Now been put to digital voice & answering machine not working

[Sue522]

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,

[Storm500]

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.

[carolinetm]

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. 

[AnnYork]

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.

[AnnYork]

Hi Caroline,

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.

[carolinetm]

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. 

[AnnYork]

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.

[JimM11]

@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....

[AnnYork]

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

[JimM11]

@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.