Call Minder on Featureline Compact with BT Featureline Phone - not a very happy combination

phgannon — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:45:08 GMT

I'm in the process of setting myself up as a Sole Trader and, at the end of May, signed up for the BT Featureline Compact. The feature set looked impressive on it's own but looked to be really something else when used with Call Minder and the BT Featureline phone. So, having had all three installed, here's a summary of how's it going (the descriptions for each feature listed in bold below are taken from this page http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/btbusinessProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=16121)

Answers your phone when you are busy, engaged or on the web - Do it do this? Nope, I can have one or the other but not a combination because of limitations at my exchange (this limitation is not mentioned on the relevant web page and was not mentioned when I placed the order over the phone)

Can change the length of time before your call are answered - Do it do this? Nope, once again this is because of a limitation at my exchange (and again this limitation is not mentioned on the relevant web page and was not mentioned when I placed the order over the phone). Despite what I set this setting to in Call Minder (i.e. no rings, short ring, medium ring or long ring) it will always ring for 4-5 rings BUT interestingly enough when I access the Call Minder service it will warn me that "Call Minder is answering my calls immediately and will not ring"

Will automatically call you if message is left whilst you're engaged - Do it do this? Nope - reported as a fault

Mobile alert when you receive a message - Do it do this? Nope, having gone through the process of linking Call Minder on my line to my Mobile and confirmed this several times it still won't send me a text message when someone leaves a message - reported as a fault

The following feature of the Featureline Phone is taken from this page http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/btbusinessProducts/displayProduct.do?productId=BTB-15997

When used with Call Minder, a light alerts you to a new message - Do it do this? Nope - reported as a fault

In addition...

Call Minder ignores any security PIN that I set. Despite having set this feature 5 or more times Call Minder has not once asked me for my PIN when accessing the service - reported as a fault
Callers get a message stating "Please hold the line, calls to this number are being diverted" when being transferred to Call Minder. This message plays 2-3 times and my callers are just hanging up before they hear my outgoing voicemail message. Interesting to note that you don't get this message with BT 1571 so why do you get it with Call Minder?! - reported as a fault

The items listed above with "reported as a fault" tagged on the end have been logged with BT Faults on 3 separate occasions and twice they have told me that they've fixed them but I have seen no change. I am still waiting to hear back on the 3rd attempt at logging them as faults.

The reason I'm posting this message is that I am wondering the following:

Has anyone else encountered these issues?
Are they fixable?
Are they all due to limitations at my local exchange?
Have I been miss sold?
Where can I go from here?
What's the chances of speaking to someone further up the food chain than someone answering the phone in Faults? If so, how?
Is there an Account Manager I can speak to? If so, how?
Is there an Engineer I can speak to? If so, how?

I have not only spoken to the Faults department about these problems but also Sales who couldn't help but suggested that I speak to the Call Minder Support Team (0800 077 771) who, in turn, said that I should speak to the dedicated Featureline Team (0800 400 400) but this just went straight through to the main BT Business line. Talk about going round in circles.

I just want it to work the same way that it's advertised... is that too much to ask?

Please someone help me before I go insane!

Many thanks

Patrick

Re: Call Minder on Featureline Compact with BT Featureline Phone - not a very happy combination

VHS1314 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:21:22 GMT

Sadly it has been pretty much the same for us - and we very explicitley told the Sales team when enquiring that we were on a limited rural exchange but the 'system' at his end said that all would be fine.

We are due to be upgraded in 2011 - until then there is no hope of anything more than the most basic lines.

Re: Call Minder on Featureline Compact with BT Featureline Phone - not a very happy combination

uptomen — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:30:04 GMT

I whole heartedly agree with most of this.

Not only was it a battle to get call minder and caller display activated, once they were i can only say that the call minder system has an idiotic tone and divert message before the caller can be diverted to my pre recorded message.

2012 and I'm told by an online operative that it isnt possible to use call minder without this message.

Great! Another quality BT product! How can they still sell this underwhelming service?

Re: Call Minder on Featureline Compact with BT Featureline Phone - not a very happy combination

knobbster — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:38:00 GMT

Sorry to hear that. Services are fine in other areas is whatI hear. This should be fixed, I hope so.

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Call Minder on Featureline Compact with BT Featureline Phone - not a very happy combination

Re: Call Minder on Featureline Compact with BT Featureline Phone - not a very happy combination

Re: Call Minder on Featureline Compact with BT Featureline Phone - not a very happy combination

Re: Call Minder on Featureline Compact with BT Featureline Phone - not a very happy combination