Information Madness

Its been more than two years I have heard about YouMail, a visual voice mail service provider for USA telecom operatos like AT&T, Verizon, T-mobile etc. I am with Sprint and even though I wanted to try it, I couldn't because Sprint charges 20 cents/min for the call forwarding (For YouMail, you have to forward you have to forward your voicemail to YouMail number).

Just today I received an email from YouMail regarding the Sprint policy update that removed those pesky per minute call forwarding charges. Sprint not only has removed those charges but also removed the requirement of technical assistance for enabling call forwarding.

So after receiving the email from YouMail, I asked them when are you going to launch Visual Voicemail for Palm Pre?

Here is what the email read from YouMail

Did you sign up with YouMail only to find out Sprint charges 20c/minute for call forwarding? And even worse – you had to call Sprint customer support to set it up?

GREAT News! Sprint has removed those pesky per minute call forwarding charges and no longer requires technical support to enable call forwarding. Hurray!

Now, Sprint customers can use YouMail as their mobile voicemail and get these great benefits.

See a list of your messages and scroll and listen to voicemail on your phone, online or email
Save your voicemails forever and share with anyone
Greet callers by name or assign different greetings to different callers
Block unknown and unwanted callers

So I asked about the Palm Pre Visual Voicemail and Alex Quilici replied me with

It will be coming – likely first from some third parties planning to launch their beta this month.

So looks like Palm Pre is soon getting a visual voicemail .... keep checking your app catalog or homebrew section for Visual Voicemail on Palm Pre...

Updates--- YouMail sent a clarification email about the call forwarding charges.

We recently sent out an e-mail that YouMail is free to Sprint users because Sprint dropped call forwarding charges.
We need to clarify.

First, Sprint is dropping “conditional call forwarding” charges – charges for calls are forwarded when they are busy or unanswered. This is the conditional call forwarding that YouMail users need, so it’s good news. However:

As Sprint has announced officially, this will be happening in mid-November. However, the exact date has not been finalized or announced by Sprint.
Sprint is making no changes to immediate/unconditional call forwarding (which uses *72 on the handset to set up) - this usage will continue to cost 20c/minute.
Second, the special dialing codes for turning on conditional call forwarding, like *28, may work now from your handset, but they are not officially guaranteed to work until mid-November. If it doesn’t work on your handset, please do not call or contact Sprint customer care, but wait for the follow up from YouMail when the final announcement by Sprint is made.

We’re excited Sprint is making this change – perhaps too excited, since we have jumped the gun with our announcement. We’re sorry for any inconvenience that this has caused.

Regards,

Alex
CEO, YouMail