Turning off NTL/Virgin Answering service.

larmy16

Hi

I have been happily using an answerphone for the last donkey's years. This week for some reason, the phone has been ringing four times only, then being picked up by Virgin before you can get a chance to answer it anyway.

It then asks you to leave a message, but they don't get recorded. I phoned the 1571 and it said it was NTL and I needed to ring a number to set up the answering service.
Rang the number given and was put through to an obsolete number and told to ring 150 from my own phone.

Did this and got through to an operator from Virgin who said he would turn it off, but then said I am not listed as having the service anyway? He then said he would put me through to someone and then it all went dead.

Any ideas of how to get this thing off my phone ?...it's driving me crazy.

spike7451

It could be a fault on your line,ringing 4 times is a ign that the line is 'ring-tripping' which is usually caused by damaged extensions or external wireing.
If you have any extensions,unscrew & remove the bottom face plate on the master socket & connect the phone into the test socket.See if it's still happening.
If it continues,I'd call & book a service tech.
HTH.
Spike (ex NTL/VM Service Tech)

larmy16

Spike, thanks for that - very useful information. X

Buzby

I had this often - never wanted the service, but CS kept saying don't use it, it's free anyway. I exolained that was irrelevent, as it answered incoming calls and I didn't want this. It was CS only who could remove this from my line profile.

larmy16

Well thanks to spike, I discovered it was a re-burbished phone I had bought of Ebay!

Works perfectly once that one (with an extension) is unplugged! :j

onejontwo

I had a similiar thing only yesterday which before the answerphone had time to kick in after 5 rings the voice mail kicked in after 4 rings! This meant setting the answerphone to 3 rings, and half killing yourself in the rush to answer the phone before the 3 rings expired. I managed to get through to customer services who turned voicemail off, and now the answerphone is set to a more leisurely 6 rings. (Calm at last)

larmy16

onejontwo wrote: »

I had a similiar thing only yesterday which before the answerphone had time to kick in after 5 rings the voice mail kicked in after 4 rings! This meant setting the answerphone to 3 rings, and half killing yourself in the rush to answer the phone before the 3 rings expired. I managed to get through to customer services who turned voicemail off, and now the answerphone is set to a more leisurely 6 rings. (Calm at last)

I am hoping it is this phone that is the problem as it only does it when that one is plugged in. Also they said they did not have me down as using the service so it must be that. Strange that it should happen to you though recently as it was only from about Thursday I noticed it.

Heinz

onejontwo wrote: »

I managed to get through to customer services who turned voicemail off, and now the answerphone is set to a more leisurely 6 rings. (Calm at last)

Can I suggest you change that to whatever the answering machine's maximum is (mine is 9 rings)?

That allows callers to realise you're probably not in and to make a decision on whether to hang on to leave a message (at their expense) or to hang up, save money and call later.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=3666273&postcount=3

larmy16 wrote: »

I am hoping it is this phone that is the problem as it only does it when that one is plugged in. Also they said they did not have me down as using the service so it must be that. Strange that it should happen to you though recently as it was only from about Thursday I noticed it.

Call your own number from your own telephone then. If 1571 is operative, you'll get it, if it's not, you'll get an engaged tone.

larmy16

Done, no 1571. Thanks all for your help.

onejontwo

larmy16 wrote: »

I am hoping it is this phone that is the problem as it only does it when that one is plugged in. Also they said they did not have me down as using the service so it must be that. Strange that it should happen to you though recently as it was only from about Thursday I noticed it.

Ours has been like that for about two months (the time when we realized the voicemail was beating the answerphone to the message) We have only just got the voicemail turned off as the missus nearly went a cropper trying to get to the last call!

onejontwo

Can I suggest you change that to whatever the answering machine's maximum is (mine is 9 rings)?

That allows callers to realise you're probably not in and to make a decision on whether to hang on to leave a message (at their expense) or to hang up, save money and call later.

Yes set to maximum 6 rings.