Newbury Park resident reveals her voice mail nightmare

In response to the Thou- sand Oaks Acorn soliciting readers' gripes about voice mail systems that are sources of aggravation, Beverly Penhallow of Newbury Park says the Nextel/Motorola repair line is a disaster.

The number, (800) 4530920, Penhallow says, "is pure frustration. I have been calling this number at various times for the past week, only to be put on hold with a fiveto 15-minute wait time. After that, they just disconnect me."

Penhallow said the repair number was provided by the dealer. The same number is also cited whenever customers complain about Motorola cellphones still under warrantee, she said. Dealers, it should be noted, only provide information. They rarely, if ever, repair defective cellphones.

The ordeal was particularly galling, according to

Penhallow, because the company she works for was an original Nextel customer that experienced favorable results with Motorola phones.

Tell us about your voice mail nightmare in 150 words or less and send it to Voice Mail, Thousand Oaks Acorn, 2660 Townsgate Road, Ste. 760, Thousand Oaks, CA 91361 or send e-mail to tonewstip@theacorn.com

On a positive note, Mark Imber of Thousand Oaks gave a database for avoiding all the prompts in voice mail and immediately reach a live person on the phone. The main page is www.gethuman.com. The database can be accessed directly at www.gethumn.com/ us/

Thanks, Mark.

In the meantime, we'd still like to hear from frustrated readers who have had horrible experiences in voice mail.