Visual Voicemail Cricket

[evilrobot]

I took a lumia 1520 to Cricket. They say they support visual voicemail on Windows Phone but I'm not getting anything but regular voicemail? Anybody else on Cricket and have this working? When I chatted with online support they told me I needed to download the visual voicemail app

 

[SOCMOB]

I have a Lumia 620 on Cricket and visual voicemail worked from when I got the phone (March-April 2014) until about July. Since that time only standard voicemail has been available. However, my situation is complicated by the fact that I flashed Lumia Cyan / WP 8.1 and sim-unlocked the device prior to the disappearance of visual voicemail.

I spoke with Cricket today and I was also told that I "need to download the VVM app". After I educated the customer service rep that Windows Phone has built-in VVM functionality and doesn't require an app, I asked to speak with his supervisor (whom I had hoped would be more knowledgeable). Unfortunately, the supervisor was also insistent that I needed to download an app or that the problem was with my phone.

I was subsequently forwarded to Nokia support, who confirmed that, regardless of firmware or sim-lock status, any Lumia will have built-in VVM capability. Furthermore, the Nokia rep told me that VVM requires implementation by the carrier on their systems.

So, I called Cricket back and informed them of Nokia's response. Since the people answering calls at Cricket customer support lack the technical knowledge to deal with this issue they opened a case for their technical support to investigate further.

I'm really not sure what to make of the VVM situation on Cricket, but I have not been impressed with their tier one support. I know that my sim-locked 620 with Amber firmware used to have VVM functionality and that my sim-unlocked Lumia 521 with Black firmware (which had VVM functionality on T-Mobile) both lack VVM now when using my Cricket sim. I was told that the technical support case should be resolved in the next 5 days, so I will report back when I have updated information.

 

[SOCMOB]

UPDATE: Upon checking back with Cricket customer service, I was told that their technical support team had investigated the problem and issued a note that "resolved" the situation.

Their purported resolution? "Cricket Nokia Lumia has problem with visual voicemail and should not be used." I was then advised to use the traditional voicemail. Despite my asking, no reason for the Lumia "problem with visual voicemail" was given.

As I stated previously, my very same phone used to have VVM capability with Cricket. My suspicion is that the Cricket back-end system has been changed in some way in the interim and now does not have first-party VVM at all. Cricket Android phones must download a specific Cricket app to gain VVM functionality, which may in fact be just a re-branded third-party service. Of course, Cricket has no analogous app for Windows Phone.

Although I have found Cricket's customer support to be very poor (almost to the level of Comcast), I've been satisfied with their coverage and pricing. Since I don't have any need for ongoing customer support, the lack of VVM is really the only major complaint that I have with them. It will always irritate me that I can't take advantage of my phone's built-in VVM functionality, but I decided to use a third-party VVM service as a workaround. After downloading MagikMail (a youmail.com client) from the WP app store, I now have satisfactory visual voicemail.

Since Cricket is a low-cost MVNO, I suppose that this situation should be regarded as an example of "you get what you pay for" and serve as a warning to anyone considering using them as a carrier.

 

[anon(5445874)]

I got it to show up on my brand new 630. While in the phone area, I went into its settings and turned it on. It gave me an error, but then proceeded to download all voicemails.

 

[mattdistro]

I just brought a 1520 to Cricket this past week as well. Facing the same issue.

I was hoping it would configure itself once I finally got a voicemail, but it didn't. There's no setting on my 1520 to toggle visual voicemail on/off either.

 

[SOCMOB]

Back when my 620 was sim-locked to AIO / Cricket and had AIO / Cricket firmware, I had a toggle for VVM under settings too and VVM worked great. Since the 630 user above has the feature and settings toggle now, maybe the problem is that Cricket can't (or won't) interface appropriately with phones that do not have firmware specific to Cricket and/or a sim that is locked to their network.

 

[anon(5445874)]

Ok, after your comment, I went and checked my 920. It has no voicemail option. So I guess the phone needs some type of cricket specific software in order to work.

On a side note, cricket by default had visual voicemail turned off out of the box. I was also kind of disappointed that all my system sounds were awful, I mean really bad. Nokia phones are known for having some of the best sounds out there, why would they ruin the experience?

 

[oryan_dunn]

I was looking into this a bit more... visual voicemail requires the phone run the carrier customized firmware. Apparently, the carrier needs to load in the visual voicemail configuration file along with some registry settings. Very annoying, but unless you have a phone running aio/cricket firmware, you'll not get visual voicemail on Windows Phone.

https://dev.windowsphone.com/en-US/OEM/docs/Customization/Visual_voicemail

If Microsoft is smart, they'll allow unbranded phones to be able to be configured for any carrier's visual voicemail in Windows 10.

 

[anon(5445874)]

I was looking into this a bit more... visual voicemail requires the phone run the carrier customized firmware. Apparently, the carrier needs to load in the visual voicemail configuration file along with some registry settings. Very annoying, but unless you have a phone running aio/cricket firmware, you'll not get visual voicemail on Windows Phone.

https://dev.windowsphone.com/en-US/OEM/docs/Customization/Visual_voicemail

If Microsoft is smart, they'll allow unbranded phones to be able to be configured for any carrier's visual voicemail in Windows 10.

They just need to do what MagikMail does. But use OneDrive to store your voicemails so we can listen or backup at will. Microsoft needs to go the route of not allowing carriers to ruin the platform.

 

[nitsuk]

I appreciate this is an old article however hope that others input will help us solve an Visual Voicemail (VVM) puzzle...

We have recently purchased number of Unlocked/SIM Free Lumia 950 and 950 XL handsets in UK for our company and clients, the Lumia 950 XL handsets started working with Visual Voicemail on O2 more or less immediately, however 950 has the option there but cannot be activated! We have tried everything we can think of (allot of options checked and redone).

On the same subject; we also have number of users with Lumia 640, 640 XL, 735 and 930 all unlocked and on O2 network also and now upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile however they all are missing the Visual Voicemail option altogether!!

Seeing they are all unlocked and on the same network and only Lumia 950 XL handsets work perfectly with Visual Voicemail it is confusing us, the network provider (they are useless in technical assistance unless is an iPhone anyway) and even the account managers we've discussed it with as not many are familiar with Lumia and/or Windows 10 Mobile to contribute much.

If you have any information which may shine some light on this matter it would be much appreciated.

 

[Stephen570]

If visual voicemail isn't working on a Windows 10 Mobile device, check the following setting: In the phone app (click the phone tile) go to ...Settings > Change more settings for Phone > SIM 1 settings (I'm on a dual SIM phone), and make sure Visual voicemail is turned on. I just switched to Cricket wireless and couldn't figure out why VVM wouldn't set up -- it was switched off on the phone.