Voicemail Dial tone Alert

[#1]

My daughter, on my recommendation, changed from Sky Phone and broadband to Plusnet.  She was able to keep the same telephone number.  She now finds that when a message is left for her on Voicemail she does not get the interrupted dial tone to alert her to the presence of a message.   Any messages are there, however,  if she remembers to dial 1571.  It worked perfectly well while she was with Sky.

I raised this matter on her behalf with Plusnet and eventually after protracted phone calls and other messages she received this reply:

"Please bear in mind that if a customer joins us from another licensed operator such as Sky, their phone may not give an intermittent dial tone when messages are awaiting collection. This is not classed as a fault."

You will note there is no explanation other than to say it may not work and it is not a fault.  Well I happen to regard it as a fault.

If anyone has a more detailed explanation as to why it might not work I would appreciate it.  I am suspicious that Plusnet and Open Reach are just not willing to go to the trouble to sort it out.

[#2]

Sorry to hear your daughter is having issues with her voicemail service.

If you can PM me her username I'll be happy to look into this for you.

[#3]

Hello Gandalf,  My daughter's username is [Removed].

Moderator's note by Adie (Dvorak) personal information removed as it's a public forum. (staff still have visibility)

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Hi @trymyluck

I've looked into this and the response your daughter had received above is in essence correct.

The problem is essentially down to how their telephone number had left the network of an Other Licensed Operator, such as TalkTalk and Sky, to be imported to the BT network we use.

With the help of my colleague @MatthewWheeler we found an old thread dating back a few years regarding a very similar situation: https://community.plus.net/t5/Home-Phone/1571-No-Intermittent-Dial-Tone/m-p/1155758/highlight/true#M...

The link in the post sends you to an old BTwholesale article which doesn't look to be there anymore, but I can see @198kHz quoted part of the article in their post.

Unfortunately there's not much we can do bar renumber your daughter's line with an BT owned/Openreach telephone number. Alternatively, she may have to buy a 3rd party handset with a built-in answering machine, which will notify her when a message is available.

Apologies that this isn't the answer you were hoping for.

[#5]

Many thanks Gandalf for you time and research effort.  Sky charge for the Voicemail facility.  I have a sneaking feeling that Sky have to do something to free a fully functioning Voicemail  facility.  It may, as earlier correspondence indicated, be something for Ofcom to investigate. I may take it up with them if I can raise the energy.

Thanks again.  

[#6]

No problem and I'm sorry that this isn't something we can easily fix.

Let us know though if you need any further assistance or if you do find a way to sort this out.