Activism we can all get behind

I’m willing to bet that readers of all partisan backgrounds will agree on this. David Pogue, technology blogger for the New York Times, has started a campaign to “Take Back the Beep.” The goal: pressuring cell phone companies to eliminate the incredibly annoying 15-second messages that explain how to leave a voicemail.

These messages are outrageous for two reasons. First, they waste your time. Good heavens: it’s 2009. WE KNOW WHAT TO DO AT THE BEEP.

Do we really need to be told to hang up when we’re finished!? Would anyone, ever, want to “send a numeric page?” Who still carries a pager, for heaven’s sake? Or what about “leave a callback number?” We can SEE the callback number right on our phones!

Second, we’re PAYING for these messages. These little 15-second waits add up–bigtime. If Verizon’s 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That’s your money. And your time: three hours of your time a year, just sitting there listening to the same message over and over again every year.

If you leave two voicemail messages a day, these mandatory messages add up to three hours of waiting time every year you don’t need, and three hours of extra time you’re billed for.

There are two things you can do about it, and neither takes much time. First, in your outgoing message, leave instructions for how to bypass this message: press * for Verizon, 1 for Sprint, # for AT&T, and # for T-Mobile. Second, Pogue sends instructions on how to send a complaint to the major carriers:

I’ve told each of the four major carriers that they’ll be hearing from us. They’ve told us where to send the messages:

* Verizon: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/FJncH.
* AT&T: Send e-mail to: customerissues@attnews.us.
* Sprint: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/9CmrZ
* T-Mobile: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/2rKy0u.