Prepaid Voicemail Charges During Set-Up?

[gmo99]

Why am I charged long distance when setting up voice mail on a pay as you go phone (I am in Montreal).

Will this continue each time I access my voice mail?

thanks

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[57]

You pay "by the minute" to access your voicemail or make calls on any PAYGo phone.  You should only be charged long distance if you're not in your "local calling area", but if you're outside your local calling area, then you will be charged long distance for any call, to voicemail, or to someone...

Usually when travelling I get a text notice that I am "roaming" and sometimes that text provides the rate per minute, or sometimes it merely states that you should look up the rate for that particular area.

Long ago, I deleted the voicemail option from my PAYGo phone because I use it so little and because I was getting too many telemarketers leaving messages, which also incurs charges.

If you're new to PAYGo, I suggest you read some of the threads in this forum to familiarize yourself with the numerous options and also check out the PAYGo web pages on Rogers:

https://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/plans?cm_sp=wireless-_-pay_as_you_go-_-plans_ba...

[gmo99]

Thanks for the feedback. I was not roaming but the voicemail is shown as connecting to a Toronto number.I will have to take this up with accounts if I can reach a real person.

[Pauly]

Think of the voice mail number as a "special" number,  so if you are in your local city where your number belongs, you just get charged "airtime", if your outside of the city you belong to, and call your voicemail, you get "long distance" charges as well.  This is the standard rule for making and receiving calls, the only difference is voicemail numbers some times have different area codes than the ones you live in but that makes no difference, the system knows where you live and if your in your home area or not and charges you accordingly regardless if your voice mail is a different area code.

[57]

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@gmo99 wrote:

Thanks for the feedback. I was not roaming but the voicemail is shown as connecting to a Toronto number.I will have to take this up with accounts if I can reach a real person.

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Here's how to reach a real person:

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Account-Support/Can-t-purchase-data-pass/m-p/426891#M22822

Where did you get your phone?  Was it set up to dial the correct VM number by Rogers?

[barndoor]

If I recall correctly there should be a local number where you retrieve your messages but you may have to call in to get it . Just remember  though ,   on pay go  (unless they changed it recently) you pay for the airtime it takes for the  person leaving the message AND the airtime you use to retrieve the message. 

[barndoor]

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@Pauly wrote:

Think of the voice mail number as a "special" number,  so if you are in your local city where your number belongs, you just get charged "airtime", if your outside of the city you belong to, and call your voicemail, you get "long distance" charges as well.  This is the standard rule for making and receiving calls, the only difference is voicemail numbers some times have different area codes than the ones you live in but that makes no difference, the system knows where you live and if your in your home area or not and charges you accordingly regardless if your voice mail is a different area code.

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On that same note ...are there still  different Rogers voicemail numbers you can get so if you are travelling but not roaming you can access your messages from a local number. Might be important for those that rely heavily on their voicemail ?

[gmo99 · Accepted solution]

Resolved with Rogers they refunded the calls; today voice mail is showing up as a local numbers.

Thanks for all your suggestions

[OLDYELLR]

@gmo99  glad your problem got resolved quickly and to your satisfaction.

Personally, I got rid of voicemail because it would consume a lot more of my airtime than anything else. And opting out on line didn't work. I had to call Rogers and even the CSR couldn't do it for me except after trying several different ways.