YAC Explained - Frequently Asked Questions

What is YAC? | Benefits | Features | FAQs | Using YAC

Most Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

Questions About Using YAC

Technical Questions

Other Questions

If you have a question that isn't answered here, please contact the YAC Support Team by emailing help@yac.com or by calling 07092 00 1000 (9am-5.30pm, Mon to Fri). They'll be happy to answer any question about YAC you may have.

***

Most Frequently Asked Questions

My YAC Number doesn't work. What's wrong?
If you signed up before May 15, 2000
The most likely answer is that you haven't 'activated' your number. To activate all you have to do is call your number and enter your PIN Number when prompted, followed by the hash key (#).

Your account will then be activated, and you can begin to use your YAC Number.

If you signed up after May 15, 2000
All new YAC Numbers are now 'instantly activated'. If you signed up after May 15, 2000 your YAC Number should work fine from the moment you register. If this is not the case, please contact the YAC Support Team immediately by emailing help@yac.com or by calling 07092 00 1000 (9am-5.30pm, Mon to Fri).

I've chosen YAC Message Store/Direct to Email Inbox as my messaging service, but I'm still receiving messages on my other messaging services. Why is this happening and how do I resolve it?
If your voice messages are left on a messaging system supplied by one of your existing numbers (work, mobile, home, etc), rather than on the YAC messaging service you have chosen, this is because your current phone numbers are diverting all your unanswered calls to their respective messaging services. If this happens, YAC is designed to default to your existing settings, rather than to override them.

To resolve this conflict, you must turn off the "divert settings" on all the phones to which you forward your YAC calls. On your mobile, this can be done by following the instructions in the user manual. For office telephone systems, contact your telephone system support engineer. For home phones, contact your phone company.

Example: you have set your YAC Number to forward incoming calls to your mobile number, and to collect your messages from YAC Message Store. Your boss tries to contact you on your YAC Number, but you are on another call. At this point, he should be prompted to leave a message for you on Message Store, but your mobile phone has been configured to divert unanswered calls to your mobile's messaging service. In this case, your mobile settings will override your YAC Settings, and your boss's message will be stored on your mobile phone rather than on Message Store.

To resolve this situation, you will need to turn off the divert settings of your mobile phone.

Should you require any assistance resolving this conflict, please contact the YAC Support Team by emailing help@yac.com or by calling 07092 00 1000 (9am-5.30pm, Mon to Fri).

I can't hear any of the voice messages I receive. What's wrong?
You may not have the appropriate software on your machine.

If you are using Windows 95/98/NT, you should download Windows Media Player from our Downloads Page.

If you continue to have difficulties hearing these files please contact the YAC Support Team by emailing help@yac.com or by calling 07092 00 1000 (9am-5.30pm, Mon to Fri). Have the following details to hand:

  • Your YAC Number
  • The operating system of your machine - Windows 95/98/NT, Apple Macintosh, etc.
  • Which audio hardware you are using - soundcard/speakers, etc.
  • Which audio software you are using - Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, etc.

How much does it cost to call a YAC Number from within the UK?
The answer to this question, and all questions relating to the cost of using a YAC Number, can be found on our Cost Information Page.


General Questions

What is a YAC Number?
Your YAC Number is a revolutionary one number personal communications tool that will greatly enhance and simplify how you receive and manage your inbound communications, whether you are receiving live calls, voice messages, or faxes.

All YAC Numbers consist of a 07092 prefix, plus a 6-digit personal suffix that is unique to each user.

Does a YAC Number replace my existing telephone numbers?
No! A YAC Number complements your existing numbers. In fact, your YAC Number is best used to manage and control all the calls coming through the one or more numbers that you may already have.

You can read more about your YAC Number's call management features in YAC Features.

Do I need a phone to use my YAC Number?
Not necessarily.

With a YAC Number you can forward your incoming calls to whatever phone is nearest and most convenient to you. Alternatively, if you do not have a phone number, you can forward your incoming calls (and faxes) to your email account.

