Forum Discussion
Voicemail Greeting
Is it possible to change my voicemail greeting to something that doesn’t include recording myself ?
Hi there. I know this thread is a few months old now, but I completely understand where you’re coming from with this. I have the same issues. What I did, was Google a text to speech service that said my name and record that as the greeting. There’s also “how to pronounce” videos on YouTube that have many names. That’s my workaround to the. I agree though, forcing people to record their own name to set up voicemail does make it inaccessible to some disabled people. Lots of folks are non-verbal for example.
31 Replies
I fully agree that the current voicemail greeting system on Smarty is atrocious! On all my previous contracts, dating back 25 plus years, I've been able to select a pre-recorded generic greeting as an alternative option to creating my own. For security reasons it's NEVER a good idea to state your name on voicemail, as it gives random dialling scammers new data on you.
The only way around the Smarty system appears to be using a text-to-speech service on your computer to say the words "the person you are calling" and play that while setting up your voicemail. The fact that I was using much better and more fully featured voicemail greetings a quarter of a century ago really shows you how limited and poor the current setup is. An upgrade would seriously improve my customer satisfaction level, and I think the same is probably true of most of us here.
Maybe give me a thumbs-up if you agree, and hopefully this will get noticed. 👍
Xarq I see where people are coming from on this, but I do feel that it is danger of being blown out of proportion. As has already been stated, it's possible to simply make some noise/get someone else to say 'the person you are calling' etc.
For many of us, we get a fairly good service at a very reasonable cost; it is a no-frills service.
On a purely personal level, this feature would be very low down on a list of things I need from Smarty. I have left a message that simply says that I (no name given and using my posh voice) cannot take your call. If I were a more vulnerable person, I would have asked a friend to leave such a message.
The problem is, the outgoing message is a combination of your personally recorded message followed by a pre-recorded statement of "...is unable to answer your call ..etc" so that's limiting as to what you can do, without sounding amateurish. I just feel that it's probably a simple matter for the network admin to re-program the system to enable the option of either a fully automated message, or a fully self-recorded message, as per other networks. It's the enforced hybrid combination that causes problems. I offer this more as a feedback suggestion to Smarty for an improved and more attractive service, rather than a complaint. Feedback is valuable after all 🙂
And yes, I agree that Smarty offers a decent, good value service. There's always room to improve though, and no business can afford to rest on their laurels.
Okay update, you quite literally can’t bypass it if you don’t have someone else record it for you. Which is absolutely insane and completely ableist. I keep asking to speak to someone higher up but he just keeps repeating himself. This is so frustrating, all just because I want a voicemail! 🤦🏻♀️
Hi there. I know this thread is a few months old now, but I completely understand where you’re coming from with this. I have the same issues. What I did, was Google a text to speech service that said my name and record that as the greeting. There’s also “how to pronounce” videos on YouTube that have many names. That’s my workaround to the. I agree though, forcing people to record their own name to set up voicemail does make it inaccessible to some disabled people. Lots of folks are non-verbal for example.
Rub you finger over the microphone for 3 sec or so then press # Then job done.
I’ve started a chat with someone asking about this so I’ll keep you updated, but they seem to think when I say the service is “inaccessible” because to people with anxiety and disabilities, they mean I physically can’t access it. 🙄 Not the first time this has happened. SMARTY is not accessible for disabled people in the slightest.
100% agree. It's not only abileist & inaccessible to many with various & numerous difficulties but also poses a danger to more vulnerable people (voicemail gives away their name to a cold caller/scammer who can then ring back & use their name as if they know the individual) or people trying to escape DV & not wanting to give away that this is their number.
This is an absolutely ridiculous requirement to use an integral function in a service that is being paid for. This should not be necessary.
LucyVall_238257 Why do you need to give your name? Why not simply say "leave a message please" - you can even get someone else to record it for you (that is what we have done)
Oh, I didn’t mean to randomly put because after accessible. My bad!
ConfinedCelery7 Please can you explain what you mean by "inaccessible"? In what way? Is there something missing that is offered by other networks?
Hey
Tried this one today. It blurts out "That greeting's not been recorded", before prompting again for a name. You quite literally can't record silence.
Get a friend or family member to record the message for you?
Just record your name tag, then other will just get the standard message, and you saying your name
That's kind of missing the point of not having to record ourselves though
You are correct. My reply was on the merely suggested work around of not having to record a full message, using just a “name tag” instead. Perhaps if there is an objection to actually speaking then use an AI bot to say your name and record this, or record a silence as previously suggested in a previous post on this thread?
