To prevent the number underlying the 0870 from being displayed, most companies withhold their number. I am no longer plagued with sales calls as I pay £10 a quarter to BT for their Anonymous Caller Rejection (ACR) service. Friends who withhold their number can get through this blocking by dialling a four digit number so their number (which I know anyway) is revealed. Unfortunately, it would appear, for a £60 set up fee and £7 a quarter maintenance, BT now offer the facility for companies to present an 0870 number rather than the "true" number, so it looks as if I could now be pestered again. I wonder if BT will extend their ACR to include blocking 0870!?

I started using ACR a few months ago, when I had ISDN, because I was getting plagued by sales calls with no return number.
It was much better until I got ADSL installed (mid August), but I never realised I had the same problem again until the beginning of December. When they changed me from ISDN over to ADSL they switched OFF the ACR 
They put it back on again last week and that is now OK.

Then I noticed my 1571 wasn't working (via OneTel). If you have ACR or other blocking it doesn't ! Nice to know, so I switched back to BT 1571 - No big deal. 

When I got BT to switch my ACR back on, I mentioned the TPS, which I signed up for ages ago, and the guy at BT said about another service which blocks the calls sent from outside UK as well, which seem to get through ACR.

Does anyone know what this service is and where to get it ??

I'm thinking of setting up an old PC as a telephone exchange to monitor the incoming calls and if any with , or come in, they get a message saying "GO AWAY" (or similar!).   

Any thoughts on how to go about it, or anything else we can do ??

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This is an excellent idea. Then you only need pay BT for caller ID and nothing else!

I'd use a Linux-based system as then you can make it do whatever you want, but it could be a steep learning curve if you don't already have some familiarity with it...

A quick Google found this:

http://frank.harvard.edu/~coldwell/answering_machine/

(I'm assuming caller ID works much the same way in the US...)

I quite like the idea of trying this project myself, but I really don't have time for it at the moment.

As for your recorded message for people who phone up with a withheld/0870 number, how about, "This number is not in use, please call 0871 xxx xxxx" where the number is one you have set up especially for this purpose!

Of course, once they do call back on 0871, it will play them a recorded message telling them their call is very important to us, and we'll answer as soon as possible.

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I believe there are strict rules with thus, notibly that the 0870 number presented, or other NGN,  must  route to the same hunt group or department that the call originated from.  Something along those lines anyway.

Regards

Faz

Telewest still only charge £1/month for ACR.

Bt's Chargeable "Choose to Refuse" Service does work with withheld numbers. The exchange knows the number even when it is withheld.

Only disadvantage is that you have to answer a call to these people before you can dial your pin number to block it   

Also I cannot remember if there is a limit to the amount of numbers you can block, I believe there is.

Unfortunately, using 18866 sometimes converts your CLID to "witheld". Happened to me last week when I phone home. Wife almost told me to p*ss off!

So if you use some automated blocker, a legitimate call would not get through.