Grieving mother devastated to lose last voicemail from son

I do feel bad for the loss but for the people that dont understand how a company like AT&T works here you go.mulitple lines = family plan, canceling a line would mean she was down to a single line so of course the plan would be changed "otherwise they will continue to charge family rate plan prices instead of single line prices which are cheaper" and i can almost bet anything that they explained the changes to her seeing as AT&T sends you a customer service survey, Also sends you an email AND text message with change confirmations within 72 hours. plus when you setup your voicemail originally "if you pay attention like your supposed to" tells you your voicemails will be deleted if it is not saved. Very easy to save a voicemail!  but I am doubtful that the account change itself had anything to do with deleting the voicemail. but we all wonder why companys continue to charge more and more for products, well they have to cover costs of being sued for reasons like this! how about request AT&T to submit a trouble ticket and to be transfered up the line, not jump directly to lawsuit! 

The same thing happened to me. My dad passed away on May 11, 2011. I had 3 voicemails on my Iphone from him. I listened to them everyday. Someone stole my phone out of my purse at work. I didn't care about the phone, I only wanted my Dad's voice mails. The very next day I went into AT&T and asked them about retrieving my voice mails from my Dad. I had the exact dates he had left them...They said they could see them on the server, but could not retrieve them. Why is that??? If AT & T needed these for a court hearing, they would get them right away. Those voice mails are the only way I had of hearing my Dad's wonderful voice. To this day I am heart broken over this. I know there has to be a way of getting them back...if anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it. My heart goes out to this woman because I know exactly how she's feeling!

These kinds of stories pop up from time to time. As I've gotten older I've become more of a " you should have taken care of this yourself" person - BUT - I also have experienced soul crushing grief, and when you're in that state, you don't think clearly. There have been times in my life where it was literally, what do I need to do to get by in this minute, then I can worry about the next minute to get by that.

 

For me there has to be some sort of solution for this. Data storage is incredibly cheap now. I think it would be a great service if you canceled your cell service on a phone, made plans that altered what you can/can't access, etc. etc. that you could web access your voice mail and text messages for a reasonable period of time, 15 to 30 days, and download your texts as a .TXT or .XML file and download your voicemails as .MP3 or even .WAV. After the time period (and you're notified and get a link) then the content is permanently deleted.

 

Just an idea - I think it would be a nice service in general.

I know Marie very well and want to tell all you people a thing or two! Marie does not want money, she wants her voice mail back! This all happened within a month of losing her ONLY child! Nathan was the only family she had! Now for all you people who have nothing better to do then sit on your computers and judge others let me enlighten you a little! Lets say you have no parents, no siblings,aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, only your child! Suppose that child is sent to Afghanistan to supposedly keep YOU people all safe! Suppose that child sees things and does things that change him! That child comes home changed, he has night terrors, PTSS, depression, etc. etc. etc. Nobody out there is willing to help with these demons he now carrys because he was sent to HELL to protect YOU! He then decides to self medicate his demons away! One night your child calls you and leaves a voice mail (his last voice mail) and says i love you very much! During the night he self medicated to much (on accident by the way, not on purpose as the news said!) Now lets say you have the only message from your son and you hear another report on TV about a father who had lost his daughter and his phone company dropped her last voice mail to her father! So you call your phone company to find out how to make sure that does not happen to you and they tell you how to keep it active! About a week or two latter you decide you can no longer afford to keep his phone on your family plan so you call your phone company and drop his phone NOT yours! You then one day a few days later at one of your lowest places decide to listen to your loved ones voice saying I love you! It is not there any more! Your phone company neglected to tell you by taking a phone off your plan it changes it so you lose EVERYTHING! Now what would you do? Marie has spoken to the lawyer who is working with the father who lost his daughters voice mail, this is not a isolated case the attorneys office has recieved hundreds of calls from grieving parents that this has happened to! There has to be be something that can be done so this does not happen to YOU! And maybe just maybe because Marie went public to tell her story and YOU saw it, it WON'T happen to YOU!

