Join Us to Fix Voicemail Notification - A Group Effort - Everyone's Support Requested

[galfert]

(Moderators please sticky this) – Until the issue is resolved!

Please join us in a grass roots effort to get T-Mobile to change the way Voicemail Notifications are delivered to our phones.

Yes this is a reoccurring thread topic that keeps coming up over and over. But until the issue is addressed and remedied by T-Mobile we will continue to be aggravated by the current voicemail notification system.

I am starting a new thread on this matter because this will mark the beginning of a new effort to do something about it, instead of just having threads where all people are doing is complaining.

Summary: T-Mobile is the only wireless provider that does voicemail notification by sending a text message instead of turning on an indicator on the phone showing that there is voicemail waiting to be retrieved.

Proposed Action Plan: Get EVERYONE to send a letter or a fax to T-Mobile Customer Relations and request that the Voicemail Notification method be changed. The idea is to by getting a lot of people contacting T-Mobile that they will take corrective action. And for those joining in the effort to continue to send letters and faxes as often as they can (once a week …or whatever you prefer) so that T-Mobile realizes that we really mean it, and we won’t back down. Please tell your friends and family to join in too.

Problems with the Current Voicemail Notification Method: It just doesn’t work as well as using the proposed appropriate Message Waiting Indicator. Most everyone I know doesn’t like it. Although there are some people that don’t mind or may prefer the Text Message Notification they are in the minority. Please read the third paragraph in the letter I wrote that I will post below. It will address the current limitations. And feel free to search other threads regarding this matter or post your ideas below. A recent thread is this one: http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...hreadid=278462

How to Contact T-Mobile Regarding this Issue:
*** DO NOT Call 611 (Customer Care), it wont do any good ***

1) Send a fax to: 813-353-6545

2) Send a letter to:
Customer Relations
T-Mobile Wireless
PO Box 37380
Albuquerque, NM 87176-7380

(You can copy my letter and put your name on it and tell them you are supporting the cause that I started and refer to me as “galfert” in your cover note, or write your own letter, and please continue to periodically send more letters or faxes)

Please continue to comment in this thread I started so that others can continue to learn about our aggravation with the Text Message Voicemail Notification. This is only the beginning and perhaps others have added ideas or inside contacts where perhaps this matter can be further taken up to the T-Mobile corporate ladder.

[galfert]

(You can copy my letter and put your name on it and tell them you are supporting the cause that I started and refer to me as “galfert” in your cover note, or write your own letter, and please continue to periodically send more letters or faxes)


Your Name
Your Street
Your City, State Zip

February 24, 2004

Customer Relations
T-Mobile Wireless
PO Box 37380
Albuquerque, NM 87176-7380

T-Mobile Fax: (813) 353-6545

Dear T-Mobile Customer Relations:

I would like to bring up a point of concern regarding your voice mail notification system. Currently the notification method used is to send a text message stating that there is a voicemail waiting. This system might suffice for some people but it is rather aggravating to me and to a significant number of your other customers whom I’ve been in contact with via a major wireless online community forum: www.howardforums.com. Also you have lost potential customers for just this very reason, as is evident from direct commentary of other forum users. This online community is not alone in its annoyance with your implementation of the voicemail notification. I say this because I have personally facilitated and enabled many family members and colleagues to take advantage of WLNP and had them sign up with T-Mobile. And surely enough I’ve heard the complaints from them that they liked the way they got voicemail notifications better under their previous wireless provider. All of T-Mobiles competitors handle voicemail notification the right way.

My plead is that T-Mobile implement MWI (Message Waiting Indicator) notification in their voicemail system. The MWI icon looks like a reel to real tape. This is as opposed to receiving a text message letting you know that there is a voicemail that was left. At least give us the option to choose the notification method.

The aggravation with the voicemail text message comes from the way we are forced to deal with it. The notification of a new text message is ambiguous until you check it, (it could be a genuine text message or it could be a voice message). Then you need to dial and listen to your voice messages. If you receive more than one voicemail and you don’t listen to them all you are not reminded that there are still some unheard voicemails left. Also if you receive a genuine email text message (number@tmomail.net) or an SMS from another person and you also receive a voicemail notification text message in the same time frame and you read them but you don’t have time to check voicemail, again there is no reminder that you didn’t listen to your messages, because by reviewing the genuine text messages it clears that there were new text messages to attend to. And yet to some people a differentiation between a genuine text message as opposed to a voicemail notification is something that they would like to keep separate because one might a have higher degree of importance than the other. Assuming I take advantage of one of your services and I set up to receive a text message with sports scores, stock quotes, weather etc., obviously these text message have little importance but a voicemail will be important, but the differentiation is not possible because the two types of notifications are combined under the current system.
If you could glance at your phone and see a MWI instead it would be much more convenient. Or better yet the audible notification can be a different sound. And most importantly the MWI does not go away until you have attended to all of the voicemail messages left in the system. And the MWI goes away by itself and there isn’t the extra steps needed to clearing the text message.

