topic Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working in Broadband & Landline

Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

Sue522 — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 12:52:52 GMT

Our BT broadband & phone package needed to be renewed. We were happy with what we had and rather than go to a new provider & the bother of changing all our wifi details, wanted to stay with BT. Well they said they could do the same package but it would now be EE with digital voice. All fitted & just got a message saying it's all up and running. Engineer came in, did something to the router and a new extension box they sent us and said it will all work fine. Except now, the landline answering machine does not work, when the phone rings, the caller gets a message saying going to voicemail, the answering machine message plays in the home (but not to the caller). I cannot find where this mysterious voicemail is and the answering machine doesn't work. We have a lot of calls from overseas relatives and so want the answering machine to work. Can anyone help please,

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

Storm500 — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 16:44:16 GMT

See https://ee.co.uk/help/home-phone/manage-use/digital-home-phone-features

One of the free features is Voicemail. You need to phone 1571 to hear your messages and change setting.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

carolinetm — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 11:14:52 GMT

I have the same problem but worse because when I dial 1571 nothing happens. I have called BT/EE or whoever they are four or five times about this without success. In the meantime there are messages stacking up which I can't access. I wish I had never made this change but it's too late now. I guess what they want is for me to give up and just use a mobile. I hear that the Citizens Advice Bureau has had so many inquiries from older people without broadband who are being told they will no longer have a landline that they are flagging it as an area of concern.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

AnnYork — Thu, 09 May 2024 15:04:21 GMT

Hi Sue,

The same happens to me. Apparently you cannot deactivate the network based answering phone that comes with your landline with EE, yet when with BT you could (despite the two companies being the same now).

I was advised to se the ring length to long on the network based answerphone service so the home based answering machine kicked in before the network one.

Unfortunately setting the ring length to the maximum only works as a solution if you have your voicemail switched on at home and the ring length for your home phone kicks in sooner than the network based answering machine. If you have not switched your answering machine on because you are home, but unavailable at that time to take the call instead of ring, no answer, the network service still kicks in allowing messages to be left there.

The only option I was left with was to leave a greeting on EE/BT's network based answer phone service asking people not to leave a voicemail here and to try again later due to a limitation with BT/EE's network based answer phone service. I also use the time wisely why I have their attention and suggest to people to not consider moving to EE/BT for their landline services as in my experience you'd get more sense talking to a brick wall.

Looking forwards to the time my contract expires and I can leave EE/BT.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

AnnYork — Thu, 09 May 2024 15:05:30 GMT

Hi Caroline,

I was advised to se the ring length to long on the network based answerphone service so the home based answering machine kicked in before the network one.

Looking forwards to the time my contract expires and I can leave EE/BT.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

carolinetm — Thu, 09 May 2024 15:45:36 GMT

That is a good tip. I'll try that but we shouldn't have to work around things like this.

I have been with BT for a very long time. Since the merger with EE, everything has been difficult, including mobiles and landline. I never thought of shopping around before but probably will next time.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

AnnYork — Thu, 09 May 2024 16:44:54 GMT

Completely agree and will move to another provider once the term is up. BT / EE have said many times to me in recent weeks after a multitude of errors made on their side which lead me to contact them the following "they are aware that the merger has been a complete failure between EE and BT and confirmed things were a lot better when they were using BT systems. They worrying thing from my perspective was that they could offer no words of wisdom as to when they will fix them.

I am considering emailing the Chief Execs of both companies to let them know of my experience. They can be contacted here:

BT: Allison Kirkby -> allison . kirkby @ bt . co . uk - I have added spaces in this email address as placing the email address as it should be gets removed when I submit the post. To contact Allison just remove all the spaces add by myself.

