Visual Voicemail Works On Sprint: Callwave

Posted by Shel in Editors Note, Reader Opinion, Web/Tech on September 21, 2007 8:15 am / 22 comments

Callwave Okay a bit of quick history. I used to be on Verizon, aside from their excellent customer service, in hindsight the only other thing I’ve missed was the ability to use callwave, the service that turns your voicemail into emails delivered to you on your mobile. There are a few more out there like Simulscribe, but they all cost. Callwave is free and it works.

I’ve written a few post on the subject including an open letter to Sprint, because Sprint is the only U.S. carrier that doesn’t work with Callwave or any other visual voicemail service.

In the last post prior to this one on the subject, MP reader Matt wrote: Sprint does allow it. I am using Simulscribe through sprint and it works fine. Simulscribe basically knows the Sprint backdoor. I had seen this in some of the Sprint forums, but I avoid Sprint customer service like the plague, and Simulscribe charges for a certain amount a messages. I hate talking on the phone, I’ll go broke with them.

Then MP reader Matt F wrote: I had the same experience as Matt. Sprint does allow it. You have to call in and have a customer service rep set the forwarding rules. When I called it took about half an hour for her to do, and even when she was done she still didn’t understand what I was trying to do, but she did it and it worked. The thing that angers me is that sprint charges 10 cents a minute for every call that gets forwarded to Simulscribe or Callwave. That blows, especially since they don’t have a competing product. This intrigued me, so I checked it out.

I am happy to report that it works. But, I went through absolute phone hell until my 4th call lead me to Phillip in the Fortworth call center. The first three all gave me different codes that did not work. Phillip took his time and really investigated the matter. By the time (and it took time) it was all over, my callwave service was up and running like a charm.

Note to Matt F: You shouldn’t be getting charged. You have to make sure the customer service rep understands that you want “No Answer Call Forwarding (No Reply Forwarding)” not simply “Call Forwarding”. No Answer Call Forwarding (No Reply Forwarding) is free the other is not. Also have the rep do it for you, there are three things that need to be changed:

No Answer Call Forwarding (No Reply Forwarding)
Busy Call Forwarding (Busy Call Transfer)
Unreachable Call Forwarding (Phone Off Forwarding)

The rep can do this for over the phone, even if you don’t have another phone to call them from. They can do it while you are on with them. But, make sure you have cleared out your Sprint messages first, this will turn off your Sprint mailbox and all of your messages will be lost. I know, I made that mistake. Which by the way wasn’t the case with Verizon. When I switched to Callwave, all of the messages in my Verizon mailbox immediately showed up in my email box.

Hey Sprint, in my view, you’re a much better company than Verizon, you can do better than this, let’s step it up huh.

So there you have it, at long last I’m enoying Callwave Vtxt on my treo again. If you’re a Sprint user, give it try. There is a widget, a desktop app, and the ability to get your messages via sms or email.

Thanks to the readers you made me deal with this!

 


RELATED MORNINPAPER POST

Visual Voicemail On Your Treo?
 Open Letter To Sprint.
 CallWave Visual Voicemail Widget!
 Verizon Gets Visual Voicemail, But…..
 

22 Comments

  1. Phil @ CallWave says:
    September 21, 2007 at 11:19 am

    I’m a product manager at CallWave. We’re glad that you enjoy our visual voicemail service and went through the trouble of setting it up with your new carrier. Sprint is one of the few carriers that charges for call forwarding, except as describe above. Thanks for providing this clarification to your readers.

    Reply
  2. Youmail Rob says:
    September 21, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    We’ve been having similar issues with Sprint users here at Youmail. It’s great to know that people are understanding the situation rather than chalking it up to “it doesn’t work”.

    Reply
  3. Jim Johnston says:
    October 30, 2007 at 12:30 pm

    I just called sprint to setup and it is working. One thing and I am guessing it is all dependent on the knowledge of the CSR. When asked if there is a charge, I was told there is a .20 forwarding charge. Have you seen a .20 charge on your account when using? What is the secret in getting this setup without the charge?

    Reply
  4. Ram says:
    November 25, 2007 at 7:24 am

    Hi, I am desparately trying to set up callwave through sprint. The problem is that when I research their site…it says that all all forwarding is .20 cents. I am trying to find the url where it gives the actual breakdown of costs
    I would really appreciate the help

    Reply
  5. Ram says:
    November 27, 2007 at 9:36 am

    Interesting! Thanks…you are right….it is free and sprint had no problems setting it up. However noone is able to leave a message …they get a person is not available…message 390…I wonder if I am doing something wrong…any suggestions?

    Reply
  6. Ram says:
    November 27, 2007 at 4:59 pm

    yikes, thanks for your help, but after many more calls with sprint turns out that all call forwarding is 20 cents without exception and the only way forward is to do that….so I am not sure if you had a very charmed phone call with the Fort Worth guy but hope it keeps working for you

    Reply
  7. Ram says:
    November 28, 2007 at 7:44 am

    Thanks, I will…

    when they set it up my voicemail went on busy and all callers got a “caller isn’t available message..”

