Speed-dial #1 position defaulted to voicemail

Michael has a right to be upset and the rest of you "yahoos" should
get off your high horse condemning him. There are things that push
all of your buttons too, this just isn't the one.

I very much agree that Verizon has gotten too big for their britches
and does not respect the customer. My experiences with their customer
service show that. I am quite irritated at having #1 mandated for VM.
That has always been my husband's number and I don't like having to
rearrange my number scheme just because I got a different phone. To
all of you who like having VM as #1, that's fine, you can set yours
that way. But there should be the flexibility for me to set it to
something else if VM isn't the god of my life. If the option is there,
you can have it the way you want and I can have it the way I want.
That works for me, having someone else decide doesn't.

Ok,Get off the teat already Norman Bates.

Looks like I am the only one on the site who found it sweet that he
wants to put his mother as no. 1 on his speed dial.

Forest for the trees.... this guy is unhappy about the current
programing of his cell phone. It's his right to complain about it.
It's HIS cell phone, after all. I am sure the comments to this letter
would have been less sarcastic had he wanted his "pregnant wife" as
his no. 1 on speed dial.

Sheesh.

Michael C.,
Step away from the monitor.
Put the keyboard down you yahoo.
Breath deep breathes.
This rant sounds alot like the Speed Dial Episode of Seinfeld but that
was funny.
The other posters pretty much nail it.
BillR.

Michael, please stop complaining about such trivial things & get out
more.

setting 1 to dial voicemail is neither exclusive to Verizon nor the
"height of arrogance"; I actually find it quite convenient, and I
choose to think that "some yahoo" made it standard because of its
convenience..not to annoy you.

try getting the problem fixed before being annoyed, as it can safely
be assumed that nobody at Verizon set out to annoy you with this
particular feature.

WOW, just.....wow. Not only as another poster indicated, do I hope
you are not married, but I truly think you may need some "help".

If something this small gets you all worked up like this, you are
walking around with waaaay too short of a fuse.

What do you do if Wendy's forgets your fries?

I hope you're not married.

You sound like such a whiney baby. Your mom can be number 2 on your
speed dial, get over it or get a new phone company.

which speak volumes about me.

I want #1 to dial voicemail. My preference cancels out your preference
as far as Verizon is concerned. Sorry!

Does anyone else remember the Seinfeld episode in which Jerry is
dating a woman whose stepmother is battling Jerry for the #1 spot on
the woman's speeddial list?

Given that most people are not going to see why this upsets you so
much, it would probably have gone over better if you'd written it in a
calmer way, without the all-caps words and the resentment and the
demands. Getting upset over something other people think is trivial
can in itself be used to discredit you in their eyes; explaining the
problem calmly even if you are seething inside makes it a lot more
likely that they are going to take you seriously.

The truth is that your mother would still be your number one even if
she were assigned #9 on speed dial, and I suspect that she knows that.
If she doesn't (and I grant that my father wouldn't have grasped
something similar), you could use #5 and explain that that's because
she's the center of your life. The real issue here is probably that
it's difficult to change a longstanding habit such as pressing
specific keys in order to reach someone one talks to frequently;
believe me, I get why that would be a huge deal to someone, but it can
be done.

Moreover, the overwhelming majority of cell phone users probably want
to be able to use speed dial to get their voice mail. And as someone
(I apologize for not remembering who) pointed out below, it is
possible that there is other software related to the voicemail system
that uses speed dial to reach voicemail -- and that means that
whatever number is assigned to voicemail needs to stay assigned to
voicemail. Yes, that means that customer preference gets overruled,
but that's what happens as electronic devices get more and more
complicated and do more and more things. A suggestion that in future
they not use a number so loaded with emotional significance to some
people as 1 might have been received well, but I don't actually think
that this letter, as written, is going to get you any satisfaction.

In future, I would encourage you to check out things like the
reprogramming of #1 on the speed dial if they are important to you. I
imagine that it didn't even occur to you that you might need to check
it out this time, of course, since it had never been an issue before,
and if your phone has only just arrived you might even want to pay the
restocking fee to trade it in for a phone you like better. Good luck
finding a solution that works for you and your mother.

