Voice Mail - Can't dial using 88 anymore?

OK, got flipped from the Cingular VM, to the "new" VM. Been on it
about 4 weeks. Just last week, I started getting a "Sorry, that
number is out of your calling area". Worked fine dialing anyone up
till last week. Tech support says this is a new "feature".

Anyone else getting this?

---

› See More: Voice Mail - Can't dial using 88 anymore?

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Mon, 07 Nov 2005 18:21:14
-0500, IcUrdazedandconfused <[email protected]> wrote:

>OK, got flipped from the Cingular VM, to the "new" VM. Been on it
>about 4 weeks. Just last week, I started getting a "Sorry, that
>number is out of your calling area". Worked fine dialing anyone up
>till last week. Tech support says this is a new "feature".
>
>Anyone else getting this?

What is "88"?

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:24:15 GMT, John Navas
<[email protected]> wrote:

>[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>
>In <[email protected]> on Mon, 07 Nov 2005 18:21:14
>-0500, IcUrdazedandconfused <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>OK, got flipped from the Cingular VM, to the "new" VM. Been on it
>>about 4 weeks. Just last week, I started getting a "Sorry, that
>>number is out of your calling area". Worked fine dialing anyone up
>>till last week. Tech support says this is a new "feature".
>>
>>Anyone else getting this?
>
>What is "88"?


John:

I'm a former AT&T D1R customer. On AT&T, we could hit a key while the
message played, and it would dial back the callers number.

When I got flipped to Cingular about two months ago, the Cingular
enhanced VM had the same feature, even better. It would tell you the
number it was dialing before it dialed, and allowed you to "opt-out"
if that wasn't a good number.

Fast forward to a month ago. Cingular migrates to the "new and
improved" VM. It is very similar to what we had on AT&T's VM; We lost
some of the features, but that's OK. Last Friday, I lost the ability
to (while listening to VM) hit 88 and return the call. (It could do a
"call-return" like the *69 can do on home phone service.)

Anyway, Cingular tech support says they have clamped this feature
down, so now it will only return calls to callers that are on the
Cingular VM system...

Huge big hairy downer....

When I get an "upgrade", I expect to go from Win 3.1 to XP, not XP
back to Win95...

Have any friends over there? IF you use this feature hourly, as I do,
this is a "deal breaker"....

Like taking away my security blanket!

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Mon, 07 Nov 2005 20:19:11
-0500, IcUrdazedandconfused <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:24:15 GMT, John Navas
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>In <[email protected]> on Mon, 07 Nov 2005 18:21:14
>>-0500, IcUrdazedandconfused <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>OK, got flipped from the Cingular VM, to the "new" VM. Been on it
>>>about 4 weeks. Just last week, I started getting a "Sorry, that
>>>number is out of your calling area". Worked fine dialing anyone up
>>>till last week. Tech support says this is a new "feature".
>>>
>>>Anyone else getting this?
>>
>>What is "88"?
>
>
>John:
>
>I'm a former AT&T D1R customer. On AT&T, we could hit a key while the
>message played, and it would dial back the callers number.
>
>When I got flipped to Cingular about two months ago, the Cingular
>enhanced VM had the same feature, even better. It would tell you the
>number it was dialing before it dialed, and allowed you to "opt-out"
>if that wasn't a good number.
>
>Fast forward to a month ago. Cingular migrates to the "new and
>improved" VM. It is very similar to what we had on AT&T's VM; We lost
>some of the features, but that's OK. Last Friday, I lost the ability
>to (while listening to VM) hit 88 and return the call. (It could do a
>"call-return" like the *69 can do on home phone service.)
>
>Anyway, Cingular tech support says they have clamped this feature
>down, so now it will only return calls to callers that are on the
>Cingular VM system...
>
>Huge big hairy downer....
>
>When I get an "upgrade", I expect to go from Win 3.1 to XP, not XP
>back to Win95...
>
>Have any friends over there? IF you use this feature hourly, as I do,
>this is a "deal breaker"....
>
>Like taking away my security blanket!

It's that hard to dial the number manually?

