I feel bad for the guy. My mom held onto a dying answering machine for years because my dad had done the recording before dying. It finally went out on her, and it hurt her a lot to lose it.

Yeah, I can see being sad, but can I also point out that it's actually the death of the loved one that makes them sad? I lost a memento I kept from my dad after his death and it sure as hell didn't make me sadder than his actual death.

While I feel for the guy and his obvious loss, is it really the responsibility of Verizon to make sure every message isn't lost in an upgrade? I mean, it does sound like they sent out letters to people saying that the messages would be lost and have to be re-updated.

I think we have enough to hate phone companies about that we don't need expectations of keeping dead relatives messages active under any circumstances added to the list.

"Can you hear me now?"

"Not any more."

dletter: While I feel for the guy and his obvious loss, is it really the responsibility of Verizon to make sure every message isn't lost in an upgrade? I mean, it does sound like they sent out letters to people saying that the messages would be lost and have to be re-updated.

I think we have enough to hate phone companies about that we don't need expectations of keeping dead relatives messages active under any circumstances added to the list.

QFT

The moral of the story: Don't rely on a third party to make sure you have backups of critical files.

Same thing happened to me when I died.

Believe it or not, George isn't at home...

Kinda sad. That reminds me of how I got a text message from a friend, and ignored it. Wiped my inbox clean later that day. Three days later, I heard he died. Kicked myself for not replying.

Still kicking myself, actually.

I would save all of the messages from girls I was wooing. At least the nicer ones they'd leave prior to me wetting their beds.

hipcheckgrl: Yeah, I can see being sad,...

whoa, srs dejavu...

While it is sad, and I hate the phone company as much as the next guy, this is pure hot air. The phone company notified everyone, and there is even a grace period to retrieve old messages. What more could they do?

That's why every old person needs a geek son/grandson/neighbor to set up their VCR, fix their clocks for daylight savings time, and make audio dubs of voice mails recordings made by deceased spouses.

When I first saw the headline in our paper this morning I thought he may have been saving a message from someone trapped in the towers on 9/11. There are many, many people that have answering machines with recorded messages from friends and relatives who left a message before perishing. Hopefully those folks have found ways to copy off the recordings before the machine fails (or they switch phone providers).

I may be cold, but for some reason I think the old dude should have thought that something might happen at some point and taped the recording - also, I know it helped him, but it had to be odd to some of the other people that had to call in, what if one of the kids could not handle hearing the voice? I think spending the day in the business tab made me numb.

Sad as it may be, it's probably for the best.

dude. she's dead.

let it go.

move on.

is there a pathetic tag?

The moral of the story: Don't rely on a third party to make sure you have backups of critical files.

Yup. :( Very sad.

/has mother's last video saved in three locations, and online.

I appreciate that the guy is 80 years old, but still: How many people would leave a precious memory like that in the hands of an anonymous company that isn't even aware of its existence?

This is like the person that store critical emails in the Deleted Items folder and then freaks when an admin deletes the messages in that folder. Sad and dumbass tags combine forces: sadass.

phlegmmo: "Can you hear me now?"

"Not any more."

I just laughed so hard I cried like that old man

Watch him die in a month or two and the family sue because the loss of the message caused him to give up on life and die.

Book it. DONE!

/I don't even know what that phrase means
//but gives me an excuse to slashie

Bubonis: How many people would leave a precious memory like that in the hands of an anonymous company that isn't even aware of its existence?

112? Just a guess really. Is this a trick question?

Yeah it's sad, but it's also kind of strange isn't it? Calling his house to hear her voice every day, that's just borderline creepy, Norman Bates style. Definitely should have made a copy of it though but it was an old person, they aren't often the most technologically adept people in the world.

I'm listening to my dead wife's voice mail now so I'm getting a kick out of these replies.

Russ1642: This is like the person that store critical emails in the Deleted Items folder and then freaks when an admin deletes the messages in that folder. Sad and dumbass tags combine forces: sadass.

Every executive at my company does that. It's their permanent long-term storage. We're specifically forbidden from running maintenance on the e-mail server as a result because it will prune those folders.

The opposite can be worse. I left a message on my best friends voicemail (joking) that said "I can't reach you, I'm worried that you're dead or something". She was. And her parents retrieved the message. I felt like quite an ass.

WRDesign: Kinda sad. That reminds me of how I got a text message from a friend, and ignored it. Wiped my inbox clean later that day. Three days later, I heard he died. Kicked myself for not replying.

Still kicking myself, actually.

As long as the text message wasn't "Help me, I'm trapped in a well" I think you can forgive yourself.

/Sorry about your friend, death sucks.

He'll get over it.

Am I the only one who found it ironic that the phone company is sending out snail mail letters to let people know of their phone upgrades?

They don't mind unsolicited calls asking if I want to buy this service or upgrade X service.

Would her voice be on those sex tapes she made with Spitzer?

I wish this would happen to me. I moved from my hometown 3 years ago where I shared a house.

Whenever I come back into town, I give my old roommates a ring and it's still my voice on the message. It's creepy as hell.

My roommates are too lazy to change it because I didn't refer to any of us by name, just used the generic "We're not home. If you're calling to collect money, hang up now. BEEP!"

