Dialing toll free from Canada - crappy results

[turbo9]

Jan 14 update. Just bad news to report. Called 877-779-1575 many times and never got through. Had to revert to calling their local number. Good thing it's now a local call.

Was advised by Ooma to prefix the call with *67. That made absolutely no difference.

I am assured that this problem is being worked on, but I'm not seeing much of a plan or progress. Regardless, I have kicked out the incumbent and now just have Ooma.

[thunderbird]

Jan 14 update. Just bad news to report. Called 877-779-1575 many times and never got through. Had to revert to calling their local number. Good thing it's now a local call.

Was advised by Ooma to prefix the call with *67. That made absolutely no difference.

I am assured that this problem is being worked on, but I'm not seeing much of a plan or progress. Regardless, I have kicked out the incumbent and now just have Ooma.

Below is a collection of things that helped others:

8xx Toll Free Number Calling Problem (Hear Fast Busy)

By valleybill:
You now must not have caller ID blocking. If you do, then dial *82 before a toll free call.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12455&start=40

By ehl1:
1) The issue has been found to relate to Caller ID blocking - and my setting was indeed set to block my caller ID on outgoing calls. We switched off that feature, rebooted the Ooma Telo, and lo and behold, ALL 800 #s went through first try, no issue(!)

2) In addition, it was reported that even with the caller ID blocking active, if you wait 5-10 seconds after the fast busy, the call apparently does connect (I never tried this and still haven't)
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12455&start=30


Next if that doesn’t work:
Try calling with a *99 in front of the number for the Oomo Hub.
Try Calling with a *99, *98 or *96 in front of the number if you have an Ooma Telo.
Example: *98-1-xxx-xxx-xxxx

Next if that doesn’t work:
If that doesn't work, remove power from the Ooma device for 20 minutes and then test. You may have to repeat this procedure up to three times.

Next if that doesn’t work:
dial *#*#099 on the phone attached to Telo to issue a factory reset

[turbo9]

Below is a collection of things that helped others:

8xx Toll Free Number Calling Problem (Hear Fast Busy)

By valleybill:
You now must not have caller ID blocking. If you do, then dial *82 before a toll free call.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12455&start=40

By ehl1:
1) The issue has been found to relate to Caller ID blocking - and my setting was indeed set to block my caller ID on outgoing calls. We switched off that feature, rebooted the Ooma Telo, and lo and behold, ALL 800 #s went through first try, no issue(!)

2) In addition, it was reported that even with the caller ID blocking active, if you wait 5-10 seconds after the fast busy, the call apparently does connect (I never tried this and still haven't)
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12455&start=30


Next if that doesn’t work:
Try calling with a *99 in front of the number for the Oomo Hub.
Try Calling with a *99, *98 or *96 in front of the number if you have an Ooma Telo.
Example: *98-1-xxx-xxx-xxxx

Next if that doesn’t work:
If that doesn't work, remove power from the Ooma device for 20 minutes and then test. You may have to repeat this procedure up to three times.

Next if that doesn’t work:
dial *#*#099 on the phone attached to Telo to issue a factory reset

This is all very valuable information to work around this issue and they seem to work consistently for many people. I've tried all of these tricks and had no more success than just dialing the number again as usual. It would seem I am in the extreme minority.

This is an issue and it needs to be solved and not just worked around. If there was a single workaround that always worked, that would be great. Having to spend a couple of minutes trying a bunch of different dialing patterns to find one that works is something I find pretty frustrating given that it is 2012 and computers have been connecting phone calls for 30 years - this issue should not exist.

....and you should have seen the look on my wife's face when I explained how to dial a toll free number....

I have convinced my 83 year old father to switch to Ooma as well. I am not looking forward to having the toll free conversation with him.

The two solutions that I have found that work better and are much faster are: google for a local number to call and / or use my cell phone to call the toll free number. My plan going forward is to just try dialing number once with no tricks and then reverting to one of my other solutions. Then, I update my ticket with Ooma to say it still does not work.

