Just had to go through chat for myself & grandson to do this which is a joke (although it was quickly done (I hope) once I was eventually offered the option of actually speaking to a human being).
I believe it's the same for most if not all providers theses days (don't think you can turn off full stop on SKY, but could be wrong as may now have changed). Anyway the reason it's this way is quite plain & simple, it's to get money out of folk who are on PAYG or landline and who get charged just for a call being connected (even if you immediately hang up it's too late), and in the opinion of myself & anyone else not profiting from this should be made illegal.
If you want voicemail you should have the option of activating it yourself via your handset as in the good old days, but honestly, why lay out hard earned cash on mobile phones & tariffs if you're going to use voicemail, just set it up on a cheaper more reliable landline which allows remote access from any other phone (both landlines & a borrowed mobile if available & really needed).
As another post stated, if I don't answer it's because I can't or don't wish to, so send me a text & I'll get back to you when I can, if I wish to. Or try me on WhatsApp or some other online service that's often better reception quality than mobile reception (particularly Smarty). I'm informed by the coverage checker that I have a very good to excellent signal at home for Smarty, yet if I'm lucky enough to have a network connection my calls often cut out after approx 1 minute due to loss of signal.
I don't believe the issue is my Samsung Note 4 despite it's age but will be borrowing a much more recent handset to test for a few days to be certain, if it's the same then I'm afraid it's bye bye Smarty after only 2 months for both myself & grandson, sister already ditched them after 3 months due to same issue on brand new high end smartphone!!!