EE: Marc Allera -> marc . allera @ ee . co . uk - I have added spaced in this email address as placing the email address as it should be gets removed when I submit the post. To contact Marc just remove all the spaces add by myself.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

JimM11 — Thu, 09 May 2024 16:47:39 GMT

@AnnYork There are numerous ISP that are trying to get there voice systems working, and not many are having success in doing so, it appears that BT is about the only one that does not have many issues with there method. Keep this in mind, and search / check any ISP's forum sites for VOIP issues that they have before changing....

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

AnnYork — Thu, 09 May 2024 17:09:00 GMT

Looks like you can turn off sky digital voicemail by calling them.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

JimM11 — Thu, 09 May 2024 18:17:58 GMT

@AnnYork Have you seen how many people are having issues, just search for the orange light off death, when it fails there is not even any broadband working.... Bad choice.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

JustKim — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 07:40:26 GMT

Just got this new package through EE and you can have the voicemail deactivated as I've just done so, you need to request it thought them but...the calls now just disconnect after so many rings and just cuts off, it doesn't connect to my home answer phone. So now another complaint has been sent to EE asking what can be done about this. All round I'm happy with the broadband package but had nothing but problems with the landline. Modern technology at it's best!

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

JimM11 — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 07:59:34 GMT

@JustKim You need to adjust the ring value in your own phone system to pick up and activate the voice system. How many rings do you get before the hang up of the call on the EE DV service? You may also have an issue with your own system not going to record the message so you need to kook at that. Are you connected to the Router or via a remote wireless BT/EE phone adapter?

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

JustKim — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 12:15:50 GMT

@JimM11 Thanks for the info. I did reset my answer phone again, even though it was showing "on". I will check out the ring length before it cuts off against the length I have set on my phone. I do know I had my phone set to the longest length, so that could be the problem. The phone is now plugged into my router, not the BT socket.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

JimM11 — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 12:31:42 GMT

@JustKim Was not the BT socket but one of these items on the link allows the phone to be placed anywhere.

https://store.ee.co.uk/products/bt-and-ee-digital-voice-adapter-100121-GN1T.html?q=Digital+voice

BT and EE Digital Voice Adapter (100121) | EE Store

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

G109B — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 11:42:04 GMT

I find that snailmail to the customer services dept produces a much better response.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

carolinetm — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 16:53:54 GMT

Good idea. I have discovered that the phone works if plugged directly into the hub but that means I can't have a landline phone upstairs, which I was told I could.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

JimM11 — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 16:59:13 GMT

@carolinetm Did you and do you still have extension sockets for landline phones in your home, and also where is your router located with reference to the BT Master socket?

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

G109B — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 21:11:25 GMT

I was persuaded to move my mobile phones to EE, but their service is so much worse than BT I will certainly fight to avoid my FullFibre500 broadband suffering the same fate. In answer to carolinetm, remembering I am with BT and have a BT SmartHub2, you can have upto five 'telephones' (here I mean single telephones and/or DECT base stations) on the one landline number, connected to the router either directly to the socket on the router or by using a DigitalVoiceAdapter (DVA) which has a telephone socket and connects to the router via WiFi.

I have a single telephone plugged into my SmartHub2, and a DECT base station plugged into a DVA. The DECT system has a functioning answerphone facility (obviously set to come in before the BT 1571 service takes over), and five handsets. An incoming call causes all of them to ring (quite a cacophony) and when you have answered it on one system the second is available for incoming or outgoing calls. A big advantage is seen when you are passed from pillar to post and subjected to lengthy 'music-on-hold' sessions on an outgoing call, because the other phone is available for use. I don't have enough simple phones to try the remaining three 'lines'.

I was telling my friend in Australia about this. He didn't believe me and so called my number again from his mobile (in Melbourne) and proved that it worked.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

G109B — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 21:15:53 GMT

@JimM11has mis-understood digital voice. With FFTP there is no Master Socket and old wiring systems to sockets round the house do not carry enough wires for the new system.

Re: Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

JimM11 — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 21:20:02 GMT

@G109B DV has nothing to do with conventional wiring, or the ATA socket on the back of the router, wither BT or EE.