You decided to make it so all of your phones have voicemail on the
#1 speed-dial position, and that this selection cannot be removed by
the customer.

This is NOT okay! Speed-dial selections should always be up to the
customer, NOT the corporation. My mom ALWAYS gets the #1 speed-dial
position on all my phones (because she's my "number one"),

Phhhbbbbttt.. AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! AHHH HA HA HA! HAH HA HA HA
HA!! Oh, Jesus, I can't breath...

and I deeply resent some faceless corporation deciding to foist a
"convenience" on me, that I cannot get rid of.

This may seem trivial to you, but it speaks VOLUMES to me, about how
Verizon thinks of its customers. I am not your slave! My speed-dial
decisions are for ME ALONE to make, NOT you, or anyone else! This is
MY phone, NOT yours!

HA HA HA HA HAH HA HAAH HA!! Oh, my sides! They've split!

Corporations that make arbitrary decisions for its clients will
soon lose client loyalty. Some yahoo in your organization decided that
they "know best" when it comes to all of your client's speed-dial
decisions. That is the height of arrogance!

You need to track down how this decision was made, and fix your
problem.

AH HA HA! HA! Your mom's your "number one"! Oh my God! HA HA HA! I'm
dying!

I want you to re-program my phone, to remove the #1 speed-dial
selection that's been factory set to voicemail. Or send me (or my
local Verizon store, in the Galleria in Glendale, CA) the software to
do so, or send me a new phone without this annoying default. (I have a
new LG VX8300).

HA HA HA HAH HAH HA!! Somebody please call 911! I can't stop! HA HA HA
HA HA!!!!

Reply

If you did manage to change the #1 speed-dial to your mothers number
and if you have voice mail and someone leaves one and then the prompt
pops up on your screen that you have a voice mail, the phone usually
dials the phone number that is assigned to the #1 spot. I'm not sure
if that would work out that well.

I just tried this on my phone. I changed my voice mail number to my
phone home. Then called my cell and left a message. Sure enough, when
the prompt popped up for a new voice mail, it dialed my home number
instead of my voice mail number.

I'm sure you could work around this by manually dialing or having the
voice mail number as #2 speed-dial. It seems like a pain to me though.


If you don't have voice mail, then I think it should be ok.

The fact you took the time to post this cause "mom is #1" and she can
not be this on your cell phone leaves me speechless. This sense of
entitlement people have just by waking up in the morning boggles my
mind. To quote Denis Leary, "Life sucks, buy a helmet."

Tell ya what: owning a cell phone is a privilege, not a right. So take
your $2 Marxist pseudo ideas about these capitalist pigs and get rid
of your cell service entirely. They dont have to fix ANY problem cause
'mom's special little guy' has personal issues.

BTW--if the setting was made at the "factory," then shouldn't you be
taking this issue up with LG?

I feel dumber after having read this. Thank's for making my brain
hurt. Where do I send the bill to mom for the stress her lack of birth
control measures have caused me?

As Kamen said, there is a means to change it if you do a little
searching on Verizon (see his post below)

But I wanted to point out that even though Verizon programmed your
phone, did you BOTHER to read the manual that came with it? The
manufacturers always include instructions for how to do anything you
need right in black and white print. But most users (yourself
included, I'm sure) have theirs in the retail box the phone came in,
still wrapped in the cellophane.

It's not Verizon's responsibility to program the phone for you, & I'd
be willing to bet any additional phones you'd get (not that you SHOULD
get one) would be programmed the same way, so how will that solve your
dilemma?

You're taking this WAY too hard and its just not worth this much
drama. You'll have a difficult time getting any company to take you
seriously when you're rambling non-sensically and making unwarranted
demands.

Rule number one around here is NEVER WRITE A LETTER WHEN YOU'RE UPSET
(or drunk, or stoned, whatever). If you truly want to have your issue
respected and listened to, I strongly advise you to try writing this
again (preferably in the pre-write section first!) and then submit it
again.

Did your mom not raise you to be an independent, mature adult?
Because this silly obsession over a speed dial number is more than a
little over the top. What will you do every time something doesn't go
your way?

