Google Voice Help

[garyr2548]

Ok, I have been working on this issue for several days now to no avail. I have searched the forum but the only posts I see that come close don't really address my problem and were not from an android platform, so if you find one for me to go to (because it is 330am and i may have missed it), just let me know otherwise I will describe my issue:

• For starters I am using google voice with a non-google numner

• I am using a Motorola Droid

• My assigned google voicemail access number is 850-583-XXXX

• The number given to set up conditional forwarding is different from the one showing assigned as my google voicemail access numner (from what I have read in the google forums, that is correct)

• my verizon account is an alltel takeover and I am still on the alltel billing plan

• I am located in the greater tampa bay fl region

Ok I have set up the account in google.com/voice by the numbers. Everything exactly as needed. It auto identifies my carrier as verizon when I verify my numner. I set up my gv app and all is well. I tried calling from a second number and get a recording asking to enter the number I am trying to reach followed by the pound sign. So long story short no dice. I deactivate everything, and try again the next night. Next night comes around, set everything up exactly the same and it works like a champ. I test called from the same line as before, goes to the normal greeting that the google voice subscriber is not available leave a message blah blah blah.... I leave three separate test messages and each go right to my phone app, text message, and email no problem. I go to sleep happy that I am not wasting anymore time on this problem and when I get up I have text msgs from people saying my voicemail is screwed up. I attempt a test call and, no dice. Again it asks to enter the number I am trying to reach followed by the pound sign. So I deactivate it all and set it up again, and for the past week I have been doing this and got nowhere. It has never worked again.

I have scoured the google voice forums for advice but just dont find anything helpful. I have tried adding *71 *90 & *92 forwarding using evey combination as well as using both numbers given to my by google. Nothing has shown success.

So for kicks I take my work phone, a crappy pos sprint nextel, add that number to the same account as an addition phone, verify it, and test call it from my droid and, it works like a champ. Tried 5 calls and every one worked exactly perfect.

So I am beginning to think its more of a verizon issue than anything. I mean it worked once, for a few test calls anyhow, and then because I went to sleep it f'ed up??????? And Sprint crappy nextel works, ugh..... i am lost......

Please let me know if anyone has the same problem or if you have found an intelligent solution. I am at my wits end and decided to turn to my favorite support group, PPC geeks. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give you as much info as possible. Thanks in advance for your help!

[Nosey]

I'm on alltel prepaid and can't do the special call forwarding, so what I ended up doing is not giving my cell number out (which was a new number and I hadn't given out anyways) and getting a regular gv number and give that out, only 2 people know my regular cell number, I don't even know it, I always have to look it up...

while researching the call fowarding options I found out that during the alltel/verizon changes, some features work as though you are on alltel and some as though you are on verizon, which makes it hard to do certain things, and this depends on which area you are in and a bunch of stuff, per the alltel and verizon people, in my case with the prepaid, I'm in an area that verizon didn't buy, but anything I do goes through verizon yet verizon can't help and I'm transferred to alltel, yet my phone acts like a verizon phone

I was even told that there were something like 5 different * codes to setup the conditional call forwarding depending on what market you are in

so, best thing I would suggest, get a regular gv number and migrate to that

hope this helps, if not, give me some more detail as to the problem and I'll see what more I can help with, I have spent a lot of time getting my diamond to work on prepaid with as little $$ out as possible, right now I have it down to unlimited txt/voice (in/out) for $1/day

[banden]

I believe Nosey is on the right track... my thinking is that Verizon isn't allowing the port of your number. I wonder if they will support that through customer service?

[Nosey]

banden: it has nothing to do with porting a number, gv is just a relay service, so to speak, it's all about call forwarding, someone calls your gv number and it does a call forwarding to your number(s), if you choose the "use your own number" with gv all that is doing is changing who your cell phone forwards unanswered calls to (a cell phone uses 3 call forwarding options, transparent to most users and unchangeable to most)

cell phones use conditional call forwarding for voicemail, (1)forward if no answer, (2)forward if unavailableno service and (3)forward if busy... some phones you can see the number that your call is forwarded to, it's forwarded to a central number with your cell company that see's the call is being forwarded by your cell number and directs the call to your voicemail box

so it's all about call forwarding and knowing how to correctly (if you even can) forward your cell number to gv or if you can't then setting up a gv number and not giving out your cell number to anyone but instead give out your gv number

[banden]

Aha! Good to know. I just went over and read more on that. I'd assumed wrong.

[garyr2548]

Ok an update to my problem. Seems that the service is working when a number calls me from out of the Tampa metro area. Area codes 813, 352, and 727 all fail to trigger the correct function, instead calls from those area codes prompt the caller to reenter the number followed by the pound sign to be able to leave a message. I just got a call from a 516 area code and it worked flawlessly. I didnt recognize the number, hit ignore, and a few moments later received my message through google voice. So i think I have narrowed this down to some type of verizon issue in the tampa metro area. Just in case you were wondering, I did set up a google voice account on a different gmail account and picked a google number. The exact same thing happened with that voice mail as what I am getting now, so I know there is no difference in which gv path I take, I get the same result. I hope to be able to get someone who can do more than read a script when I call customer service this weekend. If anyone has had any luck or insight in the same area for this issue, or any area for that matter that may have some other tips or some other call forwarding codes I can try other than the three mentioned in the OP, let me know. Thanks to all for you replies.
Gary

[Nosey]

it does sound like a verizon problem, but can you give this a shot, on the google number, set it up in the settings/call menu to show your google number for caller id and turn on the caller presentation, see if that helps any

I have read (and I read ppcgeeks and google voice forums religiously) about the "bring your own number" having intermittent problems with what you have described, I haven't seen (that I recall) any mention about the problem with a gv number

I have not had any issues with the setup that I have (alltel prepaid, google caller id set to show google number and caller presentation on) since I started using at around october, but that doesn't mean that it's not happening, just no one has told me about the problem

but by setting it up like I have mine, that would help rule out gv or verizon as being the problem, but I'm putting my $$ on verizon

best I can understand, the only time someone would get the prompt to enter a number is when they are calling the "byon" (bring your own number), the reason for this is how I explained earlier were your call forwarding is actually going to a "generic" number for all, when I was with sprint, not sure if it's still available, you could call areacode-prefix-???? (can't remember the ???), for example, if your number was 919-555-1212 you would call 919-555-???? (I want to say it was page), and you could would be prompted to enter the persons cell number and you would get straight into voicemail

what it appears to be happening is that verizon isn't passing the called number caller id on and gv doesn't know what number the person is calling (again, from what I understand and recall, caller id is actually made up of 3? lines, callers number/callers name/called number, but you only see the callers name/callers number, this is how gv can display a blocked number, etc...)

anyways, give that a shot (and pardon me for being long winded, I tend to do that sometimes when I start typing)

[garyr2548]

Nosey, Thanks for your reply and idea of trying my GV number account again. I set it up again over the weekend and it works flawlessly now. One of the reasons I did not want to use the GV number was the fact of because of my profession my number has been given out to people spread across the area I live and throughout the southeast and I don't have the means of telling everyone the change. But I set it up and tested both my standard number and my GV number the both lines go to GV voice mail service so now it does not matter what number is called, the messages are all handled by GV. So thank you for your replies!

Gary

[Nosey]

glad to see that it's working, what did you have to do? get a new gv number? cause you said you set it up with the use your own number, and I understood that with a use your own number, you don't actually get a gv number you can call or others can call

one thing you could do is create a custom voicemail message that says something like "I have changed my number, if you are calling "cell number", please note that my new number is "gv number", both numbers will temporally stay active.

and another voicemail that would be your normal voicemail that plays when someone calls your gv number

then you can create 2 groups, call them like, gv and cell, and hopefully if things go right, when someone calls your gv number directly you can place them in the gv group and when someone calls your cell you can put them in the cell group

this would require you to sit down each day for a minute and look at the calls on your cell and move those over to the cell group, until they start using your gv number

might need to create a few more voicemail messages, lets see, 1 for any caller, 1 for gv number and 1 for cell...

just creative thinking lol