Two years ago I disconnected AT&T (formerly SBC ) and replaced them with Vonage VOIP (Voice Over IP) phone service. The sound quality is amazing and it routes every call over my internet connection. A month ago my good friend and fellow consultant Mark Chinsky started raving about Visual Voice Mail from his Vonage service. What’s Visual Voice Mail? Keep reading because I think I have the ultimate way to keep telemarketers at bay.

I’m a member of the national “Do not call” list.

Unfortunately telemarketers seem to have overlooked my membership.

I’ve noticed a sudden influx of unwanted phone solicitations. When I started to wonder how I could get rid of the annoying calls, an idea popped into my mind.

Set all my incoming calls to go straight to my voice mail

At this point most telemarketers hang up

Those who leave a message are typically either recorded pitches or people who I want to talk with.

Vonage saves the day with their highly accurate and super cheap Visual Voice Mail.

This service takes a voicemail, forwards it to a transcriptionist. Who writes down the full message (up to 2 minutes) and creates an email to you. This all happens within about 15 minutes of the message being left on your phone.

Amazingly the transcription quality is top notch – and the cost is only .25 per message with a 2 minute maximum. Here’s a copy of an actual transcribed message – and even though the typed message might seem a little confusing – it follows my original voice message almost exactly.

A recording of the call is attached to the email that Vonage sends.

Listen in to the original message here: voice-message.wav

For only .25 per month this option is something people who are sick of telemarketers are should rush to adopt. True, it may increase the number of emails you receive – however I much rather delete an email than waste time dialing in to my voicemail while driving and struggling to hear my messages.