Sometimes when setting up a new phone, or switching to a different phone, the Voicemail feature won’t be configured properly. Any saved or unheard messages will likely be lost in the transition.
When you call to check voicemail (by pressing and holding 1 on your dialer), instead of being taken to your voicemail, or being prompted to setup your new voicemail, you’ll get a message saying something like, “If you have a voice mailbox on this system, please enter your number now.”
When you enter your 9-digit phone number, the system will state that there is no voicemail box with your number.
You can call AT&T to request help with voicemail by dialing 611. The customer support representative will acknowledge the problem — confirming that voicemail was not setup properly when the new phone was configured. They will then fix the voicemail problem.
Now you can press and hold 1 to access your voicemail system and perform the initial setup.
When you attempt to setup the Visual Voicemail feature, there may still be problems.
Usually, visual voicemail is configured and activated by calling into your voicemail from the visual voicemail app.
The instructions below are what display on the phone for setup.
If you follow the instructions above, they should work. After accessing your voicemail, and then exiting, the visual voicemail setup should complete and a confirmation display should indicate the status.
However, if visual voicemail isn’t properly activated on your account for your device, you’ll get the error message shown below.
At this point, it’s best to call AT&T again and explain what has happened. They will acknowledge the problem and attempt to fix it.
In the example above, when calling AT&T, the customer service person stated that although the phone is capable of visual voicemail, it’s not showing up as an option. They promised to escalate the request. It’s estimated that it will take 10 days to fix the problem.
Iowa City Technology Services 