Should you replace your voicemail with YouMail?
Posted by Alli Flowers on May 7, 2008 11:59 PM
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Using alternate voicemail with Sprint can be painful. Sprint customer service very begrudgingly changed my "no answer, forward" number to YouMail so that I could try it out.
(N.B. for Sprint customers: The customer service representative (CSR) who I spoke to assured me that customers can now set the "no answer, forward" number themselves. Unfortunately, the code she gave me to use didn't work. So be firm with Sprint CSR if you want to take advantage of services like YouMail.)
YouMail has some innovative and fun features. The basic premise behind YouMail is that everyone should be greeted personally, and traditional voicemail doesn't do that. So while you can have a standard outgoing message to everyone, you can also have dozens of personal outgoing messages played to individual callers that you can change whenever you want. YouMail matches your caller's caller ID with your address book to give each caller a totally unique voicemail experience.
When the average caller dials my number, he will hear, "Hi, it's Alli. I can't take your call right now, but if you'll leave your number I'll get back to you." When my mother calls, she hears "Ma! Why are you always trying to disturb me when I'm out to dinner? I'll call ya back when I'm done."
I have similar messages for other frequent callers. Imagine your boss calling and hearing, "I can't come to the phone right now, I'm putting in some extra time on a project for work." Wouldn't he be impressed? (Even if that's not what you're doing and it's just for his benefit!) Working late and know your husband/wife is going to call to find out where you are? Just leave his/her outgoing message to say, "Hi honey, just went into a late meeting. I won't be home until at least 8:30, so make sure you set the Tivo for our show tonight!" The implications are limitless.
You can set up your contacts through your free account on their website, or by phoning in. It's much easier to set up on the web though. Your outgoing messages can be recorded on your phone, on your computer, or you can upload an MP3 to use as your message. YouMail also offers a huge selection of recorded messages for you to use from traditional business to funny and outrageous.
YouMail has its own form of visual voicemail. You can receive notification by email or text message. You can call YouMail, just as you would your carrier's service, to listen to your voicemail; you can listen online; or you can listen to the MP3 recording that is attached to your email notification.
YouMail is also testing out voicemail transcription (similar to a service we highly recommend called Simulscribe / Phonetag). But it has a distance to go before I would call this feature usable. There are frequent lapses of text, and enough confusion that it's difficult to tell what the caller is really saying.
It would be nice to have the outgoing flexibility offered by YouMail along with the accuracy of Simulscribe/PhoneTag for incoming messages. In the meanwhile though, YouMail is a free service, so you can't complain too much. I definitely recommend giving it a spin – especially if you are not a Sprint customer!
Related Links
Read about Simulscribe / PhoneTag
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Comments
Paul says:
I've been using YouMail ever since I've been on Sprint (almost a year, this go around) and I have to say it is absolutely awesome! I don't have a cell signal in my office, so when someone leaves me a voicemail, I get an email from YouMail. What's great about the emails is that it shows you the caller's phone number in the subject line. So if you recognize it you can just call them back. Or forward them their voicemail with your reply.
There are a couple of kickers, it was difficult to setup because as I mentioned I am on Sprint, but I called YouMail's support line and they conferenced in Sprint and we were able to set it up. The other kicker is Sprint does charge for call forwarding. Each call is $.20. So if you get a lot of voicemails expect to pay a little extra. In my case it averages between $8.00-$11.00.
My friends and family are blown away with the personalized greetings they get. Also keep in mind that you can have a different one for each person because it uses caller id. So you can personalize it for their home, work or cell.
Very cool. I highly recommend it.
Alli says:
My daughter called me yesterday afternoon. It was the first time she's gotten my "voicemail" since I subscribed to YouMail. She was totally shocked to hear me greet her by name (as I'd set up her personal outgoing message), and had to call me a second time just for the shock value. (I'm still waiting for my father to get his personal message!)
brf says:
I have been using YouMail for my voicemail for several months. I'm on AT&T and I was able to set my forwarding myself. I love that YouMail will email me my messages in mp3 format.
nerys says:
Alas not a good service if your on sprint. My first and last month with youmail cost me $29.80 from sprint. THAT SUCKS because I think youmail is absolutely awesome and its dispicable that sprint has NO method to handle this short of charging me $30 in call forwarding fees. Really sucks :-( DOES ANYONE have a solution for this with sprint?
ashworth102680 says:
I had the EXACT same issue with Sprint and Simulscribe (now PhoneTag). I full intend to sign back up with PhoneTag as soon as Sprint PCS decides to get their heads out of their A$$E$.
intervention says:
Hmmm....would Sprint still charge that much if you are on their new "everything for 99 dollars" plan? Thanks!
Alli says:
Yes, Sprint still charges forwarding even on the unlimited $99 plan. OTOH, even with forwarding charges on a SERO plan, I'm still paying less with Sprint than I would be with anyone else!
rafalek2000 says:
If you are an AT&T user, def try Youmail. Have had it for a year and its awesome. You have an option to record your own greetings for each caller, or pick one of the hundreds mp3files in the youmail Bin. I myself, prefer to download sound bites from shows (simpsons, family guy,) and assign them to my friends.
Great program. However, with sprint, it looks like you get screwed over.
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