CELL PHONE VOICE MAIL

One of my pet-peeves is the length of time it takes to listen to a person's voice mail, then you have to push 1,2 or whatever to leave a message. Verizon's problem is the six rings until it goes to voice mail, which can not be solved.

Came across the following tips the other day, I am planning on using:

Receive & Leave Voicemail Faster With These Cellphone Shortcuts Save money, save time, & be courteous

A short voice mail greeting is a good way to courteously save people time when they miss your call. But even if you keep a short greeting, they may still have to wait while the phone carrier "explains" how to leave a voice mail. You know the drill: "If you'd like to leave a call-back number, press 1. If you'd like to page the person, press 2," etc. You can probably repeat this in your sleep!

Did you know you can skip these automatic carrier instructions and get right to the beep? It's true. Depending on which carrier you're calling, you simply press a key to pass by the instructions.

To save people even more time, you should tell callers on your greeting they can leave a voice mail immediately by pressing the appropriate key for your carrier. For example, if your carrier is Verizon, the number to skip the instructions is the star key (*). On your voice mail greeting, say:

"Hi, you've reached [YOUR NAME]'s voice mail. Please leave a message by pressing the star button now."

Here are the shortcut keys for four popular companies:
Verizon = star key (*)
Sprint = number 1 (1)
T-Mobile = pound key (#)
AT&T = pound key (#)

Also, if you're calling someone and know the carrier of the person you're calling, you can hit the appropriate key the moment their voice mail introduction begins and go straight to leaving your message