    R

    Reply
  8. Ram says:
    November 28, 2007 at 1:17 pm

    Ha! It works…heres what callwave got me to do. Call the Sprint support and get them to connnect you to the Blackberry support team. The blackberry support team can get you set up on it and they did….also the customer service person did not know what the costs were but they made a notation that I should get that credited if I was charged….I love callwave…Thanks for all your help!

    Reply
  9. Anon is good for you says:
    November 28, 2007 at 6:23 pm

    Just called sprint. First level CSR had no clue what I was talking about and was smart enough to forward me onto their “technical” folks. The woman I spoke with was unfamiliar with the service, even for business customers, but took a minute to speak with someone else and was able to help me immediately.

    This post is the best for all Sprint customers going over to GrandCentral or CallWave, by far.

    Really simple strategies for Sprint customers:
    1) Call *2 or 1800-SPRINT1
    2) You’ll hit a L1 CSR, tell them you have a technical matter and need to speak with someone in that department. (Maybe there is a separate number here?)
    3) Inform the technical CSR you speak with that you want a service called “Enhanced Call Forwarding” and NOT traditional *72 call forwarding. While they might need a minute to check their computer, documentation or a supervisor, it will come up.
    4) Give them the number. I called at 9PM EST and this took ten minutes, 7 of which were on hold.

    One thing, as I am sure anyone reading this type of information would already know, call prepared and informed; you make their life and yours much easier and can usually get what you need pretty quickly. Unfortunately, this was never the case with Whorizon with the seven years I was with them before Sprint; I find the same with Comcast.

    GrandCentral is _amazing_.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  10. Jody says:
    December 20, 2007 at 1:25 pm

    Just got off the phone with a sprint blackberry support guy. I Tell him exactly what I want and that, as far as I understand, no answer, no reach and busy forwarding are free services. He sort of sounds like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and does several searches on his servers and online, one of which takes him to this very page.

    Ultimately he claims that, as far as he can tell from what he has found. Call forwarding (even for busy, no answer, no reach) is always $.20 per min. But that, if I was on a business plan, he could set up the busy call forwarding for free but not if I’m on a personal plan.

    I refer him to the site linked above but he says that the section which states: “Calls forwarded to voicemail or mobile messaging are not charged the standard $0.20 per minute rate” refers to Sprint voicemail and not the voicemail of another service. He also claims to not find anything on “Enhanced call forwarding.”

    The strangest point in the conversation is when he points me to Simulsays (an equivalent service to callwave, which charges per call) and says ‘well it says theyve found a way to activate through a back door in the sprint system’ (which is verbatim from the simulsays website). I asked him if that “back door’ wasn’t refering to free no answer, no reach and busy call forwarding and he said he didnt think so.

    What’s the deal here? Is my mistake just not asking for his supervisor? He claimed to be very certain that busy, no answer, no reach all fall under the umbrella of Call forwarding and charge $.20 per minute. Any thoughts?

    Reply
  11. Mpaper says:
    December 20, 2007 at 6:29 pm

    Thanks for jumping in there Key. Jodi, as you may be able to see from other commentors, you have to get to the right person. This is the reason why Sprint scores last each and everytime, their CS department is abysmal, but that starts at the top. They are not instructed properly and they don’t take the time to learn all of the rules. This service has nothing to do with “Business plan”. Simulcast charges because they decided to charge, one day Callwave will charge as well. Just keep calling until you get the CSR that knows what they’re talking about or is willing to listen and put the work in.

    Reply
  12. Alex says:
    December 28, 2007 at 4:09 am

    I called sprint and talked to a tech support rep and they knew about no answer call forwarding but he said this servise has a .20 cent per minute charge, I would like to ask did you recieve your sprint bill yet? can you confirm that this service is actually free.

    Reply
  13. Spoke too soon says:
    January 1, 2008 at 7:55 pm

    Thank you for contacting Sprint.

    I am sorry if there was some confusion regarding the call forwarding feature and the charges that are associated with forwarding calls to numbers other than your PCS voicemail box.

    Unfortunately, Sprint does not offer a discount for the use of call forwarding to numbers other than the voicemail box. Any calls forwarded to any other number are charged .20 per minute.

    I have reviewed the account and can find no indication that it was presented to you that this would be a free service. However, I have credited the 12.00 that was charged for the service as a one time courtesy. Going forward though any calls forwarded to numbers beside the voicemail number will be charged the .20 per minute fee, and those charges considered as valid.

    If you would like me to deactivate this feature for you and reset it to be forwarding to your voicemail box, please reply back to this message and we will get it done for you asap.

    Thank you again for contacting Sprint. We appreciate your business.

    Reply
  14. Mpaper says:
    January 2, 2008 at 8:25 pm

    Michael, Spoke to soon, I am sorry the two of you are having problems with this and with the Sprint CSR. I don’t blame you for being angry. But I have been using Callwave with my calls forwarded without “ANY” charges on any of my bills, and believe me, I check to make sure. The problem you are having and others are the reason Sprint gets ranked so low, dead last in fact even though the actual service and cost are better than the rest. But the CSR makes it hard for me to shine them in a good light even though I am far happier with them than I was with Verizon.

