How to check vodacom voicemail when abroad

I’ve been in Ireland for the past three weeks, I’m now in Oxford until next Thursday when I fly back to Cape Town. With all this traveling I would have imagined that the blog would be buzzing with exciting news, but I just haven’t had time. So I’m breaking the silence with a random post about how to check vodacom voicemail when travelling abroad, using Skype!

Random, I know.  But this took me a while to figure out and I’m now finding this little “trick” quick handy.  So I thought I’d share.

Everyone knows that Skype is a really cheap, easy and convenient way to stay in touch.  Most people know that you can also use Skype to phone normal phones (landline phones, as well as cellphones).  When you’re abroad you can check your vodacom voicemail from any regular phone, but you can also do it from Skype (which is cheaper, and just as good).  Here’s how…

If your vodacom cellphone number is 082 123 4567, you simply dial “+278214″ followed by the last 9 digits of your phone number.  So you’d dial “+278214821234567″.  You’ll then hear your own voicemail message (“you’ve reached Gary”, etc, etc).  At this point you’ll see a little button in the top right corner of the Skype screen called “Dialpad” – click this and a little dialpad appears.  On the dialpad click on “1″ (do this as soon as you hear your voicemail message appearing).  You’ll then hear a voice asking you to enter your mailbox password, followed by hash.

I found that when typing in my mailbox password (4 digits plus a hash) using the Skype dialpad I needed to do this really slowly, otherwise it didn’t work.

Hope this helps someone!  More news as inspiration and time allow..