At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options. To leave a callback number, press 5. (Beep)Not only is Pogue mad-as-hell-and-not-going-to-take-it about the ridiculous idea that we still need to be told how to use voicemail, it turns out those additional messages are actually costing you cold, hard cash. He estimates that Verizon, for instance, is netting around $620 million a year thanks to these little annoyances. So what's to be done? Well Pogue wants the citizens of the internet to take up virtual arms... and complain like nobody's business. He's wrangled together all the best contact points for the four largest carriers in the US (included for your convenience after the break). Let them know you know don't want to pay for voicemail instructions. And hey, while you're at it, tell them the price-gouging on text messages needs to go, too.
Verizon: Post a complaint here.
AT&T: Send e-mail to Mark Siegel, executive director of media relations: MS8460@att.com.
Sprint: Post a complaint here.
T-Mobile: Post a complaint here.