The Five Ring Slam-down Campaign!

Nikiya

"How many people can reasonably be expected to answer their phone within 5 rings?"...

I had to agree to 1571 when our answering service packed off, to avoid buying another one. I want to point out that -even when you are at home- you have to answer BEFORE 6 calls if you do not want the B... system to go off and leave YOU disconnected from the caller while it goes through the rigmarole. Of course, many people choose not to leave a message and then you are left with nothing...
Something that drives me even more mad than 1751 is the "service" that, when the Nº is engaged, goes: "the person you are calling is on the phone, please ring later". Of course, otherwise you would not KNOW what an engagement tone means!! And in that case you cannot choose, because that message comes immediately. Once I phoned my own home from a public telephone and THAT stupid message costed me 30p. Now I never requested that service and years ago I downgraded my line from BT to the basic rent, since we had been put (without our knowledge) on a band full of "services" that included some that could not be used from a home telephone. BT are a band of thiefs.

Nikiya

Sorry, I meant thieves...

gazza007

Someone at BT knew exactly what it meant for the company to offer free 1571.
More revenue!!!! The worst one is when somebody is engaged you hit the message straight away. At least with home answering systems you can leave it in a mode where it will ring for much longer or switch it off. BT should enable more flexibility on their system.
On another note I always advise people with mobiles to record a short personal voice message as the default one always goes on & on costing you more money.

AP

BT 1571 service is an 'opt-in' service. If you have never opted in, then the phone will still ring continuously if nobody answers or an engaged tone if it is engaged. Anyone already opted in to this service are advised to opt-out immediately to deny BT from all this 'stealth' revenue it is making from this service.

When this service was first launched, I saw through this coy straightaway and have never opted in even though it is a so-called 'free' service which is incurring extra costs to the caller!

dag_2

Orange does not charge for calls under 3 seconds, just enough to hang up, but even a 4 second call when charged for is from only 1/3 p.

Is that true?

In that case, there's the answer to the problem. Whenever you want to make a phone call to the UK, use Orange first.

If there's no answer - there's no charge.

If there's an answering machine or 1571 - hang up immediately, and there's no charge.

If a person picks up the phone and starts talking - hang up immediately and redial with 18866, and it only costs you 2p. Once you're reconnected with 18866, you've got all the time in the world to explain why you hung up first time round, and that you're not actually a nuisance caller - if you want to - and it still only costs you 2p.

However, I suspect this involves having a mobile on the Orange network.

I think you might've stumbled across the reason BT offers 1571 as a 'free' service!

Point taken - but given that you can connect for only 2p during the week, and completely free at the weekend - and completely free at any time if you have one of these unmetered subscription packages - I honestly don't think BT is making much out of termination charges that other telco's have to pay for 1571. It's probably a fraction of a penny tops - if that. There are much easier ways to make a fast buck out of the telecommunications business - such as mobile phone ringtones. Oh, and 0870 numbers too.

Connection charges make up well over 50% of my calls bill. But I'm still trying desperately hard not to be sympathetic to the telcoes on this one.

Mind you - I agree, BT could make it much easier to opt out of 1571. They make it easy to opt in - you just have to dial 1571 out of the blue one day, and follow the instructions - but it's not so easy to opt out.

icarusi

MSE_Martin wrote:

If you don't think the person will have time to answer. You can always immediately redial, that way they'll still be able to get to the phone, we just won't be giving away our cash!

I was using this wrinkle a few weeks ago when a friend of mine couldn't afford to renew her PAYG so couldn't access messages but could take incoming calls. Unfortunately I was used to using TeleDiscount at peak times to get a 10ppm rate *but* unfortuantely TD's charging appears to begin as soon as you access their own number *not* when you are connected so you're still charged a min of 5p for making any call (apparently). Does anyone know of a call 'redirector' who only charges for a full connection to a mobile at 10ppm (or less) peak time?

DonnyDave

andy88 wrote:

... Orange does not charge for calls under 3 seconds, just enough to hang up, but even a 4 second call when charged for is from only 1/3 p.

That only applies to pay monthly tariffs. Orange pay as you go users will be charged a 5p minimum charge. See here.

Virgin Mobile pay as you go also charges a 5p minimum. See here. Don't know about the new pay monthly tariffs.

icarusi wrote:

... Unfortunately I was used to using TeleDiscount at peak times to get a 10ppm rate *but* unfortuantely TD's charging appears to begin as soon as you access their own number *not* when you are connected so you're still charged a min of 5p for making any call (apparently). Does anyone know of a call 'redirector' who only charges for a full connection to a mobile at 10ppm (or less) peak time?

You will be charged to hear the second ringing tone to the mobile. This is because the charge that appears on your bill is for the call to the 0844 which is connected. There is no way around this.

Another alternative (which doesn't require any changes to your line provider), is a prefix beginning 1. 1899 charges 10p/min in the week to any UK mobile network and 2p/min at the weekend. There is no minimum charge, but there is a 3p connection charge.

dranz100

I'm sorry I disagree with 1571 being the work of satan.
95% of the times that I call people its to convey some information, even if its just "I'm in all evenening after 7pm, call for a chat". If there's no connection made I can't do this.

So when my parents are on the internet (dial-up) looking for a holiday all after-flipping-noon, it gets on my nerves that they're anti-1571.

Yes, BT are ripping off Joe Public, and its a crap system, but I want to pay 2p (18866) and leave a message please! - so that I can get on with the rest of my day / speaking to people who are available to talk!

I personally have 1571 to pick up engaged calls, and then an answering machine (picks up 1 ring before 1571), for calls when we're out/asleep.

At least then if we're in but just slow at getting to the phone we can still pick up during the OGM or caller's message. I think this is the best solution, and works for most of our callers. Occasionally we get callers who don't leave a message - which always raises the question - Why did they bother ringing?

Dz

ralph_wilson

MSE_Martin wrote:

What's it about?

Voicemail may seem like a benevolent gift on behalf of telecom companies, ably allowing us to leave messages for our friends willy-nilly. Yet in truth it's a massive driver of profits. The Reason? It means we are always 'connected' to the person we're calling, even when they're not there. Thus rather than no cash the provider now gets the roughly 5p minimum call revenue. If every UK adult hits one voicemail a day, that adds up to half a billion pounds!*

What should we do instead?

Of course if you want to leave a message do so. If not, the average voicemail answers after six rings, so just hang up after five.

If you don't think the person will have time to answer. You can always immediately redial, that way they'll still be able to get to the phone, we just won't be giving away our cash!



* Note: This is based on 30 million, yet ignores the fact that some mobile companies also charge the person receiving the voicemail, even if the callers just rung off.

If you have your mobile voicemail switched on when you are driving you will never be able to pull over and answer it - or switch it off, in under 6 seconds, so they will always get your money (and the cost of you replying of course). So switch off the voicemail when you are driving - unless you have 'hands free' of course.

Infidel

I'm on NTL and after a call has connected to the voicemail (after 6 rings) it's not possible to use 1471 to try and find out the number, as it doesn't store any numbers that have connected to the answer machine.

Does anyone else have this problem?