As I understand it, customers in the old Powertel market (existing and new customers) centered in Atlanta, GA are currently the only ones which have a working MWI as opposed to the voicemail text message. I can only imagine that if you were to change that market to the text message notification you would definitely be hearing the complaints about it. If these Atlanta customers travel around the country or abroad the MWI continues to work anywhere they choose to go. If I go into the Atlanta area I still get the voicemail text message. Why can’t we all have the MWI notification?

I called the T-Mobile customer service department and several times and after being escalated to tier 2 or tier 3 technical support, I was always given the excuse that the voicemail text message was better for those that traveled abroad because it was more compatible and reliable with roaming partners. After doing some investigation on the matter I’ve come to learn that the MWI is nothing more than a specially formatted SMS (text message) that gets handled by the receiving phone differently, and it turns on the MWI icon instead of actually storing a text message. So I don’t see how there is any credibility to the compatibility claim.

I also understand that the Atlanta Powertel market uses a different voicemail system for storing and retrieving voicemail. The Atlanta area uses the Centigram system and the rest of the country uses the Glenayre system I believe. I’m also aware that Nextel also uses the Glenayre system and they have a working MWI, which tells me that the T-Mobile Glenayre system should be able to be configured to do MWI delivery also.

I would also like to congratulate all of T-Mobile for the outstanding job in customer service and in their recent increase of subscribers and having surpassed Nextel and becoming the new #5 National Provider (and soon to be #4 pending the Cingular / AT&T merger). I have been with you all along (since Aerial Communications in 1999) and I would like to continue to support T-Mobile as it continues to grow as I have much confidence in your business plan. I really hope that addressing this voicemail notification issue takes some precedence as you continue to grow and provide better services for your existing and future customers. I’m ready to Get More.

Sincerely,
XXXXXX XXXXXX

Wireless number: (XXX) XXX-XXXX

(You can copy my letter and put your name on it and tell them you are supporting the cause that I started and refer to me as “galfert” in your cover note, or write your own letter, and please continue to periodically send more letters or faxes)

[Parikh1234]

although i like the current system (getting a sms from 123) its only cause ive gotten used to it. I agree with galfert. I just faxed them a copy of your letter.

[xelencin]

I doubt theyll change it, part of the sms message also is to alert the difference between a voice and fax message.

[galfert]

Originally posted by chrisxtreme
I doubt theyll change it, part of the sms message also is to alert the difference between a voice and fax message.

In order to recieve a fax you have to not answer the phone and let it go to voicemail. I don't think people normally receive unsolicited faxes to their mobile number. So if there is an incoming fax the recipient more than likely was expecting it as the sender would have contacted them and told them to not answer the phone in order to recieve it.

My point is that the standard Message Waiting Indicator should work better for most people. When you call the voicemail system it lets you know that one of the voicemails is a fax. But that is irrelevant because you probably were expecting the fax (again think about how the majority of the customers will use their phones).

And as I stated in my letter an alternative solution is that the customer be given the option to choose their notifcation method for voicemails. If the choice of notifcation is truely a limitation of the system then so be it but give us the Message Waiting Indicator. But it might be possible to send a text message notification just for faxes and to turn on the Message Waiting Indicator for voicemails.

[Parikh1234]

i changed around your letter a little when i sent it. I stressed how people should be given the choice. Your never going to satisfy everyone so why not let everyone choose what they want and what they think is best for their needs.

[Moleman]

Ive gotten used to this... It was hard to at first just receiving an SMS..but im ok with it now...

[Chunker]

I like it! =)

[tmobilenatl]

even though here in atlanta you recieve an actual voice mail notification and not an sms message i emailed a complaint to customer service for the rest of you guys-i will continue to do so to help you guys out with this problem even though i dont have to put up with it-hope we can get it changed across t-mobiles network to work the same as here.

[jeffro01]

this have to be dicussed again, again, and again? Face it, the system will not be changed and there is not a thing anyone can do about it, clouding up the forums with "voicemail notification" threads is just a wasit of space. Why can't people just deal with this and move on?

peace

[mpallo]

I agree Parikh1234,
Stressing how people should be given the option would be the best route.

Originally posted by Parikh1234
i changed around your letter a little when i sent it. I stressed how people should be given the choice. Your never going to satisfy everyone so why not let everyone choose what they want and what they think is best for their needs.

[cdeman]

I have to agree with Jeffro on this one. When I used to live in Germany, D1(T-mobil) used SMS for VM notification. It seems to be their preferred method. Though I dont believe there is any harm in trying, I believe that the horse has long since died on this one.

To bad no one has the same fervor to try and get the GPRS network more stable.

[Eldon]

Originally posted by jeffro01
this have to be dicussed again, again, and again? Face it, the system will not be changed and there is not a thing anyone can do about it, clouding up the forums with "voicemail notification" threads is just a wasit of space. Why can't people just deal with this and move on?

peace

"Never underestimate the power of a small, dedicated group of people to change the world; indeed, that is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

[lewisl77]

Is there an email address this letter can be sent to? I think It would be faster and easier, since not everyone has a fax machine and sending a letter will take forever and probably will never be read by someone you can make a difference. Maybe we can all e-mail some top executives and the CEO of T-Mobile with this letter. Just a thought.

Lewisl77

[Avironeur]

I prefer the SMS system currently in place :-|