@johnsmith - I'm interested in your solution - but I need help - how does the caller get connected to your google voicemail? In this solution I found you put in the google number after the 004, but that isn't what you did. Can you clarify?
@ajzwilli ....you have to set google voice to forward to your freeup phone number. The reason that I do not have my google voice number after the 004 is because I was getting double ringing when I did this (ie., my cell phone would first ring and then after no pick up, my google voice app would pop up and start ringing and eventually the caller would get the google voice mail). When i put in the 800 # (which rings busy) everything worked fine (ie, my cellphone would ring and if no pickup, it would go to google voicemail)
You can test both methods on your phone and see which one works best for you.
Thanks LouP - I tried the 800 number option, but on a test call to my number, after it rings my cell phone, I get "call cant be completed as dialed". I double checked that I used the correct 800 number. I even did a test call directly to that number and I get a busy signal. Guess I'll (and my callers) will have to live with the extra rings before they can leave a vm.
I enabled Do Not Disturb on my google voice and that will send the caller straight to voicemail after it is done ringing my cell.
I used their support form to request that they remove voicemail from my line and it worked! If you call the number it does have an unavailable message either after many rings or immediately if the phone is off but that doesn't make Google Voice not continue to ring your other devices and eventually use Google Voice Voicemail 
.
As suggested by KentE (Thanks !!), I tried this method provided by LouP :
The number when tested alone does give a busy, but the code is rejected as connection problem or invalid mmi code, sadly.
Any other suggestions which may be a good workaround for the goofy FU distractions ?!?
Thanks.
A "ring forever" number:: 9083559969
-IF- my free account allowed any forwarding at all - that alone would be the best solution !!
(But it doesn't allow any.)
If you look earlier in this thread you'll see that I was able to have Freeup disable voicemail on my line no prob.
Strangely enough the "go flip 2" has conditional forwarding settings in its settings menu and they seem to work. Dunno if any other AT&T go phones do?
Wow...freeup is really about my smallest concern in life anymore.
Their 'support' has done nothing helpful despite my wasting time on those efforts, and if I use that phone for as much as 5 minutes per 'billing cycle' that wll be a lot.
(I think they turned the VM off, but since I will no longer try using this for a GV endpoint, I no longer care.)
'No forwarding for free plans' was their answer & AFAIK my phone has none either.
There are so many, many more satisfying ways I can use my time & efforts than another such resource waster similarly to all the time & efforts wasted upon CN & the old rp turned out to be.
So I thank you for adding to this thread RoadRanger - and on this fine instance of what I prefer to call 'number changing day' I will enjoy reading a good book, and leave all FU concerns aside...pretty much for good & all.
Happy (almost) New Year !!