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 01:42:35 GMT, John Navas
<[email protected]> wrote:

>[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>
>In <[email protected]> on Mon, 07 Nov 2005 20:19:11
>-0500, IcUrdazedandconfused <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:24:15 GMT, John Navas
>><[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>In <[email protected]> on Mon, 07 Nov 2005 18:21:14
>>>-0500, IcUrdazedandconfused <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>>OK, got flipped from the Cingular VM, to the "new" VM. Been on it
>>>>about 4 weeks. Just last week, I started getting a "Sorry, that
>>>>number is out of your calling area". Worked fine dialing anyone up
>>>>till last week. Tech support says this is a new "feature".
>>>>
>>>>Anyone else getting this?
>>>
>>>What is "88"?
>>
>>
>>John:
>>
>>I'm a former AT&T D1R customer. On AT&T, we could hit a key while the
>>message played, and it would dial back the callers number.
>>
>>When I got flipped to Cingular about two months ago, the Cingular
>>enhanced VM had the same feature, even better. It would tell you the
>>number it was dialing before it dialed, and allowed you to "opt-out"
>>if that wasn't a good number.
>>
>>Fast forward to a month ago. Cingular migrates to the "new and
>>improved" VM. It is very similar to what we had on AT&T's VM; We lost
>>some of the features, but that's OK. Last Friday, I lost the ability
>>to (while listening to VM) hit 88 and return the call. (It could do a
>>"call-return" like the *69 can do on home phone service.)
>>
>>Anyway, Cingular tech support says they have clamped this feature
>>down, so now it will only return calls to callers that are on the
>>Cingular VM system...
>>
>>Huge big hairy downer....
>>
>>When I get an "upgrade", I expect to go from Win 3.1 to XP, not XP
>>back to Win95...
>>
>>Have any friends over there? IF you use this feature hourly, as I do,
>>this is a "deal breaker"....
>>
>>Like taking away my security blanket!
>
>It's that hard to dial the number manually?

So if I told you that you could reach the numbers you wanted by
pressing one or two keys, and then I said "wouldn't it be much easier
to dial ten?"

Not to act like a smart___ , but this makes sense to you then?

Where I live it was 11/7/2005 8:19 PM, when IcUrdazedandconfused wrote:

> Fast forward to a month ago. Cingular migrates to the "new and
> improved" VM. It is very similar to what we had on AT&T's VM; We lost
> some of the features, but that's OK. Last Friday, I lost the ability
> to (while listening to VM) hit 88 and return the call. (It could do a
> "call-return" like the *69 can do on home phone service.)
>
> Anyway, Cingular tech support says they have clamped this feature
> down, so now it will only return calls to callers that are on the
> Cingular VM system...
>
> Huge big hairy downer....

Was the returned call treated as Mobile-to-Mobile before Cingular made
the changes?

"IcUrdazedandconfused" <[email protected]> wrote in message

> Fast forward to a month ago. Cingular migrates to the "new and
> improved" VM. It is very similar to what we had on AT&T's VM; We lost
> some of the features, but that's OK. Last Friday, I lost the ability
> to (while listening to VM) hit 88 and return the call. (It could do a
> "call-return" like the *69 can do on home phone service.)
>


Wow, never knew about that feature. That would have been killer
if I'm checking VM while driving rather than being distracted trying
to write down a number left in VM.

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Mon, 07 Nov 2005 21:11:08
-0500, IcUrdazedandconfused <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 01:42:35 GMT, John Navas
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>>
>>In <[email protected]> on Mon, 07 Nov 2005 20:19:11
>>-0500, IcUrdazedandconfused <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:24:15 GMT, John Navas
>>><[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>>In <[email protected]> on Mon, 07 Nov 2005 18:21:14
>>>>-0500, IcUrdazedandconfused <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>OK, got flipped from the Cingular VM, to the "new" VM. Been on it
>>>>>about 4 weeks. Just last week, I started getting a "Sorry, that
>>>>>number is out of your calling area". Worked fine dialing anyone up
>>>>>till last week. Tech support says this is a new "feature".
>>>>>
>>>>>Anyone else getting this?
>>>>
>>>>What is "88"?
>>>
>>>
>>>John:
>>>
>>>I'm a former AT&T D1R customer. On AT&T, we could hit a key while the
>>>message played, and it would dial back the callers number.
>>>
>>>When I got flipped to Cingular about two months ago, the Cingular
>>>enhanced VM had the same feature, even better. It would tell you the
>>>number it was dialing before it dialed, and allowed you to "opt-out"
>>>if that wasn't a good number.
>>>
>>>Fast forward to a month ago. Cingular migrates to the "new and
>>>improved" VM. It is very similar to what we had on AT&T's VM; We lost
>>>some of the features, but that's OK. Last Friday, I lost the ability
>>>to (while listening to VM) hit 88 and return the call. (It could do a
>>>"call-return" like the *69 can do on home phone service.)
>>>
>>>Anyway, Cingular tech support says they have clamped this feature
>>>down, so now it will only return calls to callers that are on the
>>>Cingular VM system...
>>>
>>>Huge big hairy downer....
>>>
>>>When I get an "upgrade", I expect to go from Win 3.1 to XP, not XP
>>>back to Win95...
>>>
>>>Have any friends over there? IF you use this feature hourly, as I do,
>>>this is a "deal breaker"....
>>>
>>>Like taking away my security blanket!
>>
>>It's that hard to dial the number manually?
>
>So if I told you that you could reach the numbers you wanted by
>pressing one or two keys, and then I said "wouldn't it be much easier
>to dial ten?"
>
>Not to act like a smart___ , but this makes sense to you then?


