Essential Phone Quad K55-F91 - Answering Machine Timestamps Not Working

[madamthur]

Hi. I have four BT K55-F91 cordless phones, including a base unit with a built-in answering machine. I've set it to answer after five rings so that it takes precedence over BT Voicemail (1571).

The phone works as expected for incoming and outgoing calls. We are able to receive messages, but these never have timestamps i.e. the exact date/time the call was received. This is very inconvenient, especially if we have been away for a few days and want to check messages on our return.

I have set the correct day, month, year and exact time. This does not make any difference.

I've phoned BT, who said they thought there might be a problem with our digital line. I received a text message this morning to say "Everything is working again". It isn't. I've called the landline from my mobile and left a message. Still no timestamp. I'm starting to wonder if the K55-F91 doesn't have this feature?

I'd be very grateful if anyone could offer any advice/suggestions regarding this.

Many thanks

Matt

[Peter_W]

Welcome to the Community, @madamthur 

I'm struggling to find any documentation around the handset model that you've described here - could it be that this is a generic model number and it was sold with a different specific name?

We have user guides for a range of handset models, so I'd definitely recommend checking these out to see if any of these match the handset you're using:

User Guides for BT Cordless Phones with Answer Machine | Help | BT Help

Peter

[madamthur]

Hi Peter

Many thanks for your reply and the link to the user guides. I've got the user guide for my model, but it doesn't mention anything at all about the answering machine!

I've turned it off, and we're going to use 1571 instead, which makes use of timestamps.

Cheers

Matt 

[Peter_W]

Thanks @madamthur 

It definitely seems strange that this isn't mentioned in the guide, but that would definitely suggest to me that it's not a feature that's supported.

Fingers crossed the 1571 option will do the job here!

Peter

[madamthur]

And yet, bizarrely, the model number includes the letters TAM for Telephone Answering Machine! It's all very arcane...

Thanks for your input, anyway.

All the best

Matt

[AlisonM]

Is your Caller Display feature turned on and working properly?  There have been instances where Caller Display is deactivated or has stopped working following migration to Digital Voice.

Some people got it working again by turning it off and then turning it back on again, while some had to call customer services to get it working again.

I think the User Guide and Data Sheet for your phone are the following:

https://www.best4systems.co.uk/pdf-manuals/BT/BT%20DECT%20Handsets/BT%20Essential%20DECT%20Phone%20D...

https://www.best4systems.co.uk/pdf-manuals/BT/BT%20DECT%20Handsets/BT%20Essential%20DECT%20Phone%20U...

According to the user guide, you should get the date and time if you have Caller Display.

[madamthur]

Hi Alison

Thanks for your incredibly helpful and informative reply. The User Guide and Data Sheet are invaluable.

Caller Display is included as a free feature with our digital line. The only way to turn it on/off is through My BT, so I've just checked and it's currently turned on. I've requested that it be turned off so that I can turn it back on again, but this obviously doesn't happen instantaneously!

The struggle continues. I'll keep you updated regarding this fascinating saga. I didn't think anyone could be worse than TalkTalk, but BT are clearly striving to be at least as incompetent and useless, if not more so.

Cheers

Matt

[madamthur]

Update: I've disabled Caller Display and re-enabled it via My BT. I received email confirmation for both of these "orders", although there is no cost involved because Caller Display is a free feature included with the digital landline.

I've just left a message on the telephone answering machine (not voicemail). Still no timestamp!

Thanks for all of your support, but I'm giving up. My elderly parents (82 and 88) will have to learn how to use 1571.

Total waste of time, effort and money. If I'd have known that BT's answering machines aren't capable of timestamping messages, I wouldn't have bought one.

Cheers

Matt

[iniltous · Accepted solution]

I’m not sure I follow ,as far as I know, the network CLI data contains the telephone number , not the day , date , time info , if the answer machine has a calendar and clock , presumably if it had the facility, it would ‘time stamp’ the messages locally not extract it from the network data .

I’m not sure what timestamp you were expecting, an audible one ? , the extract from the manual suggests this info is displayed  rather than read out before each message is played , I suppose the last point is you to confirm you have set the phone time and date otherwise the phone wouldn’t necessarily have this data onboard.

If this is a new phone bought specifically for the answering service with it , and it doesn’t work the way you had hoped , presumably you could return it for a refund.

FWIW , I turned off the answering service on my phone when DV was provided, previously I’d had BT Answer 1571 , but bought the phone with answer machine  instead of paying £3 a month (or whatever it cost ) for BT 1571 , this voicemail service is free with DV but was a paid for service on PSTN .

[madamthur]

Hi

Thank you for your reply, iniltous.

The TAM has a calendar and a clock. The time, day, month and year have been set correctly.

I was expecting an audible timestamp on the basis that every other TAM I've owned had that function. It's helpful for my parents who, as I mentioned, are elderly and struggle to read small LCD displays.

We're doing exactly what you suggested i.e. turning off the TAM and using 1571 instead. My parents find it very difficult to adjust to change these days (dad has dementia, mum is a technophobe), and they've always relied on a physical TAM as opposed to voicemail. They don't use smartphones at all if they can help it, and all of their friends call the landline. It's disappointing, because audible timestamps are a basic legacy feature that BT could easily have implemented.

I won't be sending the phone back for a refund because we're otherwise happy with the handsets and, as you say, 1571 is free.

Cheers all

Matt