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From: VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH>
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Subject: Re: Voicemail without a call
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2025 17:42:51 -0500
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Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

> I have voice mail disabled. Dunno how they'd be able to do it.
> If someone needs an to give me a message they can SMS me.

I use Google Voice which has a voicemail feature (with spam filtering).
However, my MVNO (Tracfone) forced me to enable AT&T's voicemail to use
the cellular service.  I couldn't get past the setup without enabling
voicemail.  Later I called Tracfone to disable voicemail.  There was no
option in the Tracfone account to disable voicemail, so I had to call
them.  They said it was a function of AT&T's service, and that I had to
call AT&T.  I don't have an AT&T account, because I am a Tracfone
customer, not an AT&T customers.  When I contacted AT&T, they said I was
not their customer, so they would not provide support (to have them
manually edit my "account" which I didn't have there).  So, I was stuck
with having voicemail enabled.

One reason I want to get at service-side voicemail settings was to up
the ring count when their service picking up an unanswered call.  Google
Voice picks up at 6 rings, and so does the carrier service.  About once
a month the carrrier grabs the call instead of Google Voice.  Nope, no
way for me to change the carrier's pickup count (to 7, or more).  Since
I wanted only Google Voice to switch to voicemail, I wanted to disable
the carrier's voicemail.  Nope, couldn't do that, either.  The only way
to resolve the situation is to get a new SIM and new phone number with
Tracfone to test if they changed their setup to eliminate having to
enable voicemail (which was probably an AT&T mandate for new service).

I rarely get voicemails.  Like you say, they could send a text.
However, I tend to distrust texts since most do not identify the caller.
I see "24530" as the caller.  What the fuck is that?  Personal callers
usually show their phone number, so there's a match up to my Contacts
list, but stupidly all those 2FA codes sent by a web site do NOT
identify the web site sent them, and 2FA mining is a problem.  Maybe I
just did something, like renew a prescription at my pharmacy's web site,
so a text from some garbage numbered sender that says it is from my
pharmacy that arrives within 2 minutes of my action at their web site
provides context for the text.  However, context is not the same as
identification.  

Voicemail is too much a hassle to use.  Too often callers just hangup
when they hear the beep.  They're okay with conversation when someone
picks up their call, but they suffer cognitive powers to construct
sentences when they have to figure out what to say to leave a message.
Ringless voicemail remains a problem despite rules against such robocall
communications.  Off-shore callers, even those using phony local area
code numbers with providers of such services (e.g., On..., forget the
full name), don't abide by the Do-Not-Call and TCPA rules.

Almost no spam gets through Google Voice, and I've not seen any false
positives (callers are given a random 5-digit code, like a CAPTCHA, to
get past the screening).  If only I could kill my carrier's voicemail so
only Google Voice was doing voicemail.  Or disable it everywhere, and go
back to the old answering machine on my end.  

Well, there is a workaround.  I could reduce the pickup ring count on my
answering machine (well, integral to the cordless phone base), say, to
answer on 5 rings which would be shorter than either Google Voice's or
the carrier's 6-ring pickup count, but I'd have 6 seconds less time to
reach the phone, look at its display, to decide to pickup the call, or
not.  I can't disable the voicemail service at the carrier (with whom
I'm not a customer, but instead with an MVNO) or at Google Voice, but I
could get the answering machine to pickup sooner than those two.  

I haven't noticed getting any ringless voicemails through Google Voice,
so any expenditure on my side would be like putting on a condom when not
having sex: not much point to do the effort.