How can YAC provide this service free of charge?
Your caller pays the equivalent of a standard UK personal numbering rate to contact you on your YAC Number. As a regulated UK Telecoms Service Provider, YAC receives a percentage of the call charge, which enables us to provide the YAC Service to you, free of charge.

The charge for calling a YAC Number is 32 pence per minute (peak), 22ppm (off-peak) and 10.5ppm (weekends).

How do I get a YAC Number?
You can (a) sign up here, or (b) call the YAC Support Team at 07092 00 1000 (9am-5.30pm, Mon to Fri).

Questions About Using YAC

How do I change my password?
Login to your YAC Account. Click on Change Personal Details in the menu at the top of the screen, and then click on Change Password.

You can also change your PIN Number, Personal Profile, Email Address, Audio and Fax File Type while in this section of your YAC Account.

What do I do if I have forgotten my password?
You can do a number of things:

  1. If you enter your YAC Number in the Login space and click on CLUE, you will be presented with the clue that you entered during sign up. Hopefully, this will remind you of your password.
  2. If that fails, you can contact our YAC Support Team by emailing help@yac.com or by calling 07092 00 1000 (9am-5.30pm, Mon to Fri). They will ask you to confirm your personal details. Once your identity is verified, they will supply you with a new password via email.

What do I do if I have lost my YAC Number?
Ring the YAC Support Team at 07092 00 1000 (9am - 5:30pm, Mon to Fri). They will confirm your personal details and remind you of your number.

I can't forward my YAC calls to certain phone numbers. Why?
There are a couple of likely reasons:

  1. The number you are trying to enter may not be a valid telephone or may not be supported by YAC. YAC does not support call forwarding to: certain premium rate numbers (e.g., 0906 numbers), numbers within countries not on the approved countries list, other personal numbering services, satellite phone numbers, some paging numbers, the emergency services, or other YAC Numbers.
  2. Occasionally, if the number is very new, it may not yet have been entered into the YAC system. If you try to update your Call Forwarding settings with such a number you will receive an error message. Instructions for overcoming this problem are included with the error message.

In both cases, if you continue to experience difficulties trying to forward your YAC calls to any number, you can contact the YAC Support Team by emailing help@yac.com or by calling 07092 00 1000 (9am-5.30pm, Mon to Fri).

Where can I forward my calls?
You can forward your calls to almost any phone number in the UK, including Northern Ireland (with the exception of certain premium rate numbers.) You can also forward your calls to numbers in North America, Australia, Germany, and over twenty other countries, including most of Europe.

This is the current list of countries to which we can forward calls to your YAC Number:

  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Canada
  • Denmark
  • France
  • Germany
  • Hong Kong
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Liechtenstein
  • Luxembourg
  • Monaco
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Norway
  • Puerto Rico
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • USA

How do I choose where to store my YAC messages?

  1. Login to your YAC Account at www.yac.com.
  2. Go to the Call Forwarding page.
  3. Scroll down to "Your Voice Messaging Options" and, from the drop-down menu, select where you would like to receive your messages.

You can choose to receive your YAC messages on any of your existing messaging services (e.g., WORK, MOBILE, HOME, etc). Alternatively, you can choose to use YAC's own messaging service, Message Store, or to have all your voice messages delivered directly to your email inbox.

With Message Store, you can collect your voice messages using any touchtone phone in the world, and then forward them to your email inbox for easy storage. What's more, you will receive an SMS message whenever there are messages for you to collect. There is more information on our Messaging Services Support Page.

However, you should be aware that there are a number of areas of potential conflict:

Service Conflicts
Occasionally, a conflict may arise if you use one or more messaging services in addition to YAC's Message Store. If such a conflict should arise, we have designed our system to default to your existing preferences.

To resolve such a conflict you need to turn off the divert settings of all the phones to which you forward your YAC calls.

Example: you have set your YAC Number to forward calls to your mobile number, and have opted to collect your messages from Message Store. Your boss tries to contact you on your YAC Number, but you are on another call. At this point, he should be prompted to leave a message for you on Message Store, but your mobile phone has been programmed to divert unanswered calls to your mobile's messaging service. In this case, your mobile settings will overrule your YAC settings, and your boss's message will be stored on your mobile phone, rather than on your YAC Number.

