Nothing in life is free (BT's 'Free' Answer 1571 Service)

Member Name: sit2020

Product:	BT's 'Free' Answer 1571 Service
Date:	15/07/06 (3243 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A free service

Disadvantages: Only stores 10 messages

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 1571, if memory serves me right the cost was about £4.99 a month. For this you got what amounts to an answering machine. If someone called while you were out after a few rings the answering machine cut in and allowed the caller to leave a message, much in the same way as a traditional answering machine does.

But the 1571 had and indeed still have one advantage over an ordinary answering machine. If someone phoned you and you were already on the phone, then 1571 would tell the caller you were on the phone and allow them to leave you a message.
Remember this was back in the days where dial up internet was the connection of choice, therefore a lot of phones were engaged for hours at a time. So you would still have the chance to leave or receive a message.

Most answering machines have little lights and some even have bleeps to let you know when a message has been left for you. Unfortunately 1571 cannot do this. So the people of BT decided that you needed to know you have a new message rather than to dial 1571 every now and then.

The answer they use is simplicity in itself.
When you pick up the phone you normally get a steady dialling tone (a soft electronic purr), if you have been left a message you get a two tone (high and low pitch) noise, then all you have to do is dial 1571 to access your messages.
These messages can be stored for about 21 days, of course you can at any time delete unwanted messages before this, at times this can be necessary as the 1571 will only store up to 10 messages at a time.

Even better was the news from BT that they were no longer going to charge for this service and offer it free to its customers.

A couple of niggles about this service.

Firstly if you want to listen to a previously recorded message you have to work your way through your previous messages (date and time order) to access the message that you want.

Secondly as it only stores 10 messages it is pretty limited if you’re going to be away from your phone for a few days and normally have a high volume of calls.

So what does BT get out of offering us this free service?

Two things, firstly they get happy customers who are getting a free service. They also get happy shareholders, the reason for this is simply they get an increase in calls. Let me explain, if you receive a call and a message is left for you on 1571, you access the message and the chances are it will be someone who will leave you a number so you can give them a call. Remember the original call cost money and your return call is an additional call, therefore BT actually generates extra income by offering this free service.

So BT are not offering something for nothing in the true sense of the word, even so it is a service that overall I am more than happy with, even if I can see room for improvement.

Summary: Free service makes answering machines pointless