The Reasons for "Delayed" Voicemail Messages

Updated 12/01/2006

Our Centratel staff has spent literally hundreds of hours researching complaints of alleged delayed messages. In every instance, one of the following scenarios was discovered.

Reason #1: Failure to listen to the entire message prompt after logging in. This is the primary reason "group" messages seem to be delayed. For the mailbox user, it's a habit to listen to only part of the introductory prompt which begins, for example. "You have two messages, one new message". In this example, if the user were to listen to the entire prompt instead of instantly pressing the one key to immediately listen to the messages, it may continue "you have one group message, one new group message." The solution: Remember to always listen to the entire prompt, or better yet, call Centratel and we will set the system so the entire prompt must be heard before messages can be retrieved. The user won't be able to skip through the prompt.

Reason #2: "Giving" a message. In many office situations, messages are received in a general mailbox. The front office staff retrieves and then "gives" the message to another mailbox. The time and date stamped on the message will be the time and date that the message was originally deposited in the general mailbox, not the time and date it was given to the final destination mailbox. So, if a message arrives in the general mailbox on a Saturday afternoon and the front office staff gives it to another mailbox on Monday morning, the time and date will be from Saturday morning. The solution: Simply understand the above. Also, the staff member who is giving the message should always include a comment as the message is given "this message arrived in our general mailbox on Saturday morning and is being delivered to you on Monday morning"

Reason #3: A new message arrives while the user is logged into the mailbox. If a message arrives while the user is logged in, the new message will not be immediately available unless the mailbox is "exited" properly. The solution: Always "X-out" of the mailbox before hanging up. If a new message has been deposited while the user was logged in, this action will make the new message available. ("X-out" means pressing the "9" key before hanging up.)

Reason #4: Interruptions. This sounds implausible, but we have found it to be a common reason for delayed messages: The mailbox user is listening to a series of messages, and is interrupted before retrieving all the remaining unplayed messages. The user hangs up and forgets that all messages have not been retrieved. The next time the user logs in, the previously unretrieved messages times and dates precede the earlier log-in, thus giving the user the illusion that these messages have been delayed.

NOTE: The perception of a delayed message can be powerful, yet after five years and literally hundreds of investigations, we have never documented even one instance of a truly delayed message (By using system diagnostics, we are able to look at any message and determine every keystroke made by the user.) The current voice mail system was purchased because our previous system did occasionally delay messages. The software architecture within our present system simply will not allow a message to be delayed.