Visual voice mail is just a shell to make it easier to access the messages in your voicemail box and listen to them in the order you want. You don't have to use it, the messages will still be in your voicemail. If some calls are going direct to voicemail, that's a carrier issue and will still go directly to voicemail, visual or not. Keep in mind some telemarketers have tools that bypass ringing your phone and go direct to your voicemail. Network issues will send calls directly to voicemail. Blocked calls will also go directly to voicemail. As I said, voicemail is voicemail, visual or not. So, the calls that are "going directly to your visual voicemail" will still go direct to voicemail.
