EE Landline VoiceMail HELP Please

Miniminxie

I am seeking any possible help for the issues I'm facing with EE landline VoiceMail. 

I do not want it I have a perfectly good system which worked fine until recent meddling by EE.

I have had so many conversations about it with them it's taken up days of my time to the point where I'm thinking of leaving them but will struggle to find an alternative. 

Some 'Guides' say it's off, others that it can't be switched off. When the latest EE Guide rang my number it was off - when I tried it it's on!

Has anyone else had this problem & how did you resolve it please?

Or advice how to escalate it.

Thank you

iniltous

https://ee.co.uk/help/home-phone/manage-use/digital-home-phone-features#article-heading-2

I don’t know if 1571 can be turned off or not , it’s possible it can be , but some customers simply increase the number of ‘rings’ on the 1571 EE service to the maximum and that allows the home based answer machine to get in first and answer the call , that’s  provided the home answer machine isn’t also set to the maximum number of rings , probably worth setting that to a much lower figure than the EE 1571 figure 

Miniminxie

Thank you - I've changed it to the max but the EE one still clicks in.

iniltous

What’s the maximum number you have set EE to ? , have you called your landline number from your mobile and confirmed the landline phone rings for that number of ‘rings’ before it stops and EE send the call to EE voice mail ?, if you check and the phone does ring the correct number times before stopping , then that suggests your own answering machine is either faulty or has been set to its maximum number of rings as well , for example, if the EE service has been changed to 10 ‘rings’ , your own answer machine needs to be set to 5 or 6 maximum, if you have your own machine set to 9 or 10 then obviously EE will answer the call not your machine…if your machine doesn’t have a way to change the number of rings to a low number ( perhaps its factory set )or you don’t have its instruction book, then this workaround won’t be any good for you …..

Miniminxie

Thank you, I'll see how many our machine is set to but I doubt it's as many as the 10 rings the EE one is set on. The latest mystery is that the EE Guide reached our machine yet no one else can!

Miniminxie

Thank you so much Iniltous.

 I've solved it by shortening the ring time on my answering machine. I didn't think it could be done but the comprehensive instruction book told me how.

I'm so pleased and very relieved life is back to normal (for a while).

Thank you

iniltous

Have you rang the landline number yourself from your mobile ? , it’s actually a good idea to try from a few operators, if EE can get through ( and after a few rings your answer machine cut in rather than the EE 1571 )  , then perhaps the issue isn’t what you think it is ….if you can try and get people to ring your landline ( while you are watching it ) from as many networks as possible, BT/EE , Sky , Talk Talk , Vodafone ( mobile and landline ) EE mobile , O2 , Virgin etc ( all these are all separate networks) then the issue may be from the network that is is calling you , not necessarily EE

….obviously getting someone from every network to call isn’t easy or likely to be achieved , but calls from a few operators is possible and will give some guidance ….if your complaint is people call you and complain you never answer  , that  may be because the landline phone doesn’t ring so your machine will never answer , rather than EE 1571 picking up the call , if it is the EE answer service picking up every call and not your machine, then why did the EE call get to your machine and not EE 1571. ?

Try calling yourself from a mobile , and a few people on different networks to call you , while next to the landline , and count the number of rings before the ringing stops , if it gets to 10 ( as that’s apparently now the EE 1571 setting ) and your own machine doesn’t intercept first , then your machine needs adjusting , if the caller hears ringtone but your landline doesn’t ring at all , that’s a different issue .

Herbie23

Thanks Iniltous, this worked for me as well. I spend nearly an hour on a call with BT/EE and they couldn't solve it/turn it off, so ridiculous!

racerlady

I have made a complaint to EE.  I did not know I had it, even though when I discovered it and rang 1571 it told me notifications were on - how were they on?  Where did they go?  Hopefully sorted now by changing EE to "long" rings and my answerphone to 5 rings.

imipak

Just wanted to add a note that this is still happening as of August 2026. I found this thread after guessing that the reason Mum's (in her mid 80s) answering machine stopped recording messages - which we only worked out by testing from my mobile and leaving a message that never showed up on the machine, and THAT only happened because Mum eventually mentioned to me that people had told her that they've left messages which she'd never received.

I've now found the 1571 number from the thread above, and changed it's ring duration to "long" (options given are no delay, short, medium or long.)

And then gone through three months of voicemails. Fortunately there weren't any really urgent things but there could have been!

All this began because someone suggested Mum change mobile phone provider, and she was then up-sold broadband and landline at the same time. And evidently that's also been the end of our plain old telephone service with 120v on the copper wire, so now when there's a power cut - no phone, either. (Bonus irony points because this is a rural area and a signal blackspot...)

I haven't changed our local machine to short rings yet, and may have to try phoning them to try to get them to turn it off altogether...