SOTAP Line - what is going on, my mums line is broken

[Pete65]

Can anyone help with my Mums line?
She was converted to the SOTAP product on 5th February and at first sight the line worked OK.
On further testing I've found that the backend answerphone feature is unsuitable for her. 
My Mum relies heavily on the physical answerphone she has due to being of advanced years and having many doctor appointments that generate many phone messages.
Apparently I'm supposed to be able to turn off the back end answer phone or change the number of rings which means my mums answerphone would kick in, but logging into My BT, neither of those options exist, along with just dropping me in an edit details loop (yes, I've tried different browsers).

I appreciate SOTAP is a temporary product, but bearing in mind the target audience is people like my mum who perhaps aren't able to easily learn a whole new system, it seems to still have some issues.

Oh and to make matters worse, the order was raised against her old address (moved out 10 years ago) with her  number and I still can't see if that has been corrected or not, but if she loses her landline number, it will be a disaster as she's had it for long enough where it has become a fixed memory. And I do worry about the person who now lives at her old address ie: are they seeing my Mums info in any mailings so is it a GDPR breach, is his line going to be disconnected because the stop is at the old address.

I just really need someone to confirm the account is now at the correct address and tell me how to turn off the backend answerphone so messages will fall to her physical answerphone. 

[WSH]

Are you looking in the right place on MyBT?  It should be under "Products" and then "Digital Voice".

[AndyCap]

How to Manage BT Digital Voice Voicemail Settings (1571)

• Access Menu: Dial 1571 from your Digital Voice handset.
• Set Rings: Select Option 3 (Settings) then Option 2 to change the number of rings (0, short, medium, or long) before the service answers.
• Set Greeting: Select Option 2 from the main menu to record a personal greeting.
• Remote Access: To listen to messages away from home, you must first set a PIN by choosing Option 3 from the 1571 menu.
• Via Online Account: Log into your My BT account, navigate to your Digital Voice product, select Manage, and choose Voicemail. 

SOURCE Google AI search.

[Christopher_G]

Hi @Pete65 

I can see you've been given some brilliant advice here on the voicemail situation.

With regard to the address problem that you raised, I've sent you a private message to get someone to check this for you.

Could you take a look at your private message inbox and get back to me please?

Thanks

Chris

[Pete65]

Hi WSH
Today when I try to check personal details it just keeps looping back to the entry page which currently shows the lady in the chair on the phone.
Trying to use options from the MyBt pop out, it only seems to allow me to see billing / orders (which is why I know there was a SOTAP order placed by BT/Openreach) and upgrades.
Product and account details options just loop.
I'm wondering if it's because my Mum is on the low user scheme which maybe restricts MyBT options somehow?

[Pete65]

Hi AndyCap
I already tried the 1571 options, before attempting to do it through the MyBT app.
The options you list aren't offered by the voice system when I take the settings option 3.
I'll try again tomorrow when I'm back with my Mum.
I'm beginning to feel it might be because my Mum is on the low user scheme so options might be restricted.

[WSH]

Strange.

I get “Your Products” at the top below the purple bar.  Then click the “Manage” button under “Digital Voice”.  Then the “Manage” button under “Voicemail Essentials”.  The resulting page is this:

I've got a Panasonic answerphone quad set myself.  Putting this setting on the maximum and the Panasonic itself on 5 rings makes the Panasonic answerphone cut in before the Voicemail just fine.

[Tim123]

Just phone 150 and ask them to switch off Voicemail. They can do it for you in a jiffy (don't know why 'My BT' or 1571 itself don't allow this!).

Well, when I say that Customer Service can do it, what I mean is: the service will still be technically active on the line, as you will find if you subsequently dial 1571 (unlike with PSTN where you have to opt into it and can then remove it altogether if desired). However, CS can change the setting so that calls *never* go to Voicemail (but will stop ringing after a couple of minutes or 40 rings - which, as I recall, is approximately the case on most PSTN exchanges).

I have done the above and confirm that it works.

Similarly, I asked for 1572 to be switched off as I can't be bothered checking the junk mailbox. However, as calls only go to that mailbox if you add numbers to it, doing so is probably rather pointless. Dialling 1572 (like 1571) still 'welcomes' me to Call Protect, so evidently that service also can't be fully removed on Digital Voice. The agent I spoke to was happy to oblige with my request, but I think all it has done is to stop Caller Display from flagging suspicious calls with the word "NUISANCE?" (which I don't need anyway, as I can spot those fake numbers a mile off and just ignore them).

[Pete65 · Accepted solution]

A follow up to this thread in case it helps anyone else.

After a few discussions with Olivia in Executive Complaints (which is where the query ended up) it seems that:-
1) If you are on home phone only /  low user scheme you do not have any option to do anything when you log into My BT apart from viewing bills / paying bills.
Personal details / account details / products are not viewable.
Apparently this is by design according to the back end support team.

2) If you then have the SOTAP update (aka media gateway aka digital voice or whatever it is being called this week), you also cannot then change features on the line without ringing up BT to get them to change for you.

Knowing the above, I have now been able to change my Mums line to turn off the back end answerphone which does resolve the main issue we had, but it seems very strange that people on home phone / low user can't see what they have on a product page or change features of the line by themselves.
It's almost as if BT don't want people to have just a phone line!

Anyway, at least I know what is going on now so it seems all of it is, in fact, by design and not a fault at all (which is pretty rubbish really)

I will shout out to Olivia at this point who has stuck with it and done lots of research with the back end team to reveal what is actually going on. Huge thanks to Olivia for her work and for not just saying, "that's how it is".