BT8600 Answer machine and Call guard

[Curiousmm]

I have BT8600 with Call guard. I changed my package and stopped voice mail as the agent said I had already that on BT8600.  Hospital in Vancouver were urgently trying to contact me regarding my Uncle who has deteriorated and Call guard was not in operation.  They only got the message that I was not accepting calls. Have read as much as possible but am now thinking if the answering machine is on, Call guard is not accessible?  Can anyone help please?  I have checked Call guard is on. If I switch off the answering machine I do not get messages on 1571 as I have stopped the feature thinking I would just use the answering machine. I hope I am explaining it properly as it does seem a bit of a muddle.   Have had Call guard for many years but up until now I hadn't used the answering machine. Perhaps I am using it wrongly.  Many thanks for reading

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Curiousmm 

I have never heard of Call Guard, are you a BT Retail customer with a BT Retail phone line?

[Curiousmm]

Hi Keith.  I think it is now called Advanced Call Blocker.  Just means that it weeds out the spam calls and if they are not in my address book they have to announce themselves and I have the choice to accept or not and block.  I have never had a spam call in years using this and it is wonderful. Vancouver Hospital was not in my address book and they did not get the opportunity to announce themselves and only told I was not accepting calls.  

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@Curiousmm wrote:

Hi Keith.  I think it is now called Advanced Call Blocker.  Just means that it weeds out the spam calls and if they are not in my address book they have to announce themselves and I have the choice to accept or not and block.  I have never had a spam call in years using this and it is wonderful. Vancouver Hospital was not in my address book and they did not get the opportunity to announce themselves and only told I was not accepting calls.  

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I have the BT4600 which I think is similar. 

Assuming the Call Guardian mode is set to "announce", then it should allow the call unless you have somehow set it to block International calls.

Have you tried calling from another number which is not stored in the phone, to see if you get the option to announce?

The other possibility is that the base unit need to be power cycled, and all callers are being told that the call cannot be taken, instead of allowing them to announce themselves.

[Curiousmm]

Thank you so much Keith.  All our 'phones are registered so I deleted myself and got the opportunity to announce myself.  I then switched on the answering machine and exactly the same!  So all seems well at my end and I know I haven't blocked International calls.  I feel there is no more I can do and no idea why Vancouver hospital got the message that I wasn't accepting calls.  Many thanks for taking the time to help me and I really appreciate it.