BT's 'Free' Answer 1571 Service

Warning-BT's "free "Answer 1571 service is only free if you are using BT to make your calls . I used to get my line rental only from BT, but that afforded me the option, which I took up, to have the free 1571 service. It is convenient to have this service and I used it from it's introduction until earlier this year. I had been working away from home and as long as my BT invoices looked sensible, I didn't question my direct debit. But when I got back and could investigate further, I discovered that because I wasn't making my calls thru BT I was being charged almost £3 a quarter for the FREE 1571 facility. I canceled by BT phone ...  Read the complete review

1571 service = rubbish. 10 call limit is feeble Can't access the messages remotely Calls aren't forwardable as MP3 recordings to an email address Traditional ansaphone 100 times better. Cheeky when ask for you if you want to use BT for callback at a hugely premium rate. I wish I could cancel BT forever, but I have to use them for my Broadband. BT = Con trick for this service. 1471 equally rubbish service. The braindead run ...  Read the complete review

A problem with the 1571 Text Alerts system that BT's website fails to point out at this date (7/6/07) is that if you have retained your mobile phone number and transfered it from another provider to either Virgin or T-mobile, the text alert sytem will not work. In other words, you may have messages on your landline, but you will not be texted to inform you of the fact. BT confirmed this to me today. So if you have ported your number to Virgin or T-mobile, the text alert system is virtually useless. The only way to resolve the problem is to either cancel your mobile contract (expensive!) or change your mobile number ...  Read the complete review

i dread dialing someone and getting bt 1571. i get charged even though the recipient hasn't answered. if i leave a message, will they know i have? - as they have to finish their call and then pick up the phone again to check the dial tone, which will tell them they have a message. it's a very clever way of bt making money out of callers for what should be a free engaged ...  Read the complete review

You do not get anything in life for free, that as a saying is fairly accurate. But you can get things free provided you can understand why the company is offering it in the first place. Remember companies want to make money, be it the company giving free virus protection or a company paying you to click on adverts. In this respect BT are no different. All we need to do is understand is the reasons behind the service/product then we can feel safe in the knowledge of what is on offer and more importantly why. So I will explain what 1571 is, then at the end of this review I will add what BT get out of it. A few years ago BT introduced a service called ...  Read the complete review