Nuisance calls through the night: BT say they can do nothing

Watson

A family member has started getting three or four nuisance calls every night, from around midnight to the early morning. He leaves an answering machine on overnight: sometimes the calls are terminated during the playing of the pre-recorded message, sometimes they go as far as the recording beep, but no message is left. The number is withheld.

Apparently, the BT nuisance call department told my relative that since the calls were after 10pm they could do nothing about it. Is this really correct? They advised unplugging all the phones "and then they might get fed up after a day or two", but I don't like the idea of my family member being unreachable at night in the case of an emergency.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Nigella_2

Anonymous Call Reject Block calls from withheld or anonymous numbers £3.91 a month

If a caller withholds their number, they will not be able to get through to you. They will only be able to get through if they reveal their number. Anonymous Call Reject will not bar incoming calls when the number is 'unavailable' (when the caller has not made any attempt to withhold their number). This can happen in a number of cases, like, for example, if the call originates from an overseas provider.

Jemma-T

Unplug the phone, turn the answering machine off. They will get bored phoning.

It will be someone they know too.

Watson

Thanks for the replies. I'll investigate that Anonymous Call Reject service. Is it run by BT?

Edited to add...

Yes, I see it's listed on the BT site, but for "organisations" only. It doesn't appear to be available for individual domestic users. Presumably that's why it wasn't mentioned by BT's helpline.

Turning everything off overnight might work (as BT suggested) but I don't like the idea of my relative being unreachable by legitimate callers. A mobile might be the answer.

JHW

Heinz

Watson wrote: »

I'll investigate that Anonymous Call Reject service. Is it run by BT?

Yes, I see it's listed on the BT site, but for "organisations" only. It doesn't appear to be available for individual domestic users. Presumably that's why it wasn't mentioned by BT's helpline.

You must be reading that wrong. It's a standard 'Calling Feature' (*227# to turn it on and #227# to turn it off - once you have it enabled).

See HERE.

Watson

Heinz, thanks for that; I'll look into it.

And apologies for the delay in responding; for some reason my email notification of a new post doesn't seem to be working.

JHW