Technology Voicemail Delivery "Lag"

[Joe]

Yesterday my attorney tried to call me several times, starting at about 8:30 am and repeated the calls every few hours. But although I made a call around 5:30 pm, I got no notification that I had any voicemail messages waiting. I tried to make another call around 9:30 pm and this time I did get a notification message that I had voicemail waiting. So there seems to have been a 12-hour "lag" in getting the voicemail "delivered" (for want of a better term). Has anyone had similar problems? What causes the "lag"?

BTW, my service provider is Virgin Mobile.

 

[Second Summer]

If I were more into conspiracy theories I would probably explain this as the result of slowness in the automatic recording and surveillance tech that They have installed with every cellphone service provider in America!

A more mundane explanation could be technical problems with the notification service. This is all speculation, but I imagine what happens when someone leaves a voicemail is: 1. The recording is stored on a disk somewhere. 2. A record with corresponding metadata is stored in a database. (Phone numbers of caller and receiver etc.) 3. A computer program runs constantly, reading the next record from the database and then sending a text message to the receiver. Once the text message has gone through, it moves on to the next record. If it fails to go through, it might try sending it again.

Several things could go wrong here, e.g. a text message could fail to go through, causing the computer program to wait before it process new records.

Of course, one would hope such an important service is designed better than that ...

 

[Andy_T]

That also happened to me in the past ... that I only received the notification that there is a recorded message hours after the fact. I thought it was likely caused by bad connection (although my phone seemed active and displayed some "bars", I did not get any calls and only very late got the messages).

Of course, IS's conspiracy theory explains it much more logical. THEY are behind it.

 

[shyvas]

Do you ever switch your mobile off ? By switching it off and than on it's your phone will be on a priority basis on the actual
cell tower. When there are too many phones connected to a specific cell tower there may be delays for sms and voice mail reception.

 

[dormouse]

I had this happen last week. My grandmother called me on January 9th, but I didn't see that I had a message until January 11th. I turn my phone off and on a lot, so I attributed it to that.

 

[Joe]

Yes, my mobile phone is off most of the time--to conserve the battery. I only turn it on when I want to make a call or when I think I may get a call (usually when I'm meeting someone for lunch or dinner, and figure the person will call me if delayed or some problem came up). In the latter case, I will turn it on and leave it on an hour or two before our scheduled meeting time.

ETA: My phone has to be off for it to be charged. If you leave it on and plug in the charger, it does nothing (but give you an error message, maybe).

 

[Second Summer]

Joe, you need a new phone! Well, "need" is perhaps too strong a word, but in any case this is not how most people use their phones these days. It needs to be powered in all the time! Because you never know when someone might attempt to call you or text you. And then what will they think if you're not responding like everyone else!? They might think you've died or moved to Alaska or something equally dramatic.

 

[Joe]

Joe, you need a new phone! Well, "need" is perhaps too strong a word, but in any case this is not how most people use their phones these days. It needs to be powered in all the time! Because you never know when someone might attempt to call you or text you. And then what will they think if you're not responding like everyone else!? They might think you've died or moved to Alaska or something equally dramatic.

Thanks. Believe it or not, I have a new phone but have not turned it on yet. I need to do something with the phone and Virgin Mobile (VM) to get them to transfer my account from my old phone to my new one. I don't know enough about my new phone to know whether I have to turn it off to charge it. I wish I could have a "charger" separate from the phone so I could keep a spare battery charged at all times, and then just swap the batteries.

P.S. I have a friend who moved from Nashville to Portland, Oregon. He tried to call me at my old landline number, and got the recording that the phone had been disconnected. He thought I had died! (He could have called other mutual friends in Nashville to inquire, but he failed to do so. Or he could have e-mailed me.)

P.P.S. I started a thread back in October of 2014 titled "Cell Phone/Voicemail Issue" that was basically about this same "lag" problem. But then I only suspected it; now I feel I have proof positive.

 

[shyvas]

I'm sure that you don't have to switch if off to charge your new phone. If the issue continues you should call Virgin and ask them to do a network card incident.