Avoid missed telephone calls - how to activate your French voicemail

In the course of my work, I often have to telephone English speakers living in France. If they are engaged, on their dial up internet or chez le coiffeur, there is often no option to leave a message. Businesses run by English speakers do not always have voicemail or an answer phone and consequently calls can be missed.

Very often, free voicemail services are not being used; sometimes because people are unaware that they have this option, sometimes because they are unsure of how to set it up, and sometimes because they worry about how navigate the French menu in order to retrieve messages etc. When I tell people that the voicemail option offered by France Telecom is free, their reaction is often one of suspicion, and people sometimes take some convincing that there will be no charges sneaked onto their phone bill.

To activate your voicemail, call the France Telecom helpline on 1014 (free from a fixed line) and say “Je voudrais activer ma messagerie vocale”. The service sometimes takes up to a few days to become active. Once active, you will be alerted to new messages by a short ring tone on your phone. Dial 3103 to access your messages. Press 1 to listen to your messages, 2 to save and 3 to delete. You can access saved messages at any time by dialling 3103 and pressing 1.

You can also choose to record your own greeting message. A good idea is to do this in both French and English. You can always play back the French messages as often as you like! Keep it short if using both languages. Follow the steps below if you’d rather not have the standard France Telecom greeting:

If you want your voicemail to take messages when your line is busy:
Call 3103
Press 2
Press 1
Press 2
Press 1
Press 2
Press 1, then record your personal greeting, followed by the # key
Press 1 to activate greeting

If you want your voicemail to take messages when you are unable take the call:
Call 3103
Press 2
Press 1
Press 2
Press 1
Press 1
Press 1, then record your personal greeting, followed by the # key
Press 1 to activate greeting

France Telecom choose not to set this up voicemail automatically. But once activated, it’s easy to use, free and, in my experience, very reliable.

Useful French words and terms
Voicemail: messagerie vocale
You have reached the Smith family. Please leave your message after the beep: Vous êtes bien chez la famille Smith. Veuillez laisser votre message après le beep sonore.
Save (to save message): conserver
Delete (delete a message): supprimer
To consult your messages, press 1: Pour consulter vos messages, appuyez sur 1. Hash key #: la touche dièse
Make a personalised greeting: personnaliser votre messagerie

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