When I worked at Verizon, from time to time I would run into an issue like this (usually if a customer upgraded their voicemail box, or if the voicemail was cancelled and the box was rebuilt on the voicemail server, etc). It was never fun explaining that everything in the voicemail box was lost...

That said, never rely on anybody to store something that you hold dear.. Its a bad, bad idea..

phlegmmo:
"Can you hear me now?"

"Not any more."


WIN

Ashion_Archanion: Whenever I come back into town, I give my old roommates a ring and it's still my voice on the message. It's creepy as hell.


I don't think I've changed the default message on any answering system I've ever used.

All my picture frames still have the pictures that came with them, too.

Is it wrong I'm reminded of the Harvey Birdman episode where Phil dies?

"Ha ha!....foreshadowing."
"Ha ha ha!...not here."
"Ha ha!....sad."

Ziggy1138: The opposite can be worse. I left a message on my best friends voicemail (joking) that said "I can't reach you, I'm worried that you're dead or something". She was. And her parents retrieved the message. I felt like quite an ass.

Ow. That's the suck, right there.

Nightjars: When I worked at Verizon, from time to time I would run into an issue like this (usually if a customer upgraded their voicemail box, or if the voicemail was cancelled and the box was rebuilt on the voicemail server, etc). It was never fun explaining that everything in the voicemail box was lost...

That said, never rely on anybody to store something that you hold dear.. Its a bad, bad idea..

What if it's an off-site backup service? Or a safe deposit box?

Yeah, don't rely on third parties to store stuff like that. I had sort of a strange voicemail account at work... where everyone else's VMX was supposedly erased after 30 days, for some reason mine survived.

For over 13 years.

Seriously, I had voicemail from my fiancee in 1994 after starting the job. Then after she was my wife. Then a bunch of crapola during our divorce. Then a metric assload of messages from Ellen/Penny/Katie/Barbara/Stacy/Terry/Terry #2/Stacy #2, and finally early messages from my present fiancee.

You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes when you die? When I called voicemail, my life flashed before my ears.

Then they changed systems and trashed it all. I realized I really didn't miss it.

Now that I think about it I'm not much smarter than this guy. I've got several irreplaceable old voice recordings on nearly forty year old first generation compact cassettes with no backups. Time to get those things digitized.

Katana_Lust: He'll get over it.

Am I the only one who found it ironic that the phone company is sending out snail mail letters to let people know of their phone upgrades?

They don't mind unsolicited calls asking if I want to buy this service or upgrade X service.

They probably realize that, if they try to call and notify people, most will just hang up on them before they get to the important message.

Scutter: All my picture frames still have the pictures that came with them, too.

I have a lot of pictures of my "ex-girlfriend" too.

This: Ziggy1138: What if it's an off-site backup service? Or a safe deposit box?

That's great until the off-site backup service driver loses your backup container, or the bank with your safe depost box gets hit by a nuclear weapon. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Never let other people hold your property for you.

What happens if they decide they don't want it anymore???

/Stay in control. Keep a copy yourself.

Move on, dude. I know you're sad, but she's gone. Deal.

This is sad, and I feel for the guy, but I don't see what the phone company could have done differently. I mean, I am NO FAN of big phone companies because they're always pulling some jackass stunt on their customers, but I can't consider this one of them.

Sounds like the old guy needs someone to talk to about his grief.

I have a friend who was killed the first week of January and as of two weeks ago her voicemail was still turned on. I know because I had to call to hear her voice a few more times :( I've stopped that now, though. It hurts too much. Photos need to be enough.

I remember holding on to many things after my mother died. But as time went on, I started to realise that the things were meaningless and the memory with allways remain. Letting go of the things the constainly reminded me of a hard fought battle was stopping me from moving on in my life. It is best to just move on.

Uh, backup early and backup often? If you have critical data you don't want to lose:
A) Put is somewhere like a CD, USB drive, External HDD, SOMETHING
B) Put it somewhere else like on a phone as a MP3 or iPod
C) Email it to yourself
D) post it online somewhere

While this is sad, I can't say that it would hurt me THAT much if I lost a recording of a loved one. While I cherish them while they are alive, hearing them talk to me from the grave is just too damn depressing.

You know what the worst case of people trusting memories to indifferent third parties is? Wedding photographers.

In the enormous majority of cases, they keep the negatives, which means if their house gets hit by the asteroid, the memories of hundreds and hundreds of couples go poof if anything happens to their actual wedding album.

And according to a friend who does this, after about a year and a half nobody ever comes back for more reprints anyway, so what's to stop the photog from just dumping the negatives after a couple of years?

studebaker hoch: Never let other people hold your property for you.

What happens if they decide they don't want it anymore???

/Stay in control. Keep a copy yourself.

Yeah. What he said.

Sad for the old guy with the dead wife. And I hate the phone company... just not for this - they did absolutely nothing wrong in this case. I know he's an old dude, but I'm pretty sure he understands the concepts of those newfangled 'tape recorders'.

Thisbymaster: I remember holding on to many things after my mother died. But as time went on, I started to realise that the things were meaningless and the memory with allways remain. Letting go of the things the constainly reminded me of a hard fought battle was stopping me from moving on in my life. It is best to just move on.

One of my best friends lost her mother a few months ago. She started going through her mom's room (they were roomates) about a month ago. It's been terribly painful for her. :(