentially any call in the united states, to anywhere in the united states, is the same cost, your airtime minutes.

If you are not in an at&t area you shouldn't expect roaming charges if you are in the US, however venturing close to the borders like canada and mexico you must be careful not to pick up canadian/mexican towers.

Hope that solves the mystey

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Answer 14

Jul 4, 2007 5:13 PM in response to DrZaius

the answer is 42

Ooh.. a fan... 🙂

Essentially any call in the united states, to
anywhere in the united states, is the same cost, your
airtime minutes.

If you are not in an at&t area you shouldn't expect
roaming charges if you are in the US, however
venturing close to the borders like canada and mexico
you must be careful not to pick up canadian/mexican
towers.

Hope that solves the mystey

Thanks DrZaius!

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Answer 15

iphoneDiva Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 5, 2007 5:04 PM in response to DrZaius

Thank you for taking the time to explain the terms of my visual voicemail, but can you explain the transcript of my online conversation with the att rep? He told me it looked like the voice messages were being deducted from anytime minutes. And can you explain to me why the first three att reps told me that the visual voicemail msgs were being deducted from my anytime minutes? All three of them actually put me on hold to "check" with their supervisors. And the conclusion was the same for all three phone conversations- visual voicemail is deducted from your anytime minutes.

Message was edited by: Host

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