Answer Phone Message help

[Bonnie and Clyde]

Hi all, just wondered if anyone knows if you can retrieve an mobile phone answering machine message once its been deleted? Just spoke to O2 and they said that you cant, but i thought that maybe there was a way. I wouldn't normally bother but my OH (Cols) dad had surgery a week ago to remove a cancer from his bowel. All had gone well we thought and he was due home yesterday. It turns out that the surgery hadn't been a success after all, and its thought the two ends of the bowel had not knitted together, which resulted in toxins poisoning him. He had a heart attack 3am saturday morning and he died at 11.40 yesterday lunch time.
We discovered that he (Fred my FIL) had left an answer phone message for Col and my MIL. Somehow its been deleted before my MIL heard it. She's terribly upset and wants to hear her husbands voice for the last time as he was taken so suddenly she hadn't had time to talk to him. Any advice would be welcomed.
TIA
B&C

[becksW]

That is very sad, just spoke to hubby, doesn't seem that promising unless the options on the phone allows retrieval of discarded messages. Would be worth checking all options on the phone. I'm sure I had a Nokia that could do this but I don't think my Samsung does.

[ali_kat]

Sorry to hear that

can't help, but

[Taita]

Sorry to hear that matey

[paddyhasneeds]

I would imagine that the technical answer is yes, but it comes down to how far O2 are prepared to go to help out - plus of course the longer the time taken to get anywhere the greater the chances that their processes will overwrite any backups etc.

[Private Pile]

sorry to hear your bad news. i remember seeing on tv (possibly "click" on bbc news 24) an article about a company that could retrieve data from phones etc. i'm sure the company was based in california. the only thing i remember is they managed to get sean connery's phonebook and texts back off a broken mobile. long shot, i know.


pile

[Mrs Cuchillo]

There must be a way, because the police must be able to get hold of stuff like that if they ask for it, as someone else said, it's how far O2 are willing to go to help.

[Famous Graham]

Private Pile said:

sorry to hear your bad news. i remember seeing on tv (possibly "click" on bbc news 24) an article about a company that could retrieve data from phones etc. i'm sure the company was based in california. the only thing i remember is they managed to get sean connery's phonebook and texts back off a broken mobile. long shot, i know.


pile

This will be stored somewhere else, though, not the phone.

[g_attrill]

It will certainly be stored somewhere still - they would need to keep them available as evidence for police investigations etc. As mentioned getting it in this case might be tricky since there is no right of access, all you can do is ask that they try. The first-line support is probably completely unaware that it is possible, and probably not interested in helping, so you might need to work a bit harder to find somebody interested, you could try asking to be put through to a supervisor and pleading, but if still no joy then try calling the corporate offices, finally try and email/write to the CEO's office. I'm sure that for a certain period of time (a month?) it's a trivial operation to "undelete" a message, then it would be dumped to long-term storage, probably tape, and I wouldn't fancy your chances at getting them to retrieve it off there.

Edited by g_attrill on Sunday 8th February 13:02

[Bonnie and Clyde]

Thanks for all of your advice. I cant seem to get anywhere with O2. Will try again tomorrow. Thanks again

[Gemsbok1000]

Bonnie and Clyde said:

Thanks for all of your advice. I cant seem to get anywhere with O2. Will try again tomorrow. Thanks again

Really hpe you manage to get it sorted.

I would be interested if it can be done, if you wouldn't find posting an update?

[The Moose]

How about calling in at their offices on the Bath Road in Slough??