Fido customers retrieve their voicemail by holding down “1” button in the phone dial pad for about 3 seconds. This automatically dials the voicemail retrieval number from which you can hear your voicemail. However, there are times when this setting can change which will lead you to not being able to retrieve the voicemail at all. There are several ways to fix Fido voicemail not working and this post will discuss those.
How to Fix Fido Voicemail Not Working for Existing Fido Customers
I have been a Fido customers for over 11 years and have had no trouble at all retrieving my voicemail by pressing down the “1” button on the dial pad. However, as of late, some of my callers have complained that when I am unable to answer the call, the phone keeps ringing and the call doesn’t get forwarded to voicemail. This sounded strange as my recently acquired phone plan does come with Fido mini voicemail. I tried holding down the “1” button and the phone prompted me stating that I don’t have any voicemail retrieval number setup. Then it prompted me to enter a 10 digit voicemail number manually. I did some Googling and identified +16478399169 as the voicemail retrieval number for my area.
I went to my phone’s Settings, Call, Voicemail settings, Voicemail number and entered this number manually. Unfortunately, the phone refused to accept this number saying there was an error in assigning voicemail number. Note, I have an Android phone.
Almost hopeless, I saved the voicemail retrieval number as a contact on my phone and dialed it. The automated assistance asked to enter my phone number and I did. To my disappointment, my number was refused by the system. At that point, I realized that there must be something wrong with my voicemail service itself since I recently changed my phone plan.
I immediately called Fido at 611 but the hold time was too long. So, I opened a live chat session and an agent responded after 45 minutes. They checked their system and what do you know, my voicemail was never added to my account during the plan change. The agent proceeded on to add the voicemail to my account and apologized for the mishap.
After this, I opened my phone dialer and tried holding down “1” button again. Oh no, it still didn’t work. I realized that since it is a new service which was added to my account, I should restart the phone and give it a try again. So I did. After the restart, the phone did reach the Fido voicemail after holding down “1” button for 3 seconds as usual. The automated assistant setup my voicemail service all over again and I was good to go.
So, if you are an existing Fido customer and all of a sudden lost your voicemail service, just check to see if you recently changed your plan and give Fido a call to have the voicemail services added to your account.
How to Fix Fido Voicemail Not Working for Unlocked Phones from Another Carrier
If you are switching over from another carrier or simply trying out a new unlocked phone, then you may have to manually enter the voicemail retrieval number into your phone’s voicemail settings.
Manually Entering Fido Voicemail Retrieval Number for Android Phones
Go to Settings > Call Setting > Voicemail Settings > Voicemail number. Contact a Fido customer service agent to see what is the voicemail deposit number assigned to your account. Also, ask them to check that voicemail has been setup for your account, provided it is part of your plan. Enter this 10 digit number as your Voicemail number. Restart your phone. Holding down the “1” button should now retrieve your voicemail from Fido.
Manually Entering Fido Voicemail Retrieval Number for Apple iPhones
If you are an iPhone user, the process is a bit unique. The voicemail retrieval number is also different from general phones. The visual voicemail app on iPhone may not work to retrieve your voicemail from Fido. Dial *5005*86*# in your iPhone to see the voicemail retrieval number programmed in your phone. Note it down. Contact a Fido customer service rep to find out the voicemail deposit number assigned to your account. Also, ensure that voicemail was setup for your account, provided it is part of your plan. Then dial Dial *5005*86*XXXXXXXXXX# (where XXXXXXXXXX is the retrieval number provided by the Fido rep) to reprogram your iPhone’s voicemail retrieval number. Restart your phone. Now, holding down “1” button should retrieve the voicemail from Fido.
