T-Mobile flips bird to alternative voicemail

T-Mobile is still charging punters using alternative voicemail systems, despite the fact that every other UK operator now includes such forwarding in bundled minutes. Anyone is at liberty to change their voicemail service, through a simple code on the handset, but operators then deduct the forwarded minutes from the customer's …

[Steve Foster]

*just* included with Flext???

I've had free access to my T-Mobile voicemail since the day I joined (on a Flext tariff) a little under two years ago.

[Jimmy Floyd]

U-turn

By way of context, when I first went to T-Mobile in April '06, voicemail minutes still were included in Flext tarrifs. By the time the contract came up for renewal they were not, and I made sure I stayed on my old tariff rather than an "updated" Flext tariff so as to avoid paying for a service which I see as a basic, fundamental part of a 'phone service.

[Anonymous Coward]

Just included

When we asked T-Mobile about this we were told of no such plans - only reminded that collecting voicemail from T-Mobile's service has just been bundled into the Flext tariffs.

I just checked my online bill and they're still charging me 10p a call to my voicemail on top of the flext charge.

[David Neil]

And the weird thing is

Virgin mobile are hosted as a virtual network on T-mobiles infrastructure and don't charge for voicemail.

Either they eat the charges they incurr or T-mobile are getting fat on the profit from their own punters

[Gareth Gouldstone]

Loyalty pays

Been with T-Mobile (previously One2One) since 1998, and voicemail and has always been free on my contract.

[Anonymous Coward]

Avoiding T-Mobile Vmail charges

I got seriously miffed at my phone bill sky-rocketing because of T-Mobile's voicemail charges.

You can't disable their voicemail through the handset, you have to phone them up and disable it. Which I did.

I now forward all my "voicemail" calls to my Trixbox VOIP PBX. The forwarded portion comes from my inclusive bundle, because it's a regular landline number. The voicemail is emailed to my phone, or I can dial in and pick it up. Because the dial-in is also a geographic number, retrieving voicemails is also included in my Flext minutes.

[Anonymous Coward]

T-Mobile Voicemail Workaround

18 months ago, on renewal, I fell foul of the changes to Flext where Voicemail retrieval calls were no longer included in the plan.

I found a simple way to beat the system - call your own number from your handset. This has the effect of immediately diverting you to your voice mailbox. Since you did not call the voicemail number associated with your account, the 'cost' of the call comes out of your allowance.

To further simplify the process and save some keypresses change the number in your voicemail settings to your own number.

[Dale]

Vote

Sounds like the best petition to sign to end this practise is one of the competitors' contracts.

[Neil C Smith]

@AC - T-Mobile Voicemail Workaround

I recently upgraded and was going to have to pay for voicemail. Luckily, the guy in the T-Mobile shop told me the same hint - set your own number as the voicemail number and it's free.

Comes to something when even their own staff think it's a lousy practice! :-)

[Rick Leeming]

Included in Allowance?

I used to be on T-Mobile, and some time in 2006 they removed the free access to voicemail after I upgraded my call plan. On my previous (Cheaper) plan I wasn't being charged, but with the upgrade they started charging. When my contract came up for renewal I listed it as the main reason for leaving. Some of us don't answer our calls when driving, and turn our phones off when they don't want to be contacted. It annoyed me that they then charged me extra, so I left.

[Anonymous Coward]

60 signatures

Wow, 60 signatures, there gonna listen to that!

Maybe ppl have more important things to worry about than how they get there voicemails..

[pctechxp]

Virgin Mobile

They do have their own billing infrastructure and so set their own prices.

[pctechxp]

costs to fund servers and storage?

Maybe they need some new kit to power the voicemail and other stuff and this is how they are raising the money?