I have a very basic Kyocera cell phone on a Net10 plan. For some reason, I’ve never been able to set up the voice mail on it (and I hate calling Net10; most of their customer service operators seem unable to speak English beyond knowing how to say “Thank you for choosing Net10” and “I am very sorry you are experiencing this difficulty”).
At any rate, people who really know me, knows this about my cell. So if they call me, they don’t even try to leave a message. They know that eventually, I’ll see (on my phone screen) that I’ve missed a call, will check the missed call number, and call them back.
Now, here’s the weirdness: between this little tiny WV town I live in, and the closest large-ish town (where one may hope to find major stores and such), there is a 25 mile stretch of highway; on approximately 7 miles of that highway, I get no cell coverage. Without fail, when I pass that “dead” zone, my phone will buzz, letting me know I’ve got voice mail. But it’s not a single voice mail. It’s four of them. Every. Single. Time. Without fail.
For reasons stated at the top, I can’t check my voice mail, as it’s never been set up.
So, any idea what gives? Do I drive through some sort of twilight zone or something?
After doing some reading , your cell blackout zone can be best summed up by saying that net10 has no lease with the company that owns the cell tower in that area, the tower is probably just refusing service when your phones ID comes a calling.
I used a zip code from Big Sandy, just at random and under Service & Support there is a web activation for Voice Mail. Which is going to be entering either your phone serial number or your phone number, and if its anything like Canadian prepaid companies , your last four digits are going to be the temp password.
Thank you for this information. I’ll give it a try!
I do understand why I have that “dead zone” where my phone doesn’t ring. I just don’t understand why every single time I drive through it, I end up with exactly four voice messages. I mean, before I pass into the dead zone, no calls, no messages. After I’m out of that zone, no calls. But four messages waiting for me.
Hmmm. Hadn’t really thought of that. When I get the “notification” (my phone buzzes) that I have voice mails, I can select either “Call” (which calls my voicemail service, which, until I take Declan’s advice does me no good); or I can select “Ignore”, which is what I do. It never occurred to me that maybe the phone just ignores them for the time being, or until the specific scenario presents itself again.
OTOH, it’s more fun to imagine I’m driving through a Twilight Zone where I always get four voice mails within that seven-mile range! (And for those who have been to central West Virginia, the Twilight Zone analogy is not necessarily off-base. . .)
That could simply be your phone company telling you via voice mail that your leaving the cell area, I used to get similar alerts but when I went into voice mail, there was nothing there.
