Can Voicemail be disabled? (non-FiOS)

[misterbill99]

My mother-in-law just moved and we signed her up for the Freedom package (she previously had a normal calling plan, and AT&T long distance, she was probably one of the last people still paying for long distance calls, not to mention timed local calls from Queens to Westchester County and was paying a bundle). Anyway, she got voicemail with the package, but she already has an answering machine and trying to explain to her how to pick up the messages from VM is going to be impossible. Is there a way to disable the Verizon VM so it doesn't accept messages? Her phone service was out for a few days this week and she had 17 VM messages when I called to check the other day (which I guess is good but other than my calling, she'd never think to look). I actually need to call again to clear out the rest of the mailbox.

BTW, I should say that I've set the answering machine to pick up after 4 rings, so it will get messages before VM. However, she has call waiting, and if she does not pick up a call that comes in while she is on another call, it goes to VM, and she'd never bother to call in for the message. I'd just as soon not have it pick up in that case. Given that some of the messages that I just deleted were from when her phone line was not broken, I have a feeling that was the reason for some of them.

[Mike_VZ]

Hello Misterbill99,

The customer does not have the ability to turn on and off the voice mail randomly via the phone or web.  You can however have the Verizon voice mail removed from the line.  In the Freedom package it comes with the bundle and has no individual charge.  You can opt to use it or remove it.  Since you have messages in the voice mail still you will want to clear them all out before placing the order to disable the voice mail with the sales office.  Once the order is placed it will delete the mailbox and any messages that were left in it.

Thank you

[louiedud]

I was told there is a fee for disabling voicemail.

I would prefer to use my answering machine.

Can you tell me how much it will cost to disable voicemail?