To resolve this situation, you will need to turn off the divert settings of your mobile phone.

Should you require any assistance resolving this conflict, please contact the YAC Support Team by emailing help@yac.com or by calling 07092 00 1000 (9am-5.30pm, Mon to Fri).

Caller Override
If a caller rings your YAC Number and immediately presses 2, s/he will be prompted to leave a message on your YAC Message Store, regardless of which messaging service you have chosen.

How long are my messages stored on Message Store before being deleted?
Currently, Message Store can save up to eight minutes worth of messages. At that stage the oldest messages will be forwarded to your email account to make room for new messages.

Note: The longest any single message on Message Store can be is two minutes.

What is SMS Notification?
If you have a mobile phone, YAC will send you a text message when you have messages to collect from Message Store.

However, to receive your SMS notifications, you must enter your mobile number on the Call Forwarding page of your YAC Account, in the space marked "MOBILE".

How do I use Direct Access?
Direct Access is a way for you to listen to your voice messages from your mobile phone - without having to enter your PIN Number. That is, when you dial your YAC Number from your mobile phone, your voice messages will immediately begin to playback.

  1. Login to your YAC Account at www.yac.com.
  2. Go to the Call Forwarding page.
  3. Enter your mobile phone number in the space marked "MOBILE".
  4. Select Message Store as your voice messaging option.
  5. Then click on Advanced Features, and turn Direct Access ON.

Can I still access my YAC Account by phone if I have Direct Access turned ON?
Yes. Just call your YAC Number, press 0 when YAC answers, and follow the voice prompts.

How can I access and change my personal YAC Settings without access to the Web?
If you are travelling, it may not always be practical or possible for you to make changes to your personal settings via your online YAC Account. But you can access - and change - your personal preferences from almost any telephone in the world. You have two options:

  1. Dial your own YAC Number and press 0, then enter your PIN when prompted, followed by the hash key (#).
  2. Dial our special low rate number and enter your 11 digit YAC Number when prompted, followed by the hash key (#). Finally, enter you PIN when prompted, followed by the hash key (#).

To make changes to your personal settings, just follow the voice prompts.

If you have a WAP-enabled mobile phone you can also use our new WAP service to access and change your Call Forwarding Settings. See our WAP Support Page for more information.

How can I customise my Personal YAC Greetings?
To customise your Personal YAC Greetings, login into your online YAC Account and follow the instructions in the Personalised Greetings page.

Technical Questions

Do I need to download extra software to use my YAC Number?
Generally no. Most PCs and Macs will already have all the necessary software pre-installed.

As part of the sign up process, we will send you an email to check for your machine's default audio player. If your system does not have an audio player, you can download Windows Media Player from our Downloads page.

By default, you receive your faxes in the TIFF file format. This is the most convenient option for most people because the majority of desktop computers already have TIFF viewers pre-installed.

However, you have the option of choosing to receive your faxes as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. To read PDF files you need to download a copy of the latest version of Adobe's Acrobat® Reader.

What should I do if I can't read my faxes?
YAC converts incoming faxes into two formats: TIFF image files and PDF files. TIFF is the default format in which we will send your faxes. Most desktop computers come pre-installed with TIFF viewers. If, however, you are unable to read TIFF files, or would prefer to receive your faxes in the PDF format, you should login to your YAC Account, click on Change Personal Details, click on Choose Your Fax File Format and select PDF.

Please note, however, that you can only read PDF files if you have a copy of Adobe's Acrobat® Reader. We recommend that you download and install the latest version (v4.05) of the reader.

If you need further assistance, please call our YAC Support Team at 07092 00 1000 (9am - 5:30pm, Mon to Fri).

Do I need to use any particular browser to access my online YAC Account?
You can use whichever browser you wish. We have designed our website to be viewable on most browsers currently available.

However, for optimal results you should use either Internet Explorer 3.2 and upwards or Netscape Navigator 3.2 and upwards.

You can get the latest versions of both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator from our Downloads Page.

What if I don't have an email account?
No problem! Just go to our recommended email providers page and choose a service that suits you.