There is a peice of the story missing.  She went to an AT&T store after her son passed and asked them to show her how she can save this VM perminately.  They showed her how to mark it in her VW box as one to keep saved.  They did tell her she would have to do that from time to time to keep it.  Later she called AT&T to drop her sons phone.  She didn't ask to change her plan or any of her services.  She just wanted to drop the extra line.  There is fault on AT&T for this.  She asked for her message to be retrieved.  She just wants to hear him say "I love you."  That is not crazy!!  She did what you all are saying she should have.  She asked at an AT&T store how to save it.  She did what she was told!!!!!  By the way, he DID NOT commit suicide!  

I think that with all the phone applications for everything under the sun that some one with a heart would come up with some kind of application for this.. And trust me it would get used!! It could be called "heart safe" As for the lawsuit go get em girl ... I fully trust that they can retrieve those messages!! And the lawsuit might wake up someone with a heart to create the application. And ETS Thank you for those suggestions I didn't know about the forwarding..

I do appreciate the loss.  I do appreciate that the loss will come with anxiety and anger, but a lawsuit?  She could have forwarded the voicemail or played it into a PC or anything else that she was responsible for doing herself.  Please grieve for your son with family and friends, but let's come back into the light a little bit.

A lawsuit?  RIDICULOUSNESS! I'm sorry for what happened to her son but is there something in her contract that says VM's will be kept forever? Probably not... What on Earth is she suing for? If she wanted to keep the VM she should have saved it somewhere else. The attorney that files this should be disbarred... 

Don't all cell phone companies delete voicemail after a certain time? I am sorry for her loss, but she is reaching if she thinks AT&T is liable for the loss of the messages. About 4-5 months ago my cell phone abruptly quit. I restarted it and it worked fine, but all of my texts and voicemail were gone, including cute grandkid videos and voicemails, along with every text message I'd ever been sent by my fiance. I was bummed for a day or two, but realized I didn't need electronic messages to feel whole. Those relationships are in my heart forever. This poor woman needs grief counseling and her attorney should be ashamed.

Any legal solution to the profound sorrow of Marie Wagner's tragedy, cannot and will NEVER compare to the profound emotional loss she will suffer for the rest of her life, despite the lost voice mail message. I lost my precious dad, before voice mail was even thought of, yet, his last verbal words to me are still as implanted and precious to me. Marie, it doesn't take technology for you to cherish Nathan's last words. They are in your heart.

 

Marie, perhaps this may help: May the Light of God surround you. May His light shine down on you. May you always be surrounded by the light and blessings Nathan brought to you. I understand, he was your precious, most important part of your life. I haven't lived what you have, but my heart goes out to you.

@komo - by the way, can you puhleeze bring back the TD?!  Or agree or disagree? Other sites have them. :)  It just would make us posters feel better!

I feel for her loss but why didn't she ask for it before she canceled the cell? Or record it on a different medium?  A lawsuit? Come on that isn't about grieving it is about greed.

I sure hope she gets the voice mail back - too bad it took a law suit to do it.  As for hearing her son's voice, I do understand that.  My Dad committed suicide 14 years ago and there are times I sure wish I still could hear his voice except from my memories.  For those of you posting on here that she needs to 'move on' - she will, just not in your time. For those of you posting that she's a 'nut case' - she's not, she's grieving and if you've ever grieved you surely must understand.  If you have not grieved, I feel sorry for you.

I had something somewhat similar although I was able to save it.  I knew I was getting a new phone but wanted to keep a message of someone who I lost and they passed on.  I had a relative with me and we went to the Radio Shack.  I said "wouldn't it be great if '(so and so) sent us a message or sign?"  Just then we called the phone to get the message we wanted to save and a different message we hadn't heard before spoke to us.  It was amazing and a shock.  It was very emotional as we did not know his voice was on other parts of the phone.  It was like he was there talking to us although we knew that wasn't possible.  The employee at Radio Shack did everything and I was so happy for that because I didn't know how to do anything.  I'm grateful to that employee.  I'm very sorry for this womans loss and I hope they can find that message as it means a great deal.  And there is no such thing as closure or moving on.  Maybe continueing to move forward with your loved one beside you. 

It's pretty obvious that some intense grief counseling is needed here. 

Stupid AT&T, this ought to teach you a lesson for not having a crystal ball to anticipate every whim and fancy of your customers.  That is what lawsuit should be about.

