Hey Guys i wonder if you can help me for about 4 years ive had a non functioning answering service on my line

It was a answering service from onetel when i was with them back then it worked for a week and messed up because i had call diversion

Now when people call me the phone rings 8 times then tells them one of 2 messages different all the time

message 1: sorry caller id is not available for this caller

message 2: The number called is not registered

Now At the time onetel told me only BT could remove the non funtioning service from the line

Back then i also asked bt to remove it there answer at the time was sorry we cant remove it as theres no button on the monitor to do so

i have also tried again recently but was told to contact onetel tried that too (ask bt etc etc)

Now its bt's network i am there customer, i dont beleive they cant remove it,

Surely someone at BT can remove this service all i want is to enable the regular 1571 on the line but even myself calling 1571 tells me the mailbox is not available

Any advice...

Thanks

BT cannot remove this as it is not their product, you need to speak with the company whos service it is. Then you will be able to order BT's own service.

Hmm thought as much, its very strange that onetel tells me only bt can remove it

Well onetel doesnt exist anymore so i wont be contacting them and im not contacting them who took over as ive never had any dealings with them and dont want too either

its been on the line for over 4 years surely an engineer can do something to remove it

One woman i spoke to at bt offered one option to end my contract with bt and restart it again giving a brand new line but then i wouldnt have the same number ive had for 6 years and it would affect my broadband and voip

Guess ill just have to live with it its not that big a deal i suppose its just annoying when it affects other services im paying bt for ie call diversion this thing picks up before diversion when set to divert on no reply

anyway thanks for your advice

I suggest escalating John. I'm assuming you now have your line rental with BT and, if that's the case, it's ridiculous for them to say they can't do anything.

Send a detailed email to the BT CEO. He 's VERY good at responding and kicking his underlings into action. It's likely someone will be in contacvt with you within a few minutes of him receiving your email.

ben.verwaayen@bt.com

I have an inbuilt hatred of 'free' 1571 services because they are, in effect, a money pot for the call providers.

Why is best explained in a 'for instance' :-

You call a friend who has 1571 and that friend happens to be on another call when you do so. Your call immediately goes through to 1571 and you get charged (if you're calling on BT during the day, that's 3p call set-up fee plus a minimum of one minute at 3p/minute = 6p. If you're calling at any other time, you're charged 5.5p).

If your friend didn't have 1571, you'd have received the engaged tone (no cost to you) and would have called back later.

Do what I did - be friends and family friendly and revert to an ordinary answering machine (less than £10 on ebay) and set it to answer after 8 or 9 rings. Tell your F&F that you answer the phone in a maxiumum or 5 rings and, if the line rings 6 times, they should hang up unless they want to leave a message.
Last edited by Heinz : 22-11-2006 at 11:20

I am an Openreach Engineer nothing we can do.

My line rental has always been with BT i only had dialup internet from onetel then after a few weeks of being with them i rung my 1571 to find it was no longer BT Call minder as i had then Onetel had forced there answering service onto my line without my permission i certainly didnt sign up for it i was paying bt £2 for call minder at the time and in the end there so called answering machine failed because of something as simple as call diversion ?? that was what onetel told me when i asked them what it was on my line obviously i asked them right then to remove it from my line (as i researched there 1571 service and found out it was free) i said well it aint working and is telling callers my number doesnt exist i was told to call bt they where the only people capable of removing the service

Just realised that onetel portal still shows that they are still doing landline features maybe i should give them a call i dont even remember what my username was or anything lol ooh i think i ended up leaving without paying too after such misery with them hehe oops

oh well maybe i can put up with it after all

Thats a very good point you make there about 1571 i never thought of it that way before and to be honest i always thought it was free when 1571 picked up on a call

I guess i know what all those 0.42p calls are on my bills now heh

When i remember actually even the bt site wont let me into the calling features area of the site when im logged in i get the message " there is a fault - Out of Scope Products"

I asked bt what it was all about they said it was because i had so many calling features allready - well ive cancelled them all now and still cant get in

LOL im having a right moan tonight

Thanks for your help Guys much appreciated!

I think that should read £0.042 or 4.2p but I know what you mean.

Whats the difference from an Openreach Engineer and a BT Engineer are they the same for I have seen a BT van going about town and a BT Openreach van.

Darren

Hehe Yeah your right

Although now its 0.046 5.5p including VAT


Hey i bet i could get bt to take it off my line very quickly
Not pay my latest bill would certainly get me there lol


You might find that out here http://www.openreach.co.uk/

Thanks for the link.

Darren

Alot of the bt vans that are around, are waiting to be rebranded to the awful designed openreach colours.

Surely it could be removed on the OMC if it gets raised as a fault?

Potentially the order to remove the service from the OLO has closed but the order has failed so nothing is showing on the line but the service is still there.

I still think your best bet is an email to the CEO - it worked for me on a completely different matter which had reached impasse some months ago.

Good idea actually i never thought about raising a fault issue ill do that on the bt site least i can keep track of it

rather than getting CS faults surely go through to engineers?

I have taken note of the CEO Details and will as a last resort

Customer can't speak direct to engineers since the engineers work for BT Wholersale/Openreach and customers are customers of BT Retail. Engineers may call customers but certainly not the other way round.

The details get forwarded from BT Retails to the relevant people.

A good idea is to phone 150 and ask them if 'Call Mapping' is shown on your account. That indicates if a voicemail service from another provider is on your line. If it is you need to call the company that were supposed to provide the service, if it isn't then you need to call 151 to get a fault raised.

Thanks for that timboy i do remember one of my online bills having call mapping or voicemal porting or something similar to that a few years ago at the time i never knew what it was and never bothered about it as it showed free