Sorry if this comes across as negative - I do appreciate all the help you have provided to myself and others. But, it is time to fix this problem.

[thunderbird]

turbo9:
One other thing, do you have ten digit calling enabled in My Ooma at https://my.ooma.com/system . If not give that a try. In the past for some people ten digit calling has helped.

What part of Canada do you live, and how cold is it?

[turbo9]

I did not have it enabled. I'll give it a shot.

I'm in Ottawa. We're in a bout of "brass monkey weather" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_monk ... xpression) right now. Right now, it is -15C. It was an abrupt change from the just below freezing weather on Friday. But, it is calm and sunny which really helps you enjoy things. As a bonus, it is almost too cold to snow, which is an improvement from Friday when it snowed like crazy all day.

[thunderbird]

I did not have it enabled. I'll give it a shot.

I'm in Ottawa. We're in a bout of "brass monkey weather" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_monk ... xpression) right now. Right now, it is -15C. It was an abrupt change from the just below freezing weather on Friday. But, it is calm and sunny which really helps you enjoy things. As a bonus, it is almost too cold to snow, which is an improvement from Friday when it snowed like crazy all day.

I used an online converter, -15 degree Celsius = 5 degree Fahrenheit . I can remember some of those days when it was more then -30 degrees Fahrenheit (-30 degree Fahrenheit = -34.4444444 degrees Celsius) growing up in the northern US. I also can remember those Brass Monkey terms in reference to the weather.

[turbo9]

Another soft failure (soft success?) today with 10 digit dialing enabled.

Fast busy for 10 seconds, a pause, ringing and then success. That is a pretty crazy scenario in my mind - the system should not change it's opinion about the success of the call after it initially says "no". Why it says "hang on a second" and then succeeds is the strange part.

Back to temperature conversion - the couple of key conversions to remember:
[*] -40F = -40C (both are really freakin' cold and the scale doesn't matter any more)
[*] 0F = -18C (pretty cold)
[*] 32F = 0C (freezing)

So, it's only cold between 0C and -18C when it transitions to really cold below that and it usually stops snowing. You just hope there is no wind because that is what really sucks the heat out of you.

[thunderbird]

turbo9:
I'm glad to see that you have some at least limited success when calling out, using 8xx numbers, using your Ooma device.

New Ooma Telo Firmware Update 52474 will be "pushed" out, by Ooma, over the next two weeks. Maybe that will help also.

[turbo9]

My experiences lately have at least been consistent.
- Fast busy for about 10 seconds
- Dead air for about three or four seconds
- ringing
- call connection

New Ooma Telo Firmware Update 52474 will be "pushed" out, by Ooma, over the next two weeks. Maybe that will help also.

I would not think this is a problem in the firmware.....I'm thinking it's more of a call routing problem which I would suspect to be a central service in Ooma's network. Perhaps my telecom background is leading me astray and these terminals are far more intelligent than I give them credit.

[thunderbird]

My experiences lately have at least been consistent.
- Fast busy for about 10 seconds
- Dead air for about three or four seconds
- ringing
- call connection

New Ooma Telo Firmware Update 52474 will be "pushed" out, by Ooma, over the next two weeks. Maybe that will help also.

I would not think this is a problem in the firmware.....I'm thinking it's more of a call routing problem which I would suspect to be a central service in Ooma's network. Perhaps my telecom background is leading me astray and these terminals are far more intelligent than I give them credit.

Without a doubt the problem that you are having is on the Ooma side. I would, instead of calling Ooma Customer Support, send them an E-mail outlining the problem. I have better luck with resolving an Ooma problem by using E-mail. Usually after the first response from Ooma Customer Support, I hear nothing back from Ooma Customer Support, but usually after a few days, the problem mysteriously goes away.

An easy way to check your current Ooma Telo firmware version:
Check for the version of Ooma Telo firmware that you have by Dialing *#*#001. The firmware version audio comes out of your Ooma Telo Speaker after dialing *#*#001 in one of your phones.