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David Pogue Wants to Take Back the Beep
David Pogue has distilled into useful form a long-standing complaint I have (and one reason I have long had a voice mail greeting that asked people not to leave me voicemail): cell phone companies set up the greeting, caller instructions, and playback system prompts in large part to maximize their revenue per user; by his calculations, the "mandatory 15-second voicmail instructions" from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and others is earning those companies something near a billion dollars a year in charges. Pogue suggests that users should "take back the beep," and to that end provides contact information for the largest cell carriers in order to register a complaint — and, more helpful in the short run, suggests ways in which to make better use of paid-for phone minutes by alerting callers how to bypass the annoying instructions.
As far as leaving a message for others, does anyone really leave longer than a 45-second message anyway (keeping the total under a minute)?
Mothers.
Buckle your ROFL belt, we're in for some LOLs.
Hey, I programmed that system. That message is prepended to the menu anytime the menu changes. Exactly one week after the message has changed the system automatically changes the menu to remove the prepended message. There's no way that message constantly appears.
*checks logs*
Wait a second...
Your ad here. Ask me how!
You've got a right to bare arms...
Wow, I've got to remember to bring only long sleeved shirts when I travel outside the US from now on. Thanks for saving me!
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
But how am I supposed to criticize the UN? They don't have any S's I can turn to dollar signs!