1571 or 999 (BT's 'Free' Answer 1571 Service)

Member Name: happyhopwood

Product:	BT's 'Free' Answer 1571 Service
Date:	11/11/01 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See above

Disadvantages: See above

Finally, a convincing way to stop being nagged to get off the internet because somebody MIGHT be ringing.

In theorie, BT have come up with a very good service for there customers. But at this infantile stage of the 1571 service it could turn out to be a great success, or a total waste.

Over the past couple of years, BT have pulled through new services to try and keep their existing customers. Even though they are quite money-making for BT, they are quite helpful. The best service so far that BT have come up with is probably "Friends and Family," as this seems to be the most used one in our household.

Another useful service is 1471. It's great when you know who has been calling you, after spending loads of time out and about. It's also quite witty to see whether any of my friends have wasted their money phoning me from their mobiles, for no reason.

When I signed up for 1571 'Terry Wogan' gave me a delightful announcement that BT would donate £1.00 to children in need for each person that signs up to BT 1571 in November. They are giving upto a possible 1 million pound.

They seem very eager to sign more customers, and a credit to BT for involving charity causes, both a considerate thing to do, but very clever from a business view!!!

ADVANTAGES

You can carry on talking/surfing for hours without worrying that somebody is phoning.

An organised service of keeping your messages for future listening.

Its free, and you don't have to go out and buy a decent answer machine. (In my experience many of the less expensive machines have been quite shoddy and break fairly rapidly!!)

Many different functions including: save, delete etc.

DISADVANTAGES

The answering service comes to use at various times whilst be dialed, depending on the phone. Sometimes it starts after 2 rings, which doesn't give enough time to answer the phone anyway.


Is it completely reliable?

It's very expensive for the person that is calling.

The caller pays even if he/she doesn't leave a message.

You can't turn the service on and off like an answer machine.


As everyone is out during the day in my house, 1571 is the perfect service for me.

However, a downfall is that our phone bill hass increase by around £10, as when somebody leaves a message, you feel you really should call them back, But before if you were engaged they would continue to call you until they got through!

At first, I wondered if it would be free to start with, and then tag on a subscription fee after everybody had it, but then I realised BT never give anything for free. After hard thinking I realised something else; logically it is in their interests, because if a caller leaves a message, or even if they just listen to BT?s answer greeting, they are paying for the time spent on the call.

BT?s 1571 service stores your messages for 20 days, and can store up to 10 messages. When your inbox is full it will give you a warning.

Summary: