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Can't receive call from certain number - both carriers deny responsibility

Drake ChambersDrake Chambers Lay out my formal shorts.Registered User regular
I think the solution in this case is just going to be "drop AT&T" (which I respect as a suggestion for many reasons) but I still want to throw this out there in case anyone has had a similar experience.

Early last week, something mysterious occurred in telephone magic land and my in-laws are no longer able to call us from their land line phone. My wife and I both have iPhone 6's through AT&T. My in-laws have a land line through Wave Broadband, a relatively small provider on the west coast in the U.S. The subject number has not been blocked on either of our phones.

Here's what happens in our test cases:

In-laws call my phone or my wife's phone from their landline:

They either hear it ring forever and never reach our voice mail, or they don't even hear a ring. On our end, the call flashes up for a split-second and then says call ended, and it's counted as a missed call. As long as they attempt to connect, missed calls will tick off on our phones, about one every five seconds.

In-laws call anyone else, including my work phone, a cell phone through AT&T:

No problem.

We call our in-laws on their landline:

No problem.

In-laws call us from their non-Wave cell phone, generally only used in emergencies:

No problem.

Feel free to suggest any other test cases you think might shed some light, but I feel like we've really pinned it down to being an issue between our networks. Both carriers gave helpful enough customer service at first, acknowledging that it's an unusual issue and escalating help tickets to tier-2 support. Both tier-2 responses were "we can't find any problem on our end".

Any ideas?

Posts

  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    This is almost certainly a problem with your in-laws provider. The provider is not routing the number correctly. If them calling the regular maintenance line isn't getting it fixed, it's time for them to make an executive escalation with that company.

    Peace to fashion police, I wear my heart
    On my sleeve, let the runway start
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    The only other idea I would have would be to set up a google voice number to call them but I'm not really sure that will prove anything as it really looks like it is on their landline. Which they probably have no alternate choice in.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • BlazeFireBlazeFire Registered User regular
    Do they know anyone else on Wave that you could rerun some of these tests with?

  • Drake ChambersDrake Chambers Lay out my formal shorts. Registered User regular
    Cambiata wrote: »
    This is almost certainly a problem with your in-laws provider. The provider is not routing the number correctly. If them calling the regular maintenance line isn't getting it fixed, it's time for them to make an executive escalation with that company.
    Thanks for the advice. I'll follow up with Wave myself one more time.
    The only other idea I would have would be to set up a google voice number to call them but I'm not really sure that will prove anything as it really looks like it is on their landline. Which they probably have no alternate choice in.
    Right -- they're in a pretty rural area and it wouldn't be reasonable to have them try to switch providers. They're elderly and not at all tech-savvy so the task of dealing with the carriers has fallen to me.
    BlazeFire wrote: »
    Do they know anyone else on Wave that you could rerun some of these tests with?
    That's a good idea -- I don't know. I'll ask them!

  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Hmm...actually since Google Voice just auto-forwards if they can call a Voice number you could set one up that would just ring your (or your wife's or both) phone when they call that number. Which might solve your immediate issue even if it's just a work around.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • kaliyamakaliyama Left to find less-moderated fora Registered User regular
    File an FCC complaint

    fwKS7.png?1
  • mtsmts Dr. Robot King Registered User regular
    this actually happened to me a bit back for my wife and my cell phone. they did a bunch of tracking etc, and believed they fixed it. I would call up ATT and tell them the issue. otherwise you won't pay since they they aren't providing you the service

    camo_sig.png
  • Drake ChambersDrake Chambers Lay out my formal shorts. Registered User regular
    Update with the oddball "solution":

    My father-in-law recalled that this all started to go wrong when there was a confusing couple of seconds where my wife and someone else had called at the same time, and he had done some juggling back-and-forth between the calls using the "flash" button on the handset.

    So, on the day that a Wave technician was coming out to the house to further diagnose this issue, my father-in-law picked up the handset and just pressed the "flash" button. Nothing obvious happened, but our issue was suddenly resolved. The arriving technician sort of shrugged and scratched his head, saying he'd never heard of this issue before.

    What really bugs me about this as a solution to the problem though is that both my wife's phone and my phone were affected. My phone had nothing to do with the confusing call-waiting mix-up that started the whole mess. We are obviously on the same network, and my number is just one digit off of hers, but it's still a different number.

    Anyway, I'm glad it's fixed but I'm still bothered by the fact that neither carrier has offered any ideas about what was actually happening. This can't be the only time this has ever happened to anyone, right?

  • DjeetDjeet Registered User regular
    It first sounded like it was a problem with your parents' carrier, but if it was resolved by pushing a button on the handset then it sounds like it's an issue with the handset itself and not the carrier.

    Another step in your debug would've been to have them try to call you on their landline, but using a different handset/phone. It'd be only worthwhile to try when the issue is presenting.

  • Inquisitor77Inquisitor77 2 x Penny Arcade Fight Club Champion A fixed point in space and timeRegistered User regular
    Update with the oddball "solution":

    My father-in-law recalled that this all started to go wrong when there was a confusing couple of seconds where my wife and someone else had called at the same time, and he had done some juggling back-and-forth between the calls using the "flash" button on the handset.

    So, on the day that a Wave technician was coming out to the house to further diagnose this issue, my father-in-law picked up the handset and just pressed the "flash" button. Nothing obvious happened, but our issue was suddenly resolved. The arriving technician sort of shrugged and scratched his head, saying he'd never heard of this issue before.

    What really bugs me about this as a solution to the problem though is that both my wife's phone and my phone were affected. My phone had nothing to do with the confusing call-waiting mix-up that started the whole mess. We are obviously on the same network, and my number is just one digit off of hers, but it's still a different number.

    Anyway, I'm glad it's fixed but I'm still bothered by the fact that neither carrier has offered any ideas about what was actually happening. This can't be the only time this has ever happened to anyone, right?

    Unless I'm misunderstanding the troubleshooting scenarios you walked through, it seems pretty clear here that neither of you nor your wife's phones were effected. The issue was with the handset your in-laws were using to dial out. I would not be surprised if they would have had issues dialing other numbers, too, and either didn't run into it or didn't notice it.

    You may want to consider getting them a new phone set, too.

  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    Update with the oddball "solution":

    My father-in-law recalled that this all started to go wrong when there was a confusing couple of seconds where my wife and someone else had called at the same time, and he had done some juggling back-and-forth between the calls using the "flash" button on the handset.

    So, on the day that a Wave technician was coming out to the house to further diagnose this issue, my father-in-law picked up the handset and just pressed the "flash" button. Nothing obvious happened, but our issue was suddenly resolved. The arriving technician sort of shrugged and scratched his head, saying he'd never heard of this issue before.

    What really bugs me about this as a solution to the problem though is that both my wife's phone and my phone were affected. My phone had nothing to do with the confusing call-waiting mix-up that started the whole mess. We are obviously on the same network, and my number is just one digit off of hers, but it's still a different number.

    Anyway, I'm glad it's fixed but I'm still bothered by the fact that neither carrier has offered any ideas about what was actually happening. This can't be the only time this has ever happened to anyone, right?

    Well, keep in mind that neither provider is going to know the ins and outs of all handsets in the world. If you called the handset manufacturer they might have had enough cases to be aware of the issue, but a telecom would be unlikely to.

    Peace to fashion police, I wear my heart
    On my sleeve, let the runway start
  • Drake ChambersDrake Chambers Lay out my formal shorts. Registered User regular
    Good points re: the handset. If it happens again we'll look into trying out a replacement.

    Thanks for all the ideas.

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