I changed my message to say please don't leave me voicemail but they did anyways. So I got rid of it and I like not having it

It's like a computer dialog box. Just as users don't read dialog boxes, phone users don't listen to the message at all. They just wait until the beep and start talking. I used to have a home phone that had voice mail boxes and we had a message that said, "To leave a message for husband, press 1, to leave a message for wife press 2." It had a default mailbox if the user didn't press anything. 95% of calls went to the default mailbox. People are idiots.

You can always set your voicemail number to something funny. I used to set it to a French ski resort automated weather report telephone - that's annoying and an expensive international call to boot, so people quickly stop trying (not that you'd notice if they didn't).

AFAIK It is charged to you (to whom forwarding) not to the caller

I disabled my voicemail as I'm charged to call it, but not to receive calls normally

Where abouts are you? Here in AU, it seems everyone uses voicemail for their mobiles.

The question you're looking for is how old are you, for my generation(later mellenial) it's a minor faux paux to leave a voicemail instead of a text.

Sweden. A text message is faster and infinitely more accessible for the recipient.

Heck, a voice message over the chat client of their choice is faster, infinitely more accessible, and still voice.

Well, half of the point is that you don't want voice in the first place...

Voice is by far the least of the problems with voicemail.

- If someone leaves you voicemail, you don't necessarily know that that happened.

- Checking your voicemail is effortful.

- Any random idiot can dial your phone number and leave you voicemail.

- Voice is harder to process than text.

Leaving someone a voice message doesn't help with #4, but that's a very minor issue. It solves all of the first three.

I wholeheartedly agree with all your points (and that is exactly what I meant with accessible). But it being voice is also a major issue of its own.

You can't check voice messages in many situations where you can read and possibly respond to a text. Also, if you listen to music/podcasts/whatever there will be an annoying interrupt.

I get an interrupt when I receive text messages too. I want it; it lets me know that someone sent me a message.

Of course, but there is a huge difference. Read the text and then continue - total time is less than 5 seconds. Often you don't even miss a beat doing what you are doing anyway.

Rather than having to stop what you are doing, check voice mail, and then continue. And in many situations you can't even do it (meeting, lecture, noisy environment etc.).