Dialing toll free from Canada - crappy results

[turbo9]

I'm in Canada dialing a Canadian (likely very local) 877 number. I can get one of these results:
- success
- fast busy
- we're sorry but your call cannot be connected as dialed
- the number has been disconnected

Unfortunately, success is rarely the outcome. I've tried with the 1, without it, and by dialing *82 before the call. The result always varies - nothing makes it work consistently.

Now I guessed that Ooma was dumping the call onto the PSTN some place in the States and that area code was not acceptable to my (likely Ontario only) 877 destination. And a call to Ooma (more or less) confirmed this - I got the quoted reply I have seen in other postings. (20 years at Nortel does pay off in certain situations)

Note that one option was dial the local number which I have no idea what that number would be. They only publish toll free numbers (ironically, much like Ooma itself does). Not acceptable. This is a big problem if you plan to conquer Canada (which would be so easy at your pricing).

Bear in mind our telecom carriers are so money grubbing that they charge us for toll free calls made on our cell phones. It somewhat stupid to tell us that our calls across Canada are free, unless you are calling a toll free number which will cost us money.

Yes, you are new to Canada, but this is a gross oversight. There are lots of people following my exploits of dumping the local carrier and this is a big fail. I'm seriously debating whether to continue down this road. Costco will take my Telo back without question.

Since you want to win Canada, please invest in a Canadian footprint and route toll free calls originating in Canada onto the PSTN via a tandem switch in Canada. Just pick Ontario where most of us live. You will need to own the switch since no carrier here will partner with you since you are planning on stealing their business. Since the calls sometimes go through, use that tandem switch as the outbound in the interim. If you can't do this today, promise me a date when.

I'm calling from 613 to 877-779-1575. You should get a holiday greeting followed by a telephone tree - lots of time to hang up. Just because you get ringing does not mean the call goes through.

[thunderbird]

turbo9:
Instead of dialing *82:
Try dialing *99 if you have an Ooma Hub (may have echo during this call).
Try dialing *98 or *96 if you have an Ooma Telo. Example: *98-1-877-779-1575

I you get a fast busy, stay on the line a little longer, most times the call will still go through.

Last:
Send a personal E-mail to Bobby B. memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=53

Or

Send a personal E-mail to Dennis P. memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=59

Describing your problem. Ooma Engineering will probably want to know about this problem.

[turbo9]

Instead of dialing *82:
Try dialing *99 if you have an Ooma Hub (may have echo during this call).
Try dialing *98 or *96 if you have an Ooma Telo. Example: *98-1-877-779-1575

I you get a fast busy, stay on the line a little longer, most times the call will still go through.

Last:
Send a personal E-mail to Bobby B. memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=53

Or

Send a personal E-mail to Dennis P. memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=59

Describing your problem. Ooma Engineering will probably want to know about this problem.

I have a Telo. Here are the results:

*98
===
the number you have dialed is disconnected (a lie!)
sucess!
cannot be completed as dialed (sadness)

*96
===
not available from my calling area 4049L (my suspicion all along)
fast busy - pause - fast busy - call did not go through
not available from my calling area 4049L

As a matter of what I deem as proper procedure, I don't like to fire off email to those on the inside without going through the right channels first. I'll do that, but as a last resort.

I called Ooma and made it clear that I thought this situation and their response sucked. They gave me no tracking number, so I doubt the nice lady will do anything. So, I resorted to this forum on the assumption that someone at Ooma will actually care and that they have a Product Manager for Canada that might do something if he wants to meet his targets. From reading this forum, it seems some on the inside are more responsive than their front line staff, so I will let them step up. Please forgive my position if are Ooma - I could not make that determination from your post.

In my opinion, it clearly is an engineering problem for a (prematurely?) launched product with a known toll free situation (similar problems exist within the US) and I let the call center know this. There is a decent solution for the Canadian market as I suggested - I explained I had worked for years in telecom in North America.

I prefer Ooma reach back out to me and now is their opportunity to do so.

I still don't get why the results vary. I assume that I am jumping off the Internet and onto the PSTN at different points which is why the results vary.

On the upside, it is fantastic to have access to the US only 800 numbers. I used an internal feature at Nortel to get access to these numbers when US based business never realized they might have clients in Canada. But, this gain is a loss to Canadian based business looking for Canadian customers. In my example, they are an ISP - they can only serve local clients.

[thunderbird]

(Some thing happened to this post)?

[turbo9]

Hi Thunderbird

I do appreciate the help. I see you are quite busy helping others. Do you work for Ooma? I was assuming you were just an evangelist with some insider knowledge.

Your last post is content free - just a quote of my post.

[lbmofo]

Hi turbo9, the Tek Savvy toll free is reachable from all 4 of my Ooma numbers in US (Washington, Texas).

I see others have had issues reaching this number in the past so the issue may not be with Ooma alone.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r253180 ... onnecting-
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r245857 ... SI-Office-

In the meantime, this particular toll free has a local counterpart if useful to you: 519-360-1575

You can email one of the mods here to ask why you might be having problems with this particular toll free: Bobby B or ntoy.

FYI, this has some info on which local company might be servicing that toll free, local #: http://tnid.us/lookup/5193601575/

[turbo9]

Hi turbo9, the Tek Savvy toll free is reachable from all 4 of my Ooma numbers in US (Washington, Texas).

I see others have had issues reaching this number in the past so the issue may not be with Ooma alone.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r253180 ... onnecting-
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r245857 ... SI-Office-

In the meantime, this particular toll free has a local counterpart if useful to you: 519-360-1575

You can email one of the mods here to ask why you might be having problems with this particular toll free: Bobby B or ntoy.

I guess I did jump to some conclusions - the Teksavvy number was the first I had tried. Perhaps it is the incumbents trying to prevent a disrupter of their old school business model from scooping up their customers.

I just tried some other random businesses which might have local only toll free.

1.800.267.5100 - could not be reached from my calling area
1-877-868-8292 - fast busy, pause, fast busy
1 877-312-2453 - rings - no answer - might actually have worked
1-877-660-8550 - worked. However, this was a University which might just take callers from everywhere (the second number was a different University and it failed)

I'm still thinking it is not focused on just one number - especially given the explicit message from the first attempt.

Thanks for helping! You guys are as supportive as Linux users.

[thunderbird]

Hi Thunderbird

I do appreciate the help. I see you are quite busy helping others. Do you work for Ooma? I was assuming you were just an evangelist with some insider knowledge.

Your last post is content free - just a quote of my post.

No I don't work for Ooma. I'm just a forum member that used to work in a large engineering department, doing a similar job, but not in the telecommunications field. I attempt to help other forum member as a kind of pay back, and it's very interesting.

Normally it's not done as a rule, but because the Ooma phone service is new to Canada, I would send and E-mail to Bobby B. or Dennis P. detailing your probem.

[turbo9]

I should clarify that I am attempting to dial Canadian toll free numbers from Canada. So, both the origin and destination are in Canada.

I'm getting the same results today.

[turbo9]

Here is the Jan 3 update. I called my standard test number today and it went through flawlessly. So, either that specific number got fixed, or I got lucky.

Tried another number, received the message "number no longer in service".. but I held on a little longer while I was writing that down and heard a second (different) message about why my call failed which I didn't get a chance to write down because then I heard ringing and the call went through.

While not exactly all good yet, I went sort of went two for two today although one call was more of a "reached base on an error". Regardless, I came around to score both times.