I really hate voicemail

I hate voicemail. It is probably because a high proportion of my voicemail is stuff I was supposed to do but forgot or meetings that I’m late for or it’s a recruiter that wants me to call them back and decides that right then is a good time to take five minutes to say not much of anything in particular.

So when I bought my Blackjack, I just didn’t set up voicemail and it has been over a month now. People were suspect though because the Cingular message they are given is cryptic and makes it seem like my phone got cut off or something.

Then I found SimulScribe. (probably via CoolHunting though I can’t be sure)

You set up their voicemail number instead of Cingular’s (here’s [partial] instructions for the Blackjack — the rest come in an email after you sign up) and here’s the best part:

They do text-to-speech on your message and email it to you. Ah.. that is so much better. Thank you SimulScribe. I chose the pay no recurring fee and just a quarter for each message.

Above is Emily’s test message to me. She really said “You are a geek face”, but that is totally close enough.

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2 comments

  1. that’s awesome… but I can’t seem to find a plan that doesn’t have a per-message fee (0.25 per message is fine, but not sure I would want to pay $9.95 a month for this)

  2. Much to my delight, my office in Sydney does not have voicemail! If I’m not at my desk, it gets kicked back to reception, and they take a verbal message. It’s fantastic not having that anxiety-inducing red light blinking at you, most likely indicating there is someone pissed off at you; I tended to check my vms once a week, with much dread.

    So yes, I relate to hating voicemail.

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