Question about Verizon Voicemail and visual voicemail

[tomseys]

Hi.

I'm not so sure if someone here can help me with this but I've tried the usual customer service that I normally would use and it seems they just don't have access to certain functions and are unable to do anything. I figure its a long shot but I'd ask about it here.

Basically, I have a Samsung Luna Pro phone and the service on it is being provided by Verizon through Tracfone. I actually have one and a friend has one and both of them have been set up exactly the same - all settings are the same. All versions of apps are the same.

On one of the Luna Pro phones, my phone, when I get a voicemail message, instead of me getting the normal voicemail notification like my friend does, I instead get a voicemail app (visual voicemail app) related notification. No amount of disabling it/shutting off all permissions on the app stops it from trying to get involved in my voicemail messages. If I go with it and turn on data and let it do what it wants to do, there is no option in any of the menus to disable the visual voice mail. I've tried resetting the phone and all kinds of things and nothing makes it behave normally.

This leads me to believe that my Verizon voicemail may have Visual voicemail set to "on" by default and it is forcing my phone to use the (visual) voice mail app instead of me having a choice of just getting regular voicemail notifications or using the VMM app like my friend does on his Luna pro. Reading in various forums, I've seen similar descriptions of my problem with regular Verizon customers on their smartphones and disabling VVM on their line of in their account fixed them.

If this is the case, I was wondering if Visual Voicemail could be disabled on my account. I assume for this to happen if it is possible the request would need to be directed to the appropriate department at Verizon that deals with companies like Tracfone etc. I just have no idea how to proceed and as I said, TF customer support has not been much help so far.

Anyway, thanks for any assistance or suggestions.

Best,

Tom

[vzw_customer_support]

@Tinseys We understand the importance of having your voicemail working properly. Lets guide you in the right direction. Here at Verizon we do not have access to assist with Tracphone features, and we don't have a specific department to help with Tracphone. Although you mentioned you've tried working with customer service please dial 800-867-7183 to receive assistance from Tracphone representatives.

JoelD_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[tomseys]

Hi. Thank you. Yeah they haven't been much help because they don't control the Voice Mail end of the service beyond being able to reset a password which I can do on my own anyway. It appears that verizon controls how the voice mail is set up in terms of internal settings like if visual voicemail is enabled on the account. There is no way for Tracfone to turn off visual voicemail if it is set on the voicemail of the account because apparently only Verizon has access to that. But anyway, I didn't really think I was going to get help here with this since it is Tracfone providing the Verizon voice/data service. I guess I can make it work since it does send me voicemail notifications when I have a message so its not the end of the world but it would be nice if it worked as it normally should and as it does on other Tracfone verizon phones I have seen. But thanks anyway.

[tomseys]

I think I have a little more understanding about what is going on.

According to this --> https://www.verizonwireless.com/dam/support/pdf/VM_Instructions_3.pdf

When you have basic voicemail and dial it (*86), you can access your messages and you can also access and change various settings. There is one setting area called "Personal Options". Under this area are 4 options including the 1st option called Message Waiting Indicator On/Off (Basic VM Only).

So to reach it you would dial *86 from your phone, press 4 for personal options, and then press 1 and then you can turn on and off that setting which I believe controls notifications.

On my friends two tracfone smartphones that use verizon (which are just like mine), when I call his voicemail on his phone, this option as described above exists and he can turn on and off if he wants. He just leaves on default and gets the proper notification.

On my tracfone that uses verizon, when I call my voicemail this option does not exist.

So, does this indicate something has been set on Verizon's end for it to be like this?

Is there anyway I can make the option become available for me? Nothing I do on the phone seems to affect the verizon option prompts. And as I said, a friends phone is exactly the same and he has this option.

[tomseys · Accepted solution]

I finally got in touch with someone at Tracfone who was able to help me with this issue. Turns out the problem was caused by visual voicemail being turned on for my voicemail in error just like I thought. The rep/tech was able to turn on basic voicemail and now I get the correct notifications. I also now have the turn on voicemail indicator option under Personal Options like I should. So everything is good. Thanks!