Resetting My Voicemail?

[bobinyelm]

I just received a Samsung Galaxy S5 I bought new to replace an older S5 I am replacing.

This is the THIRD identical AT&T SM 900 I have had on my line, but when I set this one up (using Smart Switch and entering various information manually) it would not allow me to access my Voicemail mailbox.

When I dial my Voicemail number (It was automatically set to dial the same # my old ones dialed), I get a recording asking me to enter my Voicemail Password for my Mailbox. It says if I want to access adifferent mailbox to press "star" and then enter the password for that mailbox.

Trouble is, to my knowledge I never set up the voicemail with a password! Nor have I ever had more than one mailbox on my phone number.

I put the SIM Card back in my old S5 and dialed my Voicemail number, and was NOT asked for the password, and it played my messages just fine.

Is there some setting I have to select on my new phone to decline to use a password to access my Messages?

If so, I never needed to do so with my previous S5 phones, nor the iPhones 4S and S/E I have also used on this same phone line (Phone #).

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Dannydet]

I'd contact your carrier about the issue

 

[bobinyelm]

thanks, I thought it was something set in the phone.

I called AT&T and the CSA said that in the past the voicemail used the IMEI if the phone as a passcode but for security reasons, all new phones will need to have a passcode entered to retrieve voicemail.

He said the default passcode imay bethe 7 number phone number of the phone, and it would have to be entered every time one accesses his voicemail. He said the reason my old phone will still spit out my messages w/o a passcode is because it remembers my old IMEI so it's authenticated. He said it MAY be the last 4# of the Social Security # of the person shown as the master account holder on the service, too.

This must be a very recent change, because a new S5 phone I tried only a week ago (but sent back for a problem) worked fine and did not ask for an passcode. The Agent said that they (AT&T) may (may, not COULD) be able to help me access my voicemail if using the last 7 (Phone # minus area code) would not grant me access to my messages.

I'll update my results here if I get in...

Bob

 

[bobinyelm]

Called my AT&T store and they said due to the virus, company stores are shut down. He told me to access my voice mail to reset it to push and hold "1" on my phone, but after dialing, it said "This members Voicemail is not set up; Good-bye" and hung up on me. Strange because if I accessed it w/ my older (identical) S5 it worked fine and didn't ask for a password.

I tried using a procedure I found online at a AT&T site, and dialing the voicemail number manually, it let me set up my mailbox (which was actually setup for 12 years w/ AT&T, but I wasn't about to argue), and I had to create a 7 to 12 number password now to get my voicemail, but at least it works!

Why I don't have a clue, but it's working as long as I enter the numerical password I set up.