Disable Voicemail on Landline

[mrj_et]

Like many others it seems, I am trying to disable voicemail for my elderly mother.  It causes serious problems when people assume that because they left a message it will be listened too. 

I am guessing that the people who create these systems don't have elderly relatives. If they did then they would get it.

It should be a simple and reasonable request to be able to do this. But remarkably it is not. The best answer I get is that I can increase the number of rings to 10.

Has anyone cracked this and will EE listen to their customers?  

Need the option to turn voicemail off.

[JimM11]

@mrjrhughes23 The answer has already been posted, but again copy for you.

 The answer below has already been posted.

Hi mate, apologies for the delay. I've been told no it's not possible to turn off voicemail at the moment you can only have it removed. I've heard this is potentially going to change, but no time scale yet unfortunately. 

Did you also have a profile under jim-hughes, if so then you were also responded to by me back on that!

[mrjrhughes23]

To add insult to injury - has anyone noticed that there are additional service charges for accessing voicemail via the Digital Voice Phone (Cassette button)?    It costs you money (28.18p + service charge) to collect your voicemail from EE.


So not only don't I want this service - but anyone who is using VM on EE is paying a significant price for the service.
EE's published information says that its free/included - based on calls to 1571 being free.... BUT ITS NOT.

[JimM11]

@mrjrhughes23 Call package details and pricing.

ee-monthly-home-price-guide-ess-all-rounder-30-july-2024.pdf

[MJM39]

This post should not have a "Solution" tick next to the title, as clearly it is not being properly addressed by EE and should be given high priority and sorted immediately.

Like others, I too find it ridiculous that I cannot disable or remove VM from my Dad's landline. He suffers from dementia and is now very steady on his feet and often, cannot get to the phone within 10 rings. So why in the hell do EE make it such a difficult, time-wasting exercise for us to sit on the phone to customers services (multiple times), only to find nothing has changed, or can be changed. Such a simple request is making your customers furious, please rectify that.

EE - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, sort it out immediately, so we can better communicate with our elders.
Whatever you need to negotiate with BT to resolve this oversight, please do it, your customers are relying on you.
Thank you.

[JimM11]

@MJM39 The solution check is fine for the original post, did you not see the post reply, sorry  for the circumstance that you have but this is not direct communication to EE on the forum, response below.

""Hi mate, apologies for the delay. I've been told no it's not possible to turn off voicemail at the moment you can only have it removed. I've heard this is potentially going to change, but no time scale yet unfortunately."" 

No idea what happens when you have the REMOVED option and what is all integrated into the service, but EE have a specialist DV team so they maybe able to explain. Call to EE CS and getting to the right people you should be able to find that detail out. HTH

[Hazban]

I’m having the same problem. Just been “migrated” from BT where the 1571 had been removed and everything worked perfectly!
Wasted  literally hours on to customer help line and eventually tech support. Tests, re sets and calls by some helpful people didn’t get to the bottom of the problem which I am sure is their answer service, which despite me not wanting cannot be removed. 
I cannot rely on the land line anymore, sometimes it works, other times incoming calls go instantly to 1571 despite it being set to ring 10 times first. Also there is no interrupted dial tone when a message has been left.

DOES ANYONE AT EE CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS?

[JimM11]

@Hazban Are you saying that you have been told that the Voicemail cannot be removed, there is a difference from having it disabled, to having it completely removed. The text in bold is direct from the EE DV team....

[MJM39]

Hi @JimM11  I was told it could be removed after being on the phone to CS, passed around various departments for absolute ages and even got an email confirming my request. An additional disappointment was, the email said they were going to remove "Call Protect" and no mention of removing Voicemail, even after I'd been told it would be done within 24 hours of my call.

Of course there is no way to reply to their email, to correct their error. Needless to say VM is still active on my Dad's landline, which is why I came back to the community to see if there had been any progress.

Thanks for your input mate, much appreciated. 🙏

[mrjrhughes23]

To give you some hope….. after 3 or 4 attempts…. I have now been able to get the answer phone (aka 1571)  service permanently removed from the service.  It took lots of escalation and getting to managers to get through to technicians, who had were able to remove services in the back end of the system - BUT IT CAN BE DONE.

I had to make the case on medical grounds and was advised that this was an exception, and not something that EE can normally do.

I had to go back to them many times as every time the said it would take 24-48hrs but often it seemed not to have gotten done or it didn’t work. They promised text updates and alerts but these never came. I just had to call, go through the whole process and explain the requirements every time, but then it finally got done.

my advice is to keep on going back to them. Ask for names and call references and check that notes are added to the system - and explain that this is a requirement on medical grounds to support a vulnerable customer.  

good luck

[mrjrhughes23]

Clearly disabled and removed means different things technicians - but I think must customer are simply meaning that they want the the option to have answerphone  /1571 permanently removed.
(to me disabled/deactivated/removed/permanently turned off is all referring to the same outcome)

as BT offered the choice, I cannot see why EE don’t give their customers the choice or at least give customer support the ability to ‘remove’ the service upon request.  I think this is what most people are looking for.