How can i stop landline text delivery during the night

[DorianKelly]

How can i stop land line text delivery in the middle of the night? Its so disturbing snd usually a nuisance 

[DorianKelly]

Yes i clocked that: but if i switch the feature off, it means i dont get ANY texts , even the ones from people i know who cant grasp that they should use a mobile number .

All i want is the curfew to be honoured..

[goslow · Accepted solution]

Bit hard to know who should be honouring the delivery schedule but, since it is a BT service, I would guess it would be BT's job to honour the set schedule since it is their service and you are setting options via their system.

If known senders are sending you text messages to landline, then they should get a non-delivery report if you have the feature turned off and that should encourage them to resend to your mobile.

Looking at a different approach, have a look on your landline phone and see what features it has available. Many have a 'do not disturb' feature which may allow only known VIP contacts to ring through at night and anything else go silently to answering machine. Some even allow DND to be set on a timed schedule.

[DorianKelly]

These are all very very helpful answer thank you all so much. It’s a bit of an insurmountable problem because if the incompatibility i see between BT and virgin systems.

actually I have to confess that my problem is a bit wider than that. Every night without fail the phone rings at between 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock sometimes later. It’s always on a different number (presumably spoofed) 

Sometimes it’s a voice call sometimes it’s a text delivery. Sometimes I let it ring out and on the couple of occasions when I’ve answered it it’s either a drunk or somebody asking stupid questions, or accusing me of something. i’ve tried making a complaint and tried to get the real number traced but of course seems impossible. The police certainly don’t want to know, virgin don’t seem to have the willingness or the technology  to trace spoofed calls  for the likes of me.

I really really don’t want to change my number because it’s partly a business number which is known to lots of my customers -  the number is, perhaps stupidly been published widely for over 20 years. It’s my bread-and-butter.

I would much prefer to be able to set up a curfew system: but there’s a problem as well because what if my at risk relatives need to contact me at night? My next step is presumably to investigate a suitable phone system with a whitelist to replace a perfectly good one I’ve got. Can anybody suggest such a system from personal experience? It needs at least two or better three cordless hand sets

[Hayley_S]

Hello @DorianKelly,

Welcome back! Thanks for posting.

Please can you contact BT and let me know what they say?

Many thanks,

[goslow]

---

@DorianKelly wrote:

These are all very very helpful answer thank you all so much. It’s a bit of an insurmountable problem because if the incompatibility i see between BT and virgin systems.

<snip>

---

What is the make and model number of your existing phone setup?

If you have a well-established mixed use home/business number which is well-publicised then your problem does, indeed, go beyond unwanted text calls.

Changing your number is not necessarily a good solution IMO as any 'new' number you get will just come from a pool of recycled numbers belonging to VM. It may come with its own history of problems and may possibly make your situation no better or possibly worse.

I use this device on my line

https://www.truecall.co.uk/category-s/116.htm

and have received no spam/scam calls on my line since installing it. You can download the manual here to see how it works

http://www.truecall38.co.uk/manuals/callblocker.pdf

it is highly customisable to filter calls. Check out the info on 'Advanced Do Not Disturb' on page 11. Not something I have had to use myself but looks like it might fit your requirements. You may need to subscribe to the optional weblink feature (£20 per year after year 1) to have all of those full DND features available though with customisable time slots. Looks as if the basic free configuration gives you a default 8 hours of DND once activated before the unit reverts to a normal screening pattern.

If you already have a cordless setup you are happy with, you can add the trueCall unit to that. The trueCall plugs into the master socket, the cordless base station plugs into the trueCall and that way all calls are screened. I use the trueCall as the answering machine and that keeps messages within the screening process as well.

Approved callers, whose numbers are logged in the device, get through immediately without screening under normal circumstances. If you have DND mode enabled approved callers are given a voice prompt to press a key on the keypad to break through the DND time which should allow your vulnerable callers to still contact you, assuming they would not be confused by the extra button-press instruction.

Depending on how you set it up though, the trueCall would probably screen out and prevent all text messages getting through as they would not be able to respond to the requirement to press a key to break through the screening process. That might just be a necessary trade-off to eliminate the night time nuisance calls.

Further description in detail from a topic last week below inc. details of my own setup to screen out nuisance calls

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Landline-call-blocking-amp-caller-ID/m-p/4878339

[abcd-abcd]

Thanks goslow. Once again, a member of the public knows more than Virgin Media staff. On the assumption that it works (I've just done this, though I don't know whether it has worked), the answer is:

To opt out of receiving voice texts on your landline:
- Dial 0800 587 5252 from the phone you wish to opt out
- choose option 1
- then option 5 to stop all voice texts.

[BenMcr]

---

@abcd-abcd wrote:

Thanks goslow. Once again, a member of the public knows more than Virgin Media staff. On the assumption that it works (I've just done this, though I don't know whether it has worked), the answer is:

To opt out of receiving voice texts on your landline:
- Dial 0800 587 5252 from the phone you wish to opt out
- choose option 1
- then option 5 to stop all voice texts.

---

Glad you found that. Those instructions are on page 28 of the phone user guide at www.virginmedia.com/phoneguide