I personally don't consider the difference a "deal breaker".

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

In article <2rVbf.1102$w_6.402@trndny09>, [email protected] says...
>
> "IcUrdazedandconfused" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> > Fast forward to a month ago. Cingular migrates to the "new and
> > improved" VM. It is very similar to what we had on AT&T's VM; We lost
> > some of the features, but that's OK. Last Friday, I lost the ability
> > to (while listening to VM) hit 88 and return the call. (It could do a
> > "call-return" like the *69 can do on home phone service.)

> Wow, never knew about that feature. That would have been killer
> if I'm checking VM while driving rather than being distracted trying
> to write down a number left in VM.

Yes, as a long-time Cingular customer, I've found the new voicemail
system a definite downgrade, and this is one feature they really
should have kept. Quite apart from not having to write down and then
manually dial a number, you didn't have to listen through the whole
message waiting for them to give the number, if they ever did. You
could return the call right from the middle of the VM, without ever
looking at the phone.

(Not too happy with the cramped mailbox size, either, or the 3-minute
maximum message length, but those aren't as big a time saver when
driving -- if someone needs to leave a four-minute message, I'm not
going to write it all down behind the wheel anyway, so they can just
leave multiple messages.)

--
[email protected] is Joshua Putnam
<http://www.phred.org/~josh/>
Updated Infrared Photography Gallery:
<http://www.phred.org/~josh/photo/ir.html>

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Mon, 7 Nov 2005
21:40:19 -0800, Joshua Putnam <[email protected]> wrote:

>In article <2rVbf.1102$w_6.402@trndny09>, [email protected] says...
>>
>> "IcUrdazedandconfused" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>
>> > Fast forward to a month ago. Cingular migrates to the "new and
>> > improved" VM. It is very similar to what we had on AT&T's VM; We lost
>> > some of the features, but that's OK. Last Friday, I lost the ability
>> > to (while listening to VM) hit 88 and return the call. (It could do a
>> > "call-return" like the *69 can do on home phone service.)
>
>> Wow, never knew about that feature. That would have been killer
>> if I'm checking VM while driving rather than being distracted trying
>> to write down a number left in VM.
>
>Yes, as a long-time Cingular customer, I've found the new voicemail
>system a definite downgrade, and this is one feature they really
>should have kept. Quite apart from not having to write down and then
>manually dial a number, you didn't have to listen through the whole
>message waiting for them to give the number, if they ever did. ...

Press "33" while in the message to jump to the end, and then press "5" for the
envelope, which will include the calling number if available.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

"John Navas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>>
>>Not to act like a smart___ , but this makes sense to you then?
>
>
> I personally don't consider the difference a "deal breaker".
>

so? the OP does, perhaps he uses his phone in a different manner than you.
i could easily see this being a dealbreaker for someone who is a hardcore
phone user, taking dozens of call all day long while in the car. i almost
miss something i didn't even know i had before i moved from blue
to orange.

John Navas <[email protected]> wrote:
> Press "33" while in the message to jump to the end, and then press "5"
> for the envelope, which will include the calling number if available.

You can't call that number back, but it should appear under
"recent"-"received calls", where you can dial it, totalling several more
key clicks than the old way, and some mental correlation between the VM and
the call listing, but better than pencil and paper.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Wed, 9 Nov 2005 00:56:36 +0000 (UTC),
[email protected] wrote:

>John Navas <[email protected]> wrote:

>> Press "33" while in the message to jump to the end, and then press "5"
>> for the envelope, which will include the calling number if available.
>
>You can't call that number back, ...

You can if you dial it. I know because I've done it.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

John Navas <[email protected]> wrote:

> You can if you dial it. I know because I've done it.

Thanks for that update, John. That certainly adds to the thread, and shows
that you were following along with the discussion.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Wed, 9 Nov 2005 01:33:00 +0000 (UTC),
[email protected] wrote:

>John Navas <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> You can if you dial it. I know because I've done it.
>
>Thanks for that update, John. That certainly adds to the thread, and shows
>that you were following along with the discussion.

Thanks for that sarcasm, Clarence. That certainly adds to the thread, and
shows that you were interested in practical solutions.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>