Can I use my PDA to access your WAP site?
Yes you can, but you will need to download and install the AU-System Demo WAP Browser for Palm IIIx, Palm V, or Palm Vx.

In order to use the AU-System Demo WAP Browser for Palm OS you will need the following hardware and software:

  • Palm Pilot IIIx, Palm Pilot V or Palm Pilot Vx. (Note: the browser doesn't work on a Palm Pilot III)
  • Palm OS 3.3.
  • Mobile phone with IR port that fully supports IrDA or a Palm modem.

Please note that YAC does not endorse this product, nor do we give any support for the browser. Comments on the AU-System Demo WAP Browser should be sent to wapbrowser@ausys.se.

Can I view faxes on my PDA?
You may be able to use your PDA to view your YAC faxes - but only if your PDA can read TIFF or PDF files and has sufficient memory. However, YAC has not tested this procedure and cannot guarantee that it will work.

We plan to support Fax-to-PDA in the future. If this is a feature you would like to see, let us know by sending an email to help@yac.com. Customer feedback has a strong influence on the priority given to the development of new YAC services.

How does Call Screening work when the calling number cannot be identified?
Our Call Screening feature uses "Calling Line ID" (CLID) to determine whether or not an incoming call is from one of your screened numbers. If the call is from a number that you have screened, YAC will take a message and send it to your chosen messaging service. If not, the call will be put through to your Call Forwarding numbers.

Unfortunately, CLID is not available for all incoming calls. It depends entirely on whether the telephone making the call and the incoming telephony network provides CLID or not.

For this reason, on the occasions when CLID is unavailable, you have the choice of diverting all incoming calls without CLID directly to YAC Messaging or to your current Call Forwarding number(s).

YAC Audiocast

What information will I get if I dial in to YAC Audiocast?
YAC Audiocast, in association with Sky News and Sport, provides you with the latest business news, world news and sport 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year through your YAC Number.

You do not need to be connected to the Internet or use a WAP phone. You just dial your YAC Number and press 4 or dial our special YAC Audiocast Number 07092 24 7 365, and listen from any phone worldwide.

The local and international news is updated every two hours from 6am until midnight. The Sky Business News Bulletin is updated 7am, 9am, 12.30pm and 5pm (the weekend Sky Business Bulletin will be a round up of the week). Sky Sport News is updated weekdays at 7am, 10am, 2pm and 5pm. Sat-Sun updates are at 7am, 12 noon, 4pm and 5.30pm.

How do I access YAC Audiocast?
To access YAC Audiocast, dial your YAC Number and press 4. Alternatively you may dial or special Audiocast Number 07092 24 7 365.

When I dial my YAC Number and press 4, I am unable to access YAC Audiocast. Why?
YAC Audiocast is only available directly through your YAC Number for accounts that are set up in Voice and Fax Mode.

If you have a Fax Only or Voice Only YAC Number, you must dial the special YAC Audiocast Number 07092 24 7 365 to access the latest world news, business news or sport.

How much does it cost to call YAC Audiocast?
All calls to YAC Audiocast are charged at the normal rate of calling a YAC Number. People calling from a standard BT home or business phone are charged at the BT rate of 32 pence per minute at peak times, 22 ppm evenings and 10.5 ppm at weekends.

Security and Privacy Questions

Is my YAC Account secure?
Yes. Access to your YAC Account and the personal information it contains is secured by a 6-12 alphanumeric Password and a 4-8 digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) - both chosen by you. Your information is stored on servers protected by robust firewall and encryption protocols.

However, no one is able to completely guarantee the security of any transmission of data over the Internet. Therefore, while we do our utmost to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee that any data you transmit to us via the Internet will be 100% secure.

Does YAC have a privacy policy? What is it?
At YAC, we are absolutely committed to protecting the privacy of our users. We believe that privacy is one of the most fundamental issues affecting the future of the WWW and e-commerce.

Our privacy policy guarantees that the information you supply to us is used responsibly and appropriately.

If you have any comments our questions or comments about our privacy policy, you can email privacy@yac.com.

© 2001 YAC Ltd. All rights reserved.