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,

[G109B]

Oh sorry, I was misled by your reply to carolinetm, quote:
"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?"

[JimM11]

@G109B And if you need to do anything, link to post.

https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Digital-Home-Phone/Issues-with-Digital-Voice-Adapter-connecting-to-Wif...

[G109B]

@JimM11  sorry I don't understand. I don't need to do anything, I am quite happy with my BT FTTP 500 with Digital Voice. Like you, I was merely trying to help @carolinetm . So what is this you are asking about, Master Socket ? House Wiring ? How helpful are these ?

[XRaySpeX]

@G109B : @JimM11  was asking about old phone wiring & master sockets cuz you can make use of them with DV by reactivating & reenergising  them by connecting master socket to phone socket of router whereby you can then plug phones into the old phone network instead of using the router & DVAs.

[G109B]

@XRaySpeX  Thanks for clearing that up. I have left my house wiring to rot, and use the router socket and a DVA, but a friend in the village who has also just converted to FTTP found that using the house wiring failed because her phones did not ring. A call to BT resulted in them pulling the house wiring and plugging her DECT base station into the router.

[JimM11]

@G109B As you are still with BT and using all there tech, then you will not be having much or possible any DV problems that some of the EE user's have with DV and DVA. If you do decide, or are pushed to EE then hold onto the BT equipment if you are supplied with any EE replacement's, there is a 60 day return period.

[G109B]

@JimM11  that explains it perfectly, I don't know why it didn't occur to me that it was an EE problem, given my experience with their web site and our mobile phones. I will certainly fight to avoid them in the future, maybe I will tell BT I'll go to Sky if they try to force the issue. Oh yes, somewhere along the line I 'won' an EE MiniHub - guess what: it doesn't work !!

[G109B]

On a related issue, a family friend in the village, a widow living alone, was persuaded to sign up to FTTP 150, but it has gone very badly. Her road has underground cabling. Openreach dug up the driveway and connected the fibre to an ONT they fixed next to her router, BUT they didn't remove the copper and left her with a much-valued landline still connected to the old house wiring. She also signed up to the TV service, thereby forcing her into the arms of EE.

OK, plug a dumb phone into a house socket you say. One problem, for some unknown reason only 50% of her family can cause the phone to actually ring. I didn't believe it until I saw it. Who knows what this dual service it doing to her bills.

Needless to say, nobody has the slightest idea what to do about this mess. Our landlines all start 01582 6, but some genius has given her a digital voice number starting 01582 3 which does work but is no help at all. My own BT contract has 18 months to run, but is marked "Not renewable" - I dread the day.

Oh yes, the "TV expert" who came to install the TV box took a photo of a TV screen full of error messages, saying he had never seen this before and "would escalate", presumably to yet another idiot.

[JimM11]

@G109B Very strange, going onto the FF150 and on DV, the phone plugs into the back of the router, or to a DVA as the other option. The copper line although not removed, that may be a later job if the FF was taking over the Copper line as the change/upgrade then that connection becomes redundant when the FF goes live.

The issue ringing / not ringing is not as you expect, number change can be an issue but i personally would NOT have it forced and be asking why especially if the number was had for a long/long time. 

[G109B]

Yes, she can plug either a DECT base station or a dumb phone into the SmartHub2 and get perfectly good DV on the 01582 3 number. The old copper remains connected to the old house wiring and she has a dumb phone plugged into it and gets outgoing and 50% incoming calls on her original landline number. She has talked to countless people with various accents, and even confessed to using an 'f' word and crying, but they just don't have a clue what to do. I think they have a special asbestos-lined waste bin for 'escalations'.