Verizon Saves Voicemail Recording of Man's Late Wife
Every so often it's nice to cover a story with a happy ending. Here's a new one: When Verizon upgraded the phone system in his hometown of Irvington, NY, 80-year-old widower Charles Whiting lost the outgoing message -- recorded by his late wife Catherine -- on his voicemail system. Whiting would call his voicemail everyday just to hear her voice, and feel like she was still with him.Charles said it was the only recording of her that he had.
But lo-and-behold, Verizon had actually archived all of its customers messages, and, after a couple of days of searching, was able to locate and retrieve Catherine's voice message. The message was restored as Whiting's outgoing message and, according to AP, Charles is "very happy."
From AOL News
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
debi @ Mar 19th 2008 7:10PM
that is such a great story...i'm glad he's able to listen to his wife's voice everyday. it's so sweet..
Kathy Klisch @ Mar 20th 2008 8:02AM
Can I get My Mom's recording from her old telephone number? It has been 12 years. It was the only voice recording we had. Kathy
cheri @ Mar 20th 2008 2:07PM
Why does Verizon keep our personal messages anyway?
Gwen @ Mar 20th 2008 2:07PM
way to go Verizon! such a nice thing to do for someone!
Joe Blow @ Mar 20th 2008 2:12PM
Wow, finally a nice story...thats refreshing. Instead of death and mayhem, the media should try articles like this more often.
Lillian @ Mar 20th 2008 2:14PM
That is great for this particular situation, it is so sweet for him to have the voice of his loved one back!!!!
The only thing that bothers me is that these companies have our phone messages???? I also wonder why they would keep outgoing messages???
For what purpose???
It's a little too creepy.
larry @ Mar 20th 2008 2:18PM
Thumbs up for Verizon! Such a thoughtful thing to do. There are still people in the world that are compasionate. Thanks for your thoughtfulness.
Lon Horiuchi V @ Mar 20th 2008 2:18PM
Part of "CONDITIONING" is when we're sold bs like this as a way of "conditioning" us to think that retaining information on us in dossiers is a good thing.
We've just been advised that another form of electronic communication is being archived against us, but it was done in a pretty wrapper like this love story.
This is NOT a good thing.
Communications between people are private, and are not the property of anyone else simply because they're not sent through the Post Office.
BARB @ Mar 20th 2008 2:19PM
THAT IS GREAT THAT VERIZON CAN FIND OLD VOICEMAILS, BUT WHAT ABOUT
PROVIDING CUSTOMER SERVICE TO THEIR EXISTING FIOS CUSTOMERS?????
I WAS ON HOLD FOR 6 HOURS THE OTHER DAY, WAS THAT SO THEY COULD RETRIEVE AN OLD VOICE
RECORDING??? PROBABLY!!
JanLar @ Mar 20th 2008 2:20PM
This man is a neighbor of mine, and after reading about this in the local paper I was in tears. Although I questioned why he had not taken videorecordings of all their trips together, that too would have helped ease his heartache. I too have messages left on my answering machine from people who are very dear to me and because I almost lost my Mom in a so called simple operation, the first thing I did when I got home from the hospital was listen to her sweet messages she had left me and then ran to Staples for a mini tape recorder. I now save all my messages from the people I love that way. I am so happy he was able to get his message back, but please sir, get a tape recorder and tape it over and over on the tape for future problems may arise such as power outages have erased my messages in the past.
RuttRoh24 @ Mar 20th 2008 2:23PM
I have been with every phone company out there and Verizon is the best. Barb, six hours on hold???? Sounds like you got bigger problems.
bruce laudeman @ Mar 20th 2008 2:26PM
great thing to do verizon
Chris @ Mar 20th 2008 2:26PM
Makes me ashamed for all the smack ive talked about verizon. Someone deserves a raise...
laineyb @ Mar 20th 2008 2:28PM
Oh for the love of god, you people are freaking paranoid! If Verizon did not keep a copy of your outgoing message, how the heck do you expect it to be played for anyone? It is not like your phone stores the message, of course it is sitting on a server somewhere.
undrgrndgirl @ Mar 20th 2008 2:28PM
good on ya verizon! how wonderful for this man...after losing my soul mate last june i know how important the seemingly trivial things - like having a voice recording - can be...
Mark @ Mar 20th 2008 2:28PM
This is a voice message recorded for the purpose of collecting messages. "Hi, this is so and so leave a message at the beep" They weren't recording peivate messaages.
james carter @ Mar 20th 2008 2:30PM
its good that verizon cares about people thats better than att. who only cares about $$$$$$$ if they had to do this for him they would have charged him.
BJTurner @ Mar 20th 2008 2:32PM
Just a response to those who don't know that there voice mail and out going msg are recorded in all telephone company data bases not on their home answer machines so the only msgs that are stored are the ones you put there how else could you use your cell phone? Nice story
jack @ Mar 20th 2008 2:33PM
Verizon is such a crappy company..I think it is great they would finally do something to help a customer!
Barry Summerlin @ Mar 20th 2008 2:34PM
Privacy freaks -- it's the outgoing message ("Hi, not here right now, leave your name and number, etc."), not a message she left for him. Your outgoing messages would be retained in your provider's system -- it's why someone calling your phone would get your voicemail invitation even if your phone was turned off. It's unlikely Verizon would retain your old outgoing messages, just the current one. If this widower never changed his wife's outgoing voicemail message, it makes sense that it'd be someplace in the system.