AT&T & iPhone Customers Complain About Delayed Voicemail

Some iPhone owners and other customers of AT&T Mobility have complained to PC World about voicemail messages being delayed, sometimes for days.

“I have had this happen on a number of occasions,” wrote one AT&T customer in response to my item posted yesterday. “I’ve been growing tired of AT&T’s issues for quite a while now. I look forward to the iPhone being available through Verizon sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Another wrote: “AT&T’s Voice mail on iPhone 3G is sometimes slower than snail mail. If they didn’t have a strangle hold monopoly on the iPhone in the USA – they couldn’t get away with such poor service!”

I cannot independently confirm the reports, but have had similar experiences on my iPhone, when old messages appeared in visual voicemail days after they’d been left for me.

According to the user who first reported the trouble, AT&T says it is aware of the situation, but offers no cure. The best workaround being for users to manually check their voice messages by calling themselves, which pretty much negates the usefulness of a visual display of voicemail messages, an important iPhone feature.

AT&T has had problems with capacity on their mobile network in the past due to unprecedented demand from iPhone customers.  AT&T retains an exclusive agreement with Apple to provide service for iPhone owners in the United States.