Unable to receive inbound calls

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chris-isble asked Mar 25, '15 mike commented Mar 25, '15

Unable to receive inbound calls

All my customers are getting dead air, or a fast busy signal. Ring Central says my line is working, but they are not receiving any calls. The problem is routing issues with other providers.

I can do nothing, because I can't possibly know all the providers. Even if I did, they won't speak to me because I don't have an account with them. I can't ask every customer to call their phone company and complain either.

Ring Central needs a process whereby they can notify other providers when their customers are experiencing routing issues. Currently, the only solution offered is to wait, and eventually it should resolve itself.

It has been over a week. Some calls are starting to come through, but many are not.

This isn't the first time this has happened, but in the past it was isolated to individual carriers and resolved itself the next day.

Is this just the nature of phone systems today, or do I need to switch to a more mainstream provider to get reliable service?

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Answer 1 · 2015-03-25T15:45:40Z

mike answered Mar 25, '15

Hi Chris, Unfortunately this is something that all VoIP phone service providers deal with. As you know, the internet is a complex web of computers, routers and wires. When something goes wrong between the caller and recipient, it is often hard to troubleshoot and is generally the responsibility of the in between service provider to fix their own issue. Our engineers do have tools to help identify where the issues might be and methods of notifying them, however they almost always know about their own issues which is why sometimes all you can do is wait. However, if you have an issue that seems to be persistent, you are welcome to Open a Case and provide us with as many details as you can so that we can research the problem. I understand that it's not always easy to get the callers information, but when you can it is helpful.

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Answer 2 · 2015-03-25T16:26:24Z

chris-isble answered Mar 25, '15 mike commented Nov 27, '17

Mike,

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to provide details. I have no way of knowing how many people didn't get through. (Will all those not here, please raise your hand!) And if someone cares enough to tell me by e-mail that "my phone is not working", I still have no way of knowing who their phone provider is. Even if I ask, most of the time they don't know, because they are just an employee at another company.

Are you saying that if I can tell you that no AT&T customers can get through to me, there is something more you can do? Because when I called Tech Support, they told me specifically that they could do nothing. The problem is with the routing by the other provider, and there isn't even a mechanism for them to report a problem to another provider.

That is the fundamental flaw in the system. How can the other provider fix the problem, if there is no way to make them aware of it?

At a business level, Ring Central needs a process to deal with this. As I can't track down and verify that all the routings are working, you need to act on my behalf. You need to quickly get my line up and working when I report a problem, even when it is not your fault.

Without this ability, you seem to be saying that it is foolish for any company that depends on incoming calls to use VoIP.

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mike commented · Mar 25, 2015 at 04:45 PM

Hi Chris, as I mentioned above our engineers do have a few tools to help troubleshoot network issues, and ways of notifying other providers, but the process is different for different carriers. We do however need something to work with. If you can get at least one sample and let us know the callers phone number, (and carrier if possible), then Open a Case we can look into it. Recently there have been some issues with some users calling from Verizon, it's possible that this is affecting you but we'll need some information to work with.

Mike

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chris-isble commented · Mar 25, 2015 at 05:14 PM

What is the difference between the "Open a Case" link, and calling the tech support number?

I was having a problem with Verizon last week, but that one started working yesterday. (Tech support specifically told me they did nothing last week to facilitate this.)

I am also aware of a problem with AT&T, but because I have them for home service, I called and reported it directly to them. (But only after tech support told me that was my only option.) They said it would be working by Noon tomorrow.

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mike commented · Mar 25, 2015 at 07:50 PM

Either option will work. You can do whichever is most convenient. If you call support on the phone, they will verify and collect your information over the phone. Both options will get a support case started for you.

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