Chances are good the recording has all ready been written over multiple times. 

 

I found an old cassette tape of my daughters when they were 2 and 3.  It is like gold.  So I get it.

 

Sorry for her loss.  I don't agree with any lawsuit though.  It is wrong and she owns this, not AT&T.

I would like to express my sympathies on the loss of her son. I can not even imagine what she is going through. To those of you who had so many negative comments lets talk about a few.

1. Lawsuit wont bring her son back. You are correct but it will bring back a few of his words if just for a moment. It does not say anywhere in the story that she is suing for money only to make AT&T find the message.

2. She should have copied the message to another place if it was so important. I am pretty tech savvy and I dont know how to copy a voice mail to say my computer. Maybe she didn't know how either.

3. Did AT&T tell her when she changed the plan that she would lose any saved messages ? If they had I bet she would have waited until she had backed up important info.

4. This story should not have made the news. If this story get one person to back up info or a voice mail from a phone then it is newsworthy.

The one thing I have learned over the years commenting here is that it is so very easy for people to judge everyone.

To those of you who posted critical comments - especially about "getting on with life" - you had better hope you never experience a loss. Hearing her son's voice does help with moving on!  Many of your comments are cold. Many of you have proven my point that society is self-centered and cold.

firstly, i am very sorry for her loss.  i cannot even imagine what she is going through.  however, if this voicemail was so important to her, why didn't she record it to a different device?  rule #1 is to never trust a phone company.  hopefully AT&T can do something to help her.

This actually made it to the news...

Technology knows not empathy. Their system probably automatically deleted it. Sorry lady.

I hope she is able to retrieve the voicemail from the phone company.  There are times where I wish I could hear the voices of departed loved ones, so I can only imagine how she feels to have lost that message.

I am sorry for her loss. One thing people have to remember is that anything in the data world is easily lost. Yes, there are extremes that you can take to back it up, and should if it is important like this message but very few people do and companies will only go to the extent of their contract. This lady changed her contract and lost her voice mail from the old contract. In the fine print I am sure there was a statement saying she needed to personally backup all voicemails. Keeping data safe without doing backups is like keeping a snowball in the freezer. Eventually there will be a power outage and no more snowball.

they need to check the facts

First, I am so sorry that she has lost her son. As a mother of a young boy, I can't imagine how painful that must be. With that said, I don't think suing the phone company is going to bring her any type of closure. The phone company will most likely win because they are not obligated to save the messages forever. In fact, with my carrier, my VM will ask me to re-save old messages if I still want them if it has been a while. Also, with technology these days, you can import everything from your cell phone right onto your computer and/or a hard drive so that things like this don't happen. IMO, she has no case. Either way, sorry to hear of her loss.

It doesnt help getting someone to move on from a tragic death by keeping a voicemail. It's painful but it's not healthy and doesn't really promote a full grieving process. This poor lady needs to talk with real professionals to help her this very tough time in her life because even if they do get the voicemail back it won't last forever and she will just end up having to rehash the whole event later, maybe when she isn't as strong.

I’m totally shocked at how some have no empathy for this woman. I don’t think she is after the money. She wants to force them to retrieve the voice mail, which they should have just done when asked. She cancelled her son’s account, not her own. The voice mail should be part of her account.

I had something happen to me similar.  I had my grandfather pass away and at the same time I was forced to cancel my internet account and had to go with another service because the internet company did not service the new area.  Now I was under the assumption that I was able to still access my email for maybe a certain amount of time like a month or so, but they cut me right off and all my saved emails were gone.  I had some emails in there from my grandfather that I wanted to access and I begged them, they gave me a one time access to get them and they didn't have to but they did.  I am sure AT & T can do the same and probably will, no need for a lawsuit.  On another subject listening over and over to that message may not be too healthy for this lady in the log term, someday she is going to have to erase it and come to terms with the loss of her son.

For christs sake..while I have some sympathy that the woman lost her son, this woman is a nutcase and is the very reason that our courts are clogged with BS lawuits.  Listen lady you screwed up by cancelling the service so deal with it.  If the message was that important to her she should have transfered it to her computer or some other medium.  What is even sadder is the fact that this made the friggin news..way to go KOMO.