[Update: Fix actively in the works] AT&T voicemail 'Service not available' issue troubles users

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on October 9, 2019) follows:

In July 2019, AT&T, the second-biggest carrier in the U.S. behind Verizon Wireless, became the first in the states to roll out a free automated robocall-blocking service to millions of its mobile customers in addition to providing the service pre-baked into new AT&T lines.

If you don’t mind paying $4 a month, AT&T will spice the robocall-blocking service with more goodies, among them the ability to auto-send all robocalls directly to voicemail.

But this is not the only task that you can put your AT&T voicemail service to. Lots of people rely on the service whenever they can’t pick up calls or are away from their phones.

Whether it’s at work, at home or even on smartphones, people still rely on voicemail to leave and retrieve messages from friends, family and sometimes business associates.

Woe unto those who are still heavy users of voicemail on AT&T. For a period that is now into the second week, AT&T voicemail service has been down. Plenty of affected users have taken to various platforms to air the issue to AT&T, but the carrier hasn’t responded yet.

One week without Voicemail here. I was told last week that “maintenance” was being done on some voicemail servers and only 17% of servers were affected, but that the maintenance was 67% complete. Without a definite estimated time of completion. My phone has had no Voicemail all week. My husband’s is fine, as are other At&T phones within my company..both Iphone and Android. This is ridiculous. They really have no idea what is wrong.
Source

I haven’t been able to check voicemail for 7 days now. I’ve called Technical Support twice and each time I was told (falsely) it would be resolved within 24hrs. Really poor service. No communication of any kind from AT&T. At this point I’m ready to get my iPhone unlocked and switch to T-Mobile.
Source

Up to this point, affected users are no longer complaining about the voicemail issue, but the lack of acknowledgment from the company regarding the same. All that AT&T support has been able to offer is, well, nothing at all.

To be fair, though, one admin in the forums did give out a rather generic fix to the issue that obviously didn’t work as claimed.

Thank you for reaching out on your voicemail. If you haven’t yet, power down your device completely for thirty seconds before turning it back on. If this doesn’t help, could you let us know the type of device you have? Thank you!
Source

A tweep has also tweeted about the response from AT&T claiming that the company is aware of the issue and is working around the clock to fix it, but there is no ETA.

“…is a known issue .. working on around the clock to fix. Unfortunately, there is no time of resolution .. sincerest apologies for the inconvenience caused by not having voicemail accessible.”
Source

In a rather unusual scenario, one of the affected users claims that AT&T voicemail service is back up, at least in their case. It is unclear if AT&T has fixed the issue for everyone or it’s just fluke.

Initially, AT&T said the voicemail issue was limited to subscribers in North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and South Carolina, but there are reports coming from other regions as well. The issue isn’t specific to any particular smartphone, but most, if not all reports come from Android users.

We hope that AT&T is actively looking into the matter and a fix will come out soon. Meanwhile, keep an eye on our AT&T section so that you don’t miss out on updates about this story and others.

AT&T has revealed that a solution is actively in the works, although it doesn’t mention any timelines. Here is what Kenneth, an AT&T Community Specialist said in the official forums:

We are aware of voicemail issues.

Its affecting customers in multiple markets. We are working with to resolve the issue as soon as possible. It’s one of our top priorities at this time.
Source

As far as Sean, another AT&T Community Specialist is concerned, the voicemail issue is due to “a vendor server problem” and that the carrier is “in contact with the vendor as they work to fix it.” Again, no timeline.

Some in the forums say voicemail is now working for them, but others may have to wait for the said fix to come. When exactly is still unknown, but we will, of course, keep an eye on it for you.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.