BT's *227# withheld number blocking facility

codger

Unity: belated thanks for that! I haven't had time until now to go eBaying so will look up your seller today -- much appreciated info!

Bunking: fair point, but let's be honest about this: if BT is going to bang out online guides about its services, then it can quite easily at compilation stage allocate some brief qualifying text to each service, viz: FREE SERVICE, or SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE.

BT's brochure asterisks all services that are part of a package. It doesn't asterisk those which, like 1471, are not. It does list its number-withheld blocking facility almost alongside the 1471 reference.

A company the size of BT knows exactly what it's doing when it comes to communicating for profit. . .

bbb_uk

bunking_off wrote:

I wouldn't comment one way or another whether BT should offer the service for free (although, from their perspective if calls are automatically being rejected that means lost revenue hence probably why they charge).

I agree. However, there is a difference in charging their usual fee of £1.75 for such services to charging £4 for it as in this case.

It could easily be seen as they are trying to milk more money out of those unfortunate enough to be getting the type of calls to which this is aimed at (ie silent, malicious, etc).

Is it an amazing coincidence that the two types of service that BT customers would likely choose if they were getting silent, malicious type calls, etc are £4 for Anonymous caller reject and £3.35 for Choose to Refuse?

bunking_off

bbb_uk wrote:

It could easily be seen as they are trying to milk more money out of those unfortunate enough to be getting the type of calls to which this is aimed at (ie silent, malicious, etc).

Is it an amazing coincidence that the two types of service that BT customers would likely choose if they were getting silent, malicious type calls, etc are £4 for Anonymous caller reject and £3.35 for Choose to Refuse?

I spend my life negotiating against BT, so believe me they're not my favourite company. However, you are wrong on this one. If a customer is getting malicious calls, so long as they involve the police BT shouldn't charge for remedial measures to stop them. Same goes for ntl and any other phone company.

This is more about stopping telemarketing etc. As others have said, if you want to stop these, BT will register you with TPS (which should stop all the UK legit calls but does little about companies that ignore the rules/call from overseas) and give you caller display for free. Your only expense is to get a phone capable of dealing (which the vast majority of DECT cordless ones will do).

r_i_c

so what's to stop a company like BT making its own 'number witheld' calls to encourage the public to purchase anonymous caller protection @ £4 a head?

R

Buzby

Only BT charges for ACR, as VM direct connect customers can request if totally free of charge. One thing ACT does NOT do, is kill calls that have no number - that is callers who are calling from abroad, or those who are devious enough to hite their number by presenting 'nothing' or a corrupted number - easily done on switching systems - ACR ONLY blocks number that are actually marked 'Withheld'.

r_i_c

Buzby wrote: »

Only BT charges for ACR, as VM direct connect customers can request if totally free of charge. One thing ACT does NOT do, is kill calls that have no number - that is callers who are calling from abroad, or those who are devious enough to hite their number by presenting 'nothing' or a corrupted number - easily done on switching systems - ACR ONLY blocks number that are actually marked 'Withheld'.

thanks - i was under the impression 227 was a feature of BT, there is still a BT internet page offering this service, presumably for free, but when you click on the link now all you get is an 'error' page and similar if you try to dial it: i'm afraid this sums up the nefarious entity which is privatisation to me ~ under the GPO, 227 would have been an accessible and important facility for the vulnerable, now they are preyed upon by unscrupulous callers and faceless 'private' companies given government carte blanche to do whatever they please, as long as it makes a profit, or be bailed out by the hapless tax payer

R

cannylad_2

Unity wrote: »

You can register for BT's Privacy scheme for free, which helps to stop cold calling by telesales people if that would help. The call is free too, just dial 0800 169 1407 and when prompted press button #1. It takes a while before you stop getting this type of nuisance call, but when you do answer one of these, you just mention you are registered with BT's Privacy scheme and they usually apologise.

Hope this helps.

Unity

Excellent post, I give them a ring and they said it would take 28 days, however I also got the caller display free, so far I have had to pay for it so it was well worth ringing them up.

Thanks

r_i_c

thanks - i will try this!

R

Photo_Stylus

BT fail to tell you the call blocking doesnt work fully..

Some unknown calls are still allowed through, I forget which types now but i soon
cancelled the feature, paying for something that only partially worked seemed pointless.

joaniemerc

Bumping this thread to ask if anyone has any updated information on blocking withheld numbers (preferably free) if you have a BT landline or does it still have to be paid for?

TIA