"New Voice Mail" appears on my home phone

Is the phone plugged into the answering machine or do they stand alone?

Are there any messages on the answering machine when this is happening?

@dhw1949.  the answering machine is built into the phone.  there are no messages on the machine when i get this VoiceMail message.  After 40 years in the phone business i would like your guess about what is causing this.  The message on the phone screen is different than when i have an answering machine message. 

@MichaelJ,  the problem went away by itself after 6 hours. The message disappeared.  It is such a small problem that i don't want to bother anyone about it.  But i did want to know if i am the only one to ever experience it?  I do think the message is coming from Cox. 

Thanks for the feedback.

There used to be different ways to turn on a "message" indication on a phone.  Some phones needed a stutter dial tone, they actually "pick up" the line and listen for a stutter dial tone, indicating a message or voicemail.  Some PBX's change the line polarity from -48 volts and ground, to +48 volts and -48 volts to light an led or put up an lcd notice on the phone's screen.  When your phone is acting up do you hear a regular dial tone or is it 'stuttered"?  One thing you could try if you know how to do it is reverse the polarity of your line if you're plugged into house wiring, phone lines typically have -48v on one side of the line and none on the other.

Other than that, it sounds like it could be a Cox issue, curious as to what they find out.

@dhw1949,  no, i don't get a stutter when i pick up the phone.  I am going to pay you time-and-one-half for thinking about my problem. i will leave the polarity alone.  

I like this forum because it lets me know if i am the only one having a problem.  

For what it's worth, I do have Cox voicemail, and when I get one, my phone shows "New Voicemail".  But when I clear it, it can sometimes take an hour or so for the visual to go away, but the stutter dial tone is gone right away.

Is the phone plugged into the Cox modem?

As for the OT, I only get that when I work after beer-thirty.

@dhw,  thanks for telling me about the lag time before the visual disappears.  That is interesting.  It is almost as if the Cox VM alert disappears, too, after a certain amount of time.

My phone is plugged into the Cisco modem.  The phone is working fine.  Just this one quirk.  My phone display is covered completely by the VoiceMail message.

This may be of interest..

https://forums.mediacomcable.com/index.php?topic=18700.0

Still curious as to what Cox's input or solution might be.  Try to pin them down on how they send voicemail indications.

@dhw, that link was excellent.  The same type of phone experiencing the same problem.  She offered 2 solutions.  I will start with "hold down the OFF button until the handset beeps" the next time i get the VM message.   If that doesn't work, i will see if the owners manual (which is extremely dense) lets me turn it off. 

 I will call Cox to have them send you a thank you for helping on the forum.   Possibly a new car but i don't know what color you want. 

The only color I like better than "new" is "free"!