Do you have an iPhone with service from Verizon?

You could have this problem soon. Voicemail is so important as an entrepreneur, solopreneur, real estate agent, or home-based business. So what is going on? (Stick with me, but the fix is at the end if you need to jump ahead.)

Recently, I’ve had several friends complain to me that their voicemails were full but they weren’t getting any help. Sheila told me she went into the Verizon store only to have the salesperson say it was an Apple issue. Bob contacted customer service at Apple who said that voicemail is a cell service housed outside the phone by your service provider. I had no answer myself as it hadn’t happened to me.

It happened to me.

My mom showed up frantic on my doorstep. I hadn’t been answering my phone and the voicemail box was “full.” I was editing audio and had no idea anyone had been trying to call. While mom’s reaction was a bit much, it did alert me to the problem.

I, however, was perplexed! I’m diligent at deleting voicemails. I don’t want them taking up valuable memory in my super smartphone! Same with text messages. I delete any conversation that isn’t current. If you’ve got to save that information for a client, there are many ways to do so, but when it’s done, unclutter that inbox!

Beyond that, I’m very dedicated to emptying the “Recently Deleted” messages. They only exist in there a short period of time, but in that time they take up space so I just kick them to the curb. By the way, there are also ways of saving those messages as audio files so that you aren’t taking up memory on your phone. That’s a lesson for another day.

So what’s wrong with my phone?

After hearing from that many friends that customer service was going to be a hassle, I first set out to visit my handy dandy Google results. They were not so handy in this case. I came across various message boards where the answer was either Verizon blaming Apple, or vice versa, and even better, the know-it-alls that repeatedly suggest deleting the “Recently Deleted.” Hello Charlie. We tried that. That’s why we’re here!

I let social media work for me.

I’ve long been an advocate for businesses to use Twitter for customer service. I preach it during every talk I give. It was clear, I had to put my money where my mouth is.

I took to the tweets: “My iPhone “voicemail is full.” But it’s not and deleted messages are permanently deleted. @AppleSupport or @verizon which of you fixes this problem? #help #phoneproblems”

Of course, I included a friendly little GIF to attract attention, while also creating the mood of I’m-not-mad-just-please-help-me.

I’m a little disheartened by Apple’s lack of response. I would think as a giant, they would have at the very least acknowledged the cry for support and maybe mention to contact my service provider, but they did not. No kudos to them.

The cockeyed optimist in me chooses to believe that they simply noticed that Verizon answered first and that I was in good hands. #optimism

A lesson in customer service…

Verizon’s Customer Service got it right. And please notice, this is a dedicated customer support account from Verizon Wireless. It is not the account I initially responded to which means they have excellent monitoring in place. So, a couple of things:

They responded within the hour I of my post (if not immediately).
They expressed concern, repeating my pain point: “We don’t want you to miss out on an important voicemail.”
If you are wondering why they asked me to follow their page, it is not a ploy to get more likes. Twitter has it’s direct messaging set up so that only pages that follow each other may interact that way.
- As a consumer, know that no one is trying to trick you. Go ahead and follow this step so that you are able to take your customer service out of your followers’ feeds.
Finally, they ask me to contact them through Twitter’s DM (direct message) service. The agent realizes that I’ve had problems elsewhere, so they are building trust by keeping me where I’ve reached out to them. Smart move!

One last thought, you will see the *BC at the end. That lets anyone jumping into the conversation know who was helping with the problem. If you are a business with many hands in the customer service pot, this is quite smart and I would suggest it. That way if a customer says they’ve already been talking with your business, you have a point of reference.

Now on to the help I received!

I had a lovely private message conversation with *MRH. Thank you *MRH!

Because all answers on the Internet are not one size fits all, I’m going to give you the fix that was the one that worked for me. Following that, I’ll list the other suggestions that weren’t my culprit, but could be yours. Try them in any order, and if your fix isn’t one listed here, I’m curious to know about it. Leave it in the comments below.

My Fix

Again, I suggest trying this first because it worked for me, not because everyone’s problem is the same.

The first step is usually to do a hard reboot. Remember turning on and off the power is a big fix for a lot of technical problems! But I had already tried that. So here are the steps as explained to me by Verizon:

Go to settings>general>reset
Choose: Reset Network Settings

The phone will now go through this process and reboot. Upon completion, you should have someone simply call you to see if they get voicemail. Overachiever that I am, I had two people call to convince me the issue was resolved. My voicemail now works.

Other Option:

“Have you tried dialing *86, then deleting some messages there? It is definitely common that some can get stuck there!”

What I learned is that I didn’t know the password to my voicemail because I always just used the phone app! I now have a password, but quickly found that this wouldn’t solve my problem. After successfully accessing my inbox, it was suggested that I either individually delete or bulk delete the messages.

IF this works for you… great! However, my inbox did not give any of these options so I did not proceed with this method.

So bottom line

Whether you have an iPhone with Verizon and you are here for a fix, or you wanted a lesson in customer support, this is a good one. How does your business use social media for customer service?