Charges for calling our own voicemail

I'm gonna fill you in on something regarding voicemail. Voicemail is
maintained by a 3rd party. This is why it's considered an outgoing
call.

The reason it's set up this way is for two reasons. First, every time
you changed to a new phone, you would lose all of your saved messages
(if you have any). This doesn't matter to most people, but when my
friend's mother passed away, his father was able to go into his
voicemail and listen to a saved message of his wife telling him that
he loved him.

Second reason is that it would be a serious inconvenience for
everybody to have to reprogram their voicemail every time they get a
new phone.

That being said, if you need to check your voicemail during the day
and you're close to your minute allowance, then just call your cell
phone from a landline and hit the # or * key (don't have cingular so
I'm not sure which one) and that will take you into your voicemail
without using your minutes

Isn't this the kind of criteria upon which someone CHOOSES a calling
plan and provider? How can you not know this stuff? I have never
owned a cell phone, and that just seems like basic stuff you'd find
out before signing up for any calling plan.

It's a good idea to read the contract before you sign up. Then you
would have known all this and wouldn't have had to come here to
complain. :-)

Not sure how long you've had your plan... or even what plan you're
on.

AT&T's current definition of "Nights & Weekends" is 9pm-6am. The call
must start and end within that time period. (For example, if you
start the call at 8:58pm, it's considered "day").

They offer, for an extra $9/month ($17 for family plans), 7pm-7am.

As for the voicemail, you are making a call. Even though it's to
AT&T, it's still a call. While some providers may consider this
"mobile-to-mobile," my experience is that many do not.

They are unlikely to change either of these simply because you ask
them to. That is, unless your contract is up and you threaten to go
to another provider. Then, they MIGHT offer you something (like the
free 7-7 plan). But only if you're out of contract.

All of this (other than that last part) is on the AT&T Wireless web
site.

Of course, if you have a "legacy Cingular" plan, it's possible that
this could be different. If you used to have longer N&W hours or used
to have free voicemail, and they took it away, you might have a legit
reason to ask to be let out of your contact.

Most, if not all, carriers charge calls to voicemail towards your
allotted minutes and if you're over your minutes, charged a call fee.

Also, Verizon nights start at 9 PM and they don't have an option to
move it to 7 PM. Sprint's start at 9PM but you do have an option, at
a price, to have them start at 7PM.

If you call your voicemail very often (I don't), you may want to
adjust your plan to one with more allowable minutes. Sometimes the
difference in cost will come out to less that you are paying for
overages.