    As I have said before, half of the Reps know what they are talking about and the other half doesn’t. You guys are getting the other half. There are plenty of folks enjoying Callwave and the others and “NOT” getting charged twenty cents.

    Michael, as for “the last line in their Call-fowarding statement”, no, it has always been there. When Callwave became aware of the Sprint problem, they pointed to that statement and instructed on their site how to ask, and what to say on the Sprint subject.

    Reply
  15. joe says:
    January 6, 2008 at 4:36 pm

    i’m four calls in without success, but now after reading the comments i’ll have a bit more ammunition.

    after disabling my regular voicemail, my reps did their best to convince me that i needed to set these features up myself using *73 and *74, but these lead to “the number or code you dialed is incorrect.”

    here are the the sprint web pages that refer to:

    call forward/no answer
    http://www.sprint.com/business/products/products/landlineCallForwardNoAnswer_tabA.html

    call forward busy
    http://www.sprint.com/business/products/products/landlineCallForwardBusy_tabA.html

    enhanced call forwarding
    http://www.sprint.com/business/products/products/landlineEnhancedCallForwarding_tabA.html

    Reply
  16. Anderson says:
    January 22, 2008 at 8:34 am

    I just spoke with someone named Drew at Sprint. I got to him by using the voice prompt “technical question” and then saying that I had a “PDA technical question.” He was the second person that I talked to at Sprint and the first was useless. I was able to get him to tell me what he changed in the system in order to forward all missed calls, etc. He said he changed the field “call forwarding default” to the new number that I gave him. Hope this helps!

    Reply
  17. Sheldon says:
    September 25, 2008 at 10:32 am

    I spoke to Sprint and they DO charge for call forwarding. Please sign this petition to get them to stop:

    http://livepetitions.us/freecallforwardingonsprint

    Reply
  18. shamone says:
    November 12, 2008 at 11:14 am

    I called Sprint’s Executive Customer service number and was told that all forwarded calls will be charge $0.20/minute.

    Reply
  19. darcy says:
    January 27, 2009 at 11:00 am

    for those of you that set this up a year or so ago, is it still working? with out a charge? because i’ve spent over 30 hours trying to get this set up with sprint, but now matter how they set it up, i end up getting charged 0.20 per forwarded call!!

    Reply
  20. Tyler! says:
    April 10, 2009 at 10:34 am

    Darcy – According to several Sprint reps I’ve spoken to, Sprint changed their call forwarding policy around a year ago to begin enforcing a per minute charge for all call forwarding on all personal plans. There was a work-around at one point, but Sprint closed the loophole and now any Sprint customer trying to forward calls to a voicemail service like Callwave is screwed out of $.20/minute.

    Not that it’s much consolation, but the upcoming Palm Pre is supposed to support Visual Voicemail a la iPhone. This isn’t exactly confirmed yet – just rumors – but even Visual Voicemail does little to make up for the unforgivable $.20/minute charge for wanting to use a premium voicemail service outside of Sprint.

    As a Sprint customer with an expiring contract, I’m furious with them over this. Not even the lure of the Palm Pre can entice me to stay with them if they don’t fix what amounts to an archaic accounting gimmick.

    Reply
  21. Pete says:
    May 13, 2009 at 7:17 pm

    I had this service set up well over a year and a half ago by the Sprint Blackberry tech dept. (I dont have a blackberry) to use Phonetag(Simulscribe) with little to no problems other than they said I would have to call in every month to get the .20/min charge reversed since they had no way of billing for that service in their system. Back then you could do a “Call forward-No Answer” search on Sprint’s site and it would clearly state there was no charge for forwarding out of Sprint’s system. The charge originated when the forward reverts back to Sprint’s system

    The result was a big pain in the neck for the first few months being transfered over and over until you reach a knowledgable tech. Finally someone at Sprint got smart and placed a note on my file so that the tier1 reps could handle the reversal with no problem.

    WELL, that was until this month when they said this would be the last and final reversal. I moved up the chain to their supervisor and finally a 30 minute wait (and a hour and a half phone call) to the supervisor’s supervisor and I was told the past reversals were done as a “courtesy” and they would no longer honor the reversals. They claim any and all call forwards no matter if they are forwarded out of the Sprint voicemail or Enhanced Business Features will now be charged at the .20/minute charge for just “handling” the forward.

    Good luck, Sprint, you can only beat a dog for so long before he bites back- or in this case, gets a better phone carrier who sees the customer as the means of “generating” income through customer service- not by squeezing every nickle out of them while you can…

    Reply
  22. It's Confirmed, No Visual Voicemail - Page 4 - PreCentral Forums says:
    May 21, 2009 at 5:38 am

    [...] This link looks appropriate: Visual Voicemail Works On Sprint: Callwave*|*Morninpaper [...]

    Reply
 
 

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