Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Verizon Has Been Prompting People Who Call Me to Leave a Fax

O.k.  So this is pretty annoying.  Evidently Verizon added a prompt to my voicemail message that says “press 4 to send a fax.”  I never signed up for this.  They never told me they implemented it.  And to be honest, it’s pretty F*CKING ANNOYING (especially since people have been “sending” me faxes).

My insurance agent has been faxing me things for weeks --obviously assuming that I was receiving them.

You don’t actually receive anything someone faxes to your Verizon number.  You have to set up a fax service WITH A DIFFERENT COMPANY (you’re on your own here), and Verizon simply forwards the call to that service.  I had never set up a “fax destination number”  because I didn’t even know this option was being offered to the people who were calling me!  Why the hell would I want this?!  It’s not like Verizon is giving me fax service.  To reiterate, you have to find another fax service (who will assign you a fax number), and then Verizon simply forwards anyone pressing “4” to that ACTUAL service.  If I wanted someone to send me a fax, I WOULD GIVE THEM THE FAX NUMBER I SIGNED UP FOR WITH THE COMPANY THAT ACTUALLY OFFERS THIS SERVICE. Stupid.

MASSIVE FAIL, VERIZON.  What the hell?!

You can turn the service off by dialing *86 to access your Voice Mail options.  Then listen to all your damn saved messages (evidently, there is no way to skip this).  Finally you are able to…
Personal options: press 4
Administrative options: press 2
Fax options: press 3

No comments: