BT8500 Phone with Call Guardian

peter_the_piper

Not strictly the 8500 but we have an 8600, where on earth is the redial button? On the old phone, when you had to phone the doc's you always had to use the redial button as it was often engaged.

bod1467

There isn't one on the BT8500 either, as far as I recall. I think the only way to do it is to press the right menu button to see the call history then press the green "dial" button.

peter_the_piper

so its quicker to redial again, thanks.

bod1467

For the last number dialled it's basically a 2-button press rather than a single-button. Press right-menu button, press dial. Still quicker than typing out 6 or 7 digits (assuming a local number)

Doc_N

After all the positive comments here (for which, thanks) I bought a set of these, and it's pretty impressive.

The Quick Setup and User Guide (http://btsupport.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/4043773/1410509726/redirect/1/filename/BT8500%20Quick%20Start%20Guide.pdf) leaves one or two questions unanswered though, one of which is the meaning of 'Time saver' when setting the time the phone will ring for before the answer machine cuts in.

Answer delay

The answer delay setting sets how many times the phone will ring before the answer machine takes the call. You can choose from 0-9 rings or Time saver. The default setting is 4 rings.

Set the answer delay 1. Select Menu, Answer Phone is displayed, press Select. 2. Press until Settings is displayed, press Select. 3. Press to highlight either Ans. & record or Answer only and press Select. 4. Answer delay is displayed, use or to display the number of rings you want (0-9 rings or Time saver) and select Save. Saved will be displayed.

I've not been able to find an answer to this online - does anyone know what it means?

Le_Kirk

^^^ I have found the book to be pretty useless (although it is pretty) and have taken to just using the Menu Map and going into each option to see what's there. Regarding Time Saver; it's clearly not working as we have now both wasted time!!

welshgasman

Why not just try it and see the effect?

sheramber

Doc_N wrote: »

Trouble with that approach is that you'll never know which calls you've missed - and some of them could be important. Plenty of ordinary people (I'm one, our daughter's another) have withheld their landline numbers to avoid companies harvesting them, and for simple reasons of privacy. A lot of our friends have, too, and so have quite a few businesses and professionals. It really isn't that uncommon.

All our friends and relations know we do not accept withheld numbers. It is not a problem.

In fact they say that many of their friends also have that system so they are aware of it.

As I said when giving our number to businesses we do explain that we do not accept withheld numbers. It has never been a problem. The ones we have dealt with use landlines or mobiles so we also explain that they will have to announce their call. Again, not a problem.

Since almost all the cold calls we received were withheld numbers accepting them would defeat the purpose of having the system.

Anybody who wants to connect with us will do so. If they don't , then it is not important to us.

International companies do not harvest numbers- they use computer dialling which just dials numbers in sequence. If it rings they know it is connected number.

Le_Kirk

Trouble with that approach is that you'll never know which calls you've missed - and some of them could be important.

Not sure if the 8500 is the same as 8610 (which I have) but you can see the missed calls. Just hit the calls button and it lists them and if they were not accepted, there is a red X beside them.

bod1467

Le_Kirk wrote: »

Not sure if the 8500 is the same as 8610 (which I have) but you can see the missed calls. Just hit the calls button and it lists them and if they were not accepted, there is a red X beside them.

It is.
.