Last Updated on January 1, 2013
My mom called me first thing Monday morning.
I know this only because she emailed me Monday night to tell me she’d been calling at various times since first thing Monday morning and that my phone was going straight to voicemail.  She was just making sure I was okay.
I checked my iPhone and there was no mention of any missed calls.  She said she’d left a few voicemails; it showed none.
I called her and asked her to call me back.  Nothing happened.  So I rebooted the phone, hoping that would help, but it didn’t.
So I called AT&T.  Of course, this was a mistake, but once in a while I just get stubborn.  The customer service rep put me on hold and called me from a different landline.  Call Waiting kicked in right away, alerting me to the incoming call like nothing had ever happened.
She then thought the problem might be with the MicroCell, the device a local AT&T store provided me because of the severe service issues I was having inside my own home.  So she transferred me to that department, and that rep pretty much did the same testing, but added calling me from his cell phone as well.  (He blocked the number, but that was fine with me…I didn’t have any plans to call him back to chit-chat, anyway.)
I asked what I considered to be a great question:  If the problem was the MicroCell, and since I worked for a while on Labor Day, when I left home — and the “radius” of the MicroCell, and found myself up the road on AT&T’s normal 3G network, wouldn’t that have theoretically made my phone suddenly start alerting me to missed calls and voicemails?
Yes, he said.  If the problem was that device, when I was away from it, the normal 3G net should have kicked in.  But it hadn’t.
He then pointed out that voicemails can take up to 72 hours to appear on the phone.  I’m sure, though I didn’t bother asking, that this is not an issue with the phone itself.  I just hope no one ever leaves me an urgent voicemail if that’s true.
As mysteriously as the problem had appeared, it now seemed to have disappeared.  But I’m the kind of guy who likes to know why such a problem might have happened, in the hopes of avoiding a similar issue in the future.  Having exhausted the short list of possibilities, he kindly suggested that we’d need to duplicate the problem.  When I asked how he suggested we accomplish this, he told me that the next time I missed a call, I should call back while the problem was happening.
I don’t consider myself a genius, but there are times when, good or bad, my brain is clearly on a different channel than some other people’s.
I asked how we could possibly “duplicate the problem,” and specifically how I’m supposed to call them “as soon as I start missing calls and voicemails,” since I won’t know I’m missing calls and voicemails while it’s happening, because, you know, there obviously won’t be any indication that it’s happening at the time.
For up to 72 hours, I should have added.
But he did have an answer:  after it starts happening, and after I miss a few calls and voicemails, when someone then emails me, that’s when to call!
An iPhone from a different carrier cannot come quickly enough.
I hate AT&T. We have them for work. Thankfully I use my Blackberry for work email, etc. Wireless sync with the server, and if I choose to back it up on my desktop, it backs everything up. And my BB is on Verizon, so I haven't had many real signal issues (only in my old apartment in Summerville).
My boss (and some other people who were attracted to shiny toys) has an iPhone and his does that sometimes… instant voicemail notification when the phone never rang. Awesome….yet my little AT&T flip phone has service and accepts calls where his apparently does not.
I wanted to add that the call back when it's happening thing at the end sounds a lot like an HP website I had to deal with years ago. I had a LaserJet 1100, which turns out was a big piece of junk. But there was a site where you could get a free repair kit for it for when it wouldn't print in a particular configuration. Mine wouldn't print at all and it was suggested to get this free kit. I went online and ordered it only to be told at the end to *print* my confirmation and receipt. Really? I'm ordering parts for a non-printing printer and you'd like me to print that. Um, sure?
I got a call once from AT&T to upgrade my contract. The call went something like this…
AT&T: Hi, you can get an additional 100 free minutes for $20 if you upgrade your calling plan!
Me: Then the minutes are not free, they are $20.
AT&T: No, the minutes are free the upgrade is $20
Me: Well what is the difference in plans?
ATT&T: It has all the great features of your current plan plus an additional 100 minutes.
Me: Click
One of my favorite comments ever!
Or just get yourself a Droid. I love mine.
I've not really looked at the Droid because I consider it a "last resort." Also, I'm not willing to get anything new at the moment only because it would lock me down with them for another two years.
But I like the idea that I can plug my iPhone into my Mac and just sync everything without having to copy anything manually. I can't find a definitive answer that this is 100% possible with a Droid.
My understanding is that Droid has a Qwerty keyboard (and I don't mean software emulating one), but the iPhone does not. This would for me tip the scale heavily in Droid's favor.