Toggling blocking/unblocking unknown numbers?

[BruceBanner]

Hi guys,

Im an expat living in Australia, I used to call my folks in Scotland via Skype (VOIP, ie Skype to their Landline), however recently a lot of relatives have unknown numbers blocked and thus the Skype calls no longer connect.

Some have contacted BT to remove the block, others haven't as of yet. I'm just curious to know the process involved with releasing and then reimposing the block, the idea being that if we agree on a date and time they could lift the block temporarily and then place back on after the call (we tend to call pretty much quarterly throughout the year).

Is this easily done? Can they do it from the dial pad? Perhaps some number combo? Or is it a tedious call to BT and an insane waiting time?

Cheers!

[BruceBanner]

Hi guys, Im an expat living in Australia, I used to call my folks in Scotland via Skype (VOIP, ie Skype to their Landline), however recently a lot of relatives have unknown numbers blocked and thus the Skype calls no longer connect. Some have contacted BT to remove the block, others haven't as of yet. I'm just curious to know the process involved with releasing and then reimposing the block, the idea being that if we agree on a date and time they could lift the block temporarily and then place back on after the call (we tend to call pretty much quarterly throughout the year). Is this easily done? Can they do it from the dial pad? Perhaps some number combo? Or is it a tedious call to BT and an insane waiting time? Cheers!

[pompey1898]

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@BruceBannerwrote:

Hi guys, Im an expat living in Australia, I used to call my folks in Scotland via Skype (VOIP, ie Skype to their Landline), however recently a lot of relatives have unknown numbers blocked and thus the Skype calls no longer connect. Some have contacted BT to remove the block, others haven't as of yet. I'm just curious to know the process involved with releasing and then reimposing the block, the idea being that if we agree on a date and time they could lift the block temporarily and then place back on after the call (we tend to call pretty much quarterly throughout the year). Is this easily done? Can they do it from the dial pad? Perhaps some number combo? Or is it a tedious call to BT and an insane waiting time? Cheers!

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It may be possible from the phone, I'm not sure, but it is fairly simple to turn blocks on and off online.

[Andy_N]

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@BruceBannerwrote:

Hi guys, Im an expat living in Australia, I used to call my folks in Scotland via Skype (VOIP, ie Skype to their Landline), however recently a lot of relatives have unknown numbers blocked and thus the Skype calls no longer connect. Some have contacted BT to remove the block, others haven't as of yet. I'm just curious to know the process involved with releasing and then reimposing the block, the idea being that if we agree on a date and time they could lift the block temporarily and then place back on after the call (we tend to call pretty much quarterly throughout the year). Is this easily done? Can they do it from the dial pad? Perhaps some number combo? Or is it a tedious call to BT and an insane waiting time? Cheers!

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Hi, welcome to the forums.

For starters, do you know if all of your contacts are actually with BT?

Sounds like most of them are using the new BT Call Protect service :-

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/phones-tablets/bt-call-protect-why-bts-free-service-can-help-you-ban...

www.bt.com/callprotect

This is a user controlled system.

It's not particularly easy to keep contacting BT (or other telephone company) to remove a block, then re-apply it.

I assume that your contacts don't have skype access themselves, or internet - which makes it a little more tricky.

Do you know what those people that contacted BT to remove the block actually requested?

[pompey1898]

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@Andy_Nwrote:

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@BruceBannerwrote:

Hi guys, Im an expat living in Australia, I used to call my folks in Scotland via Skype (VOIP, ie Skype to their Landline), however recently a lot of relatives have unknown numbers blocked and thus the Skype calls no longer connect. Some have contacted BT to remove the block, others haven't as of yet. I'm just curious to know the process involved with releasing and then reimposing the block, the idea being that if we agree on a date and time they could lift the block temporarily and then place back on after the call (we tend to call pretty much quarterly throughout the year). Is this easily done? Can they do it from the dial pad? Perhaps some number combo? Or is it a tedious call to BT and an insane waiting time? Cheers!

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Hi, welcome to the forums.

For starters, do you know if all of your contacts are actually with BT?

Sounds like most of them are using the new BT Call Protect service :-

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/phones-tablets/bt-call-protect-why-bts-free-service-can-help-you-ban...

www.bt.com/callprotect

This is a user controlled system.

It's not particularly easy to keep contacting BT (or other telephone company) to remove a block, then re-apply it.  As I posted, one can turn blocks on and off in settings on one's Call Protect page, can't one ?  No need to contact BT ?

I assume that your contacts don't have skype access themselves, or internet - which makes it a little more tricky.

Do you know what those people that contacted BT to remove the block actually requested?

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[BruceBanner]

In regards to my own family, some like my sis are tech savy, she might be fine to log on and click a button here or there, others like my mum whose in her 70's... not such an easy thing to get her to do. It's kinda why I wondered if there was a way to do it from the dialpad, like input a code with #'s etc.
I think they are majority of BT and yeh I think it is the new Call Protect thing. I have been living in oz over a decade and this has only started happening in the last year where our skype to landline calls were not connecting.

So to do it online... how do they do that? Which webpage do they visit, do they have to create a new account, as an existing customer would they automatically have an account?

Cheers.

[pompey1898]

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@BruceBannerwrote:
In regards to my own family, some like my sis are tech savy, she might be fine to log on and click a button here or there, others like my mum whose in her 70's... not such an easy thing to get her to do. It's kinda why I wondered if there was a way to do it from the dialpad, like input a code with #'s etc.
I think they are majority of BT and yeh I think it is the new Call Protect thing. I have been living in oz over a decade and this has only started happening in the last year where our skype to landline calls were not connecting.

So to do it online... how do they do that? Which webpage do they visit, do they have to create a new account No, as an existing customer would they automatically have an account? Yes

This link should take them direct to their log in to manage their Call Protect set up page :-
https://home.bt.com/login/loginform?TYPE=33554433&REALMOID=06-f1aca0f0-9277-1028-a2aa-843bdb4e0000&G...

Cheers.

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