AT&T visual voice mail not working on 4S

After spending 2.5 hours on the phone today with AT&T tech support, i just found out there is a known issue with some 4S phones (mine is 32GB) that have done the iOS 5.0.1 update. For the record, techsup removed and replaced the voice mail box, reset the password, and was getting ready remove/replace my data plan (made me a bit nervous as i have unlimited). In trying to get a team leader's approval for that task she learned of this bug.

The symptoms on the phone are no indicator red dot for vm messages, and no listings of recorded messages on the voice mail tab. It is no problem to listen to the messages (by either dialing 1 or my own number). You just have no way of knowing new messages are out there. If i try to change the password or greeting on the phone, it never connects to the network and eventually throws an error message. WIFI is turned off and data/roaming are on.

Until an iOS update is released that hopefully fixes this bug, the only solution is to check voicemail after every missed call. Quite a PITA. - mastman

While the tech said that Apple is working on an iOS fix for this issue, i don't know that i can rely on her opinion. Right now i am within the 30 days and am really inclined to return the phone and try and get one that works. A possibly related issue is that my exchange server email never pushes to my phone. All settings have been checked many times. I have to open the inbox to have them DL. Both issues combine to mean that I don't get important info from clients and coworkers in a timely fashion.

BTDT. Reset the network 3 times. Reset the phone to factory default and reinstalled from the backup. Restarted more times than i can count.

Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars>Fetch New Data is set to push, and push is enabled. Notably Calendar and Contact updates show up on the phone with 10-15 seconds of a change on my PC.

No joy on either front. Thanks for trying - mm

I have considered that and just not bitten the bullet yet. I don't necessarily mind the thought of reinstalling all apps (though that will be a real pain). It is more that i don't want to lose the text msg threads with my kids. I know there are ways to save these to my PC, but have not found a way to preserve or better yet restore them to phone after the reset. Anyone have info on this last bit? Any other considerations I should be aware of? Not worried about contacts, email, calendar as that all syncs from an exchange server.

Well after a complete reset, and set-up as a new phone, VVM works. But in spite of trying several different approaches that i found online, i cannot seem to preserve old text messages (really the only thing i want to hang on to). There is clearly a bug in the prior configuration. For now i restored it to the non-VVM mode (with the bug), and will continue to work this problem. Will let you know if i find a solution to keeping the text msgs. -mm

Thanks LIVE. So can i back up just texts to iCloud, do a fresh install, then essentially recover the texts via a download from iCloud? I know that i do not want to move email, calendar, contacts to iCloud as those are managed by the Exchange Server and I already went through a major hassle with another user at my office to recover those items. Will explore this possibility further, but any assistance/direction is welcome.