Michael,
If this is causing you this much stress, maybe you should have your
mom take your cell phone away until you can calm down.

ps. what number are you on mom's phone?

Seriously, chill out.

Voicemail is on 1 because it's convenient. Just put your mother on #2,
I think she'll understand.

Then again, I can't really say my parents are any less childish about
that. Should have seen the arguement when I gave one #2 and the other
#3. "What? Why does /he/ get first!?" in perfect unison.

Are you KIDDING me? GET A LIFE. I have sprint.. and #1 is voicemail..
I'm going to go cry like a baby and make them change the layout on ALL
their phones because I'm a cry baby and I want to get my way.... And
the phone you said you have.. isn't that the one that can flip open
the keyboard?

...what rock have you lived under for the past decade??

that has been the default on MOST phones for so long! (i want to say
all phones but for all i know there is a black sheep in the bunch...)

"This may seem trivial to you, but it speaks VOLUMES to me, about how
Verizon thinks of its customers. I am not your slave!"

pfft... haha... im sorry thats just a funny line. Actually this letter
is so much more fun to read then the usual cell phone letters.

hey, rather then look at the negatives here, be thankful that:

1: You can afford a cell phone
2: you can still talk to your mom from anywhere anytime you want.
3: maybe now you can call your doctor to finally cut that cord!

Ok, let's calm down a bit. This is such a small thing, I can't
believe you are letting it make you so emotional. The best advice I
could possibly give would be to relax a little about things you can't
change, and worry about the things you can. I'm sure your mom will be
just as happy being #2 on your speed dial, assuming she needs to be
told about it at all. I don't think my mom could even tell you which
speed dial she is on my phone.

I don't know of any cellular carrier or phone that doesn't do this. I
know for a fact that T-Mobile's phones reserve the 1 key for voice
mail, and I do not know of a way to change it without completely
changing the programming of the phone. As a warning, if you choose to
do that, it WILL void your warranty. Maybe a better option would be
to look into a phone with voice dialing, so you can set the voice tag
to be whatever you want. But again, your best option is to chill.

Are you not weaned yet?? You have to speed dial mommy to come and
feed you or what?

This took me five minutes to do. Have you ever gone to Verizon's
website to their device tutorials? No, probably not, that would be
simple.

http://cache.vzw.com/multimedia/mim/lg_vx8300/

That is a device tutorial of your phone. Under "settings & tools"
select speed dial. It will allow you to change the #1 key to whoever.


Verizon did not do this to your phone. This is a default for every
phone. This is just an easy way to help customers with their
voicemail. It is not a conspiracy.

Grow up honey.

Actually, on my Nokia phone, you have the option to change the voice
mail number. If yours has this option too then you can just change
your voice mail number to your mom's number and done! If not then too
bad, at least you can still call her and thats the important thing.

I feel sorry for your mom. Lord knows I wouldnt want to be #1 in your
speed-dial.

You are making a mountain out of a molehill! For all you know, they
took a survey and found that a majority of people wanted a pre-set
speed dial for voice mail.

This letter really should be redirected to the phones manufacture.
They may be able to instruct you on the proper procedure (if any).
Check your manual for the instructions, the reps will just read them
from the man or they will just direct you to the man.

I have to agree with Jeffrey. To make such a mountain out of this
issue, of all things, just dosen't make any sense. It's pretty much
the industry standard.

I'd also doubt your past ability to do this on other cell phones,
though I know it's possible with land line phones. Also using the
words "some yahoo" and the captial letters in a business letter, along
with the last sentence might be better to leave out or correct (IF
software or some "patch" could change the default, and verizon agrees
to it, then why the need for a free new phone?)

Welcome to the real world where very little can be customized exactly
the way you like it.

It's true. Many cell phones, regardless of provider, make #1 the
voice mail.

But, hey, there are a bazillion other things that the designers of the
phone decided on without consulting you. Are you going to demand that
they make changes to allow you to do whatever you want? Of course
not!

Breath out. Breath in. And deal with it. If you don't like it, then
go out and make your own cell phone exactly to your specs.