voicemail retrieval service

Lord_Gardener

For the past few months calls to our phone have been interrupted by a voice mail retrieval service meaning that we have missed a number of important calls. We found out this was happening by hearing a beep, beep on the line when trying to dial out. It is accessed by dialing 1571. We have not requested this service and both BT and SKY deny providing us with this service. How do we find out who is providing this service so that we can stop it? Thanks

superscaper

Whoever is your phone provider is providing the service. Who do you pay your phone bills to?

scheming_gypsy

1571 is BT's free answer service so i'd go straight to BT and ask them to remove it. 0800 169 1146 according to a quick Google search.

superscaper

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

1571 is BT's free answer service

Only if your provider is BT. Many other providers have their own 1571 service and if they have their own local loop such as Virgin Media then the 1571 service isn't even connected in any way to BT's hardware. If the OP's provider isn't BT then it wasn't BT who added the service and I doubt they'd therefore be able to remove it. We're with Talktalk and the 1571 service is completely Talktalk's responsibility (even the voice message is Talktalk's own and not like BT's).

JustPassingBy

Lord_Gardener wrote: »

For the past few months calls to our phone have been interrupted by a voice mail retrieval service meaning that we have missed a number of important calls. We found out this was happening by hearing a beep, beep on the line when trying to dial out. It is accessed by dialing 1571. We have not requested this service and both BT and SKY deny providing us with this service. How do we find out who is providing this service so that we can stop it? Thanks

The company you have your Line Rental with may be a factor. If it's BT you could sign up for an account (www,bt.com) and check which calling features you have with them. Sky may also provide similar information.

Brian.

grannybroon

We have just recently had issues with 1571. I could not retrieve calls to relisten or delete (these were saved calls). BT denied all responsibility. Said our phone settings at fault (not changed in years) but as we are not with anyone else who else?

BT again methinks. We are with the free calls at weekend but check out the other call charges in their small print. They want to charge us a 6p 'service' charge' (connection fee plus VAT?) for evening calls and charge for each minute greatly inflated.

GB

JustPassingBy

grannybroon wrote: »

BT again methinks. We are with the free calls at weekend but check out the other call charges in their small print. They want to charge us a 6p 'service' charge' (connection fee plus VAT?) for evening calls and charge for each minute greatly inflated.

GB

It's easy enough to avoid the evening charges by signing up for a 12 month contract.

Brian.

Lord_Gardener

We pay line rental to BT but are with Sky - have TV broadband and telephone package. Have spoken a number of times with Sky who deny we have this service! Have also spoken to BT who also say we don't have this service! It seems that often someone will try to contact us but gets put straight through to this voice mail retrieval service without the phone ringing at home. Several times I've waited in for important calls only to discover that the person calling has been put through to this service rather than allowing the phone to ring at our house! We have our own answer phone and don't want/need this service. Does anyone know what message the different providers give on their voice mail retrieval service? Ours just says "welcome to the voicemail retrieval service" there is no mention of BT/ Sky etc.

JustPassingBy

Lord_Gardener wrote: »

We pay line rental to BT but are with Sky - have TV broadband and telephone package. Have spoken a number of times with Sky who deny we have this service! Have also spoken to BT who also say we don't have this service! It seems that often someone will try to contact us but gets put straight through to this voice mail retrieval service without the phone ringing at home. Several times I've waited in for important calls only to discover that the person calling has been put through to this service rather than allowing the phone to ring at our house! We have our own answer phone and don't want/need this service. Does anyone know what message the different providers give on their voice mail retrieval service? Ours just says "welcome to the voicemail retrieval service" there is no mention of BT/ Sky etc.

Both BT and Sky deny providing this service to you. And it doesn't show up in your web accounts with them? You can also dial 1571 and *#43# to confirm this for BT.

Any possibility of it being your answer phone cutting in?

Brian.

buglawton

We have BT as the local loop provider and TalkTalk for call billing. Ever since cancelling the BT 1571 service 9 months ago, after exactly 5 incoming rings a network message cuts in saying "Sorry, you can't leave a message at the moment" followed by 3 short beeps then silence. This happens even with the master house socket unplugged & test plate exposed. Dialling 1571 give the message that "This Line doesn't have a call answering service". BT have been unable to fix it despite several requests and a lot of faffing including sending a man around and charging £100 + VAT for doing nothing. This has forced us to set the answering machine to 4 rings in order for it to work! I am considering handing the local loop to Carphone WH, would probably already have done so if it were not for the 18 month tie-in & the fact that Virgin Media cable internet is pretty good & cheap currently.

Lord_Gardener, do you get exactly the same effect I described above?

Lord_Gardener

Not exactly the same. People complain that they just get put straight through to the voice mail retrieval service. I've even had people ring me on my mobile saying that they can't get through on our home number, assuming that we were out and that they had left several messages on our voice mail answer service! In fact we were in and the phone hadn't rung at all!! It has to be BT or Sky. Trouble is that it is not a consistent problem - we still get phone calls and messages on our own answer phone most of the time. I just want to get rid of this dam 1571 voice mail retrieval service!