Ooma doesn't disconnect

[Mr.CC]

When I make or receive a call, and the other person hangs up, Ooma immediately gives me an open line -- 30 secs. of dial tone, 30 secs. of "busy signal" beeps, then forever of "off the hook" raspy beeping. (When I call others and hangup my Ooma, the receiving line disconnects briefly before getting a dial tone again.)

This is a major problem when my answering machine takes the calls. Every message is followed by 30 seconds of dial tone. (Luckily, my AM disconnects at the first "busy signal" beep otherwise the tape would fill up on one message.)

Why doesn't Ooma disconnect my line? Do others have this problem? Is there some setting I made? Or, need to make?

Help, please. I'm counting on all you experts!

[Mr.CC]

No one has a comment?

I've tested my AT$T line and when the other person hangs up, AT$T immediately disconnects me -- and my answering machine stops -- then gives me 15 seconds of dead air before re-connecting with a dial tone.

Shouldn't Ooma also disconnect the line when the other party hangs up?

[Tuan]

First of all, Ooma comes with voicemail, which is much better than using an answering machine. Ooma even emails me a copy of the voicemail. This is the reason why my obsolete AM is in the closet. Anyhow, I dug my AM out to do this the test to see what you're talking about.

Plugged my AM into the Telo's phone port in the rear and set the AM to pick up within 2 rings so it can pick up before Ooma's voicemail. After I finished hearing the greeting, I immediately hang up. My AM only records 1 sec of the ooma tone before it disconnects. I also test leaving a message and the AM records 1 sec of Ooma after my message. I did the same test on the Office and also achieve same result.

Based on my findings, it sounds like it's your old answering machine that's not recognizing the ooma tone, so it keeps on recording for additional 30 sec.

[Mr.CC]

Thanks for the reply. And the test.

I have tried this with an old Western Electric wired phone and the same thing happens -- when the other party hangs up, Ooma immediately gives me an open line (dial tone ...); there is no pause/disconnect whatsoever. (Whereas, ATT does a brief disconnect before opening the line again.) Which leads to my question -- shouldn't or doesn't Ooma disconnect the line when the other end hangs up? If not, why not?

I'm sure there is some setting I made, or didn't make, that causes this isn't there?!?

[lbmofo]

I'm sure there is some setting I made, or didn't make, that causes this isn't there?!?

The behavior that you experience is the same with my Ooma system. Doesn't have anything to do with settings. When remote party hangs up, there is a brief disconnect and then you'd get an Ooma dialtone immediately.

I've done a test on 2 different phone systems albeit same brand, my local answering machines were able to detect the Ooma disconnect and stop recording immediately after someone hangs up. So, this must be a compatibility issue with your brand of phone system/answering machine.

My 2 AT&T Phone Systems are:

SL82518

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CL83463

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Like Tuan was saying, maybe you should consider using Ooma's VM system. Much more capable than a local answering machine even with Ooma's basic service. You can get to your VMs from anywhere (via web and phone). You can keep many folds more messages than your local machine can. You can download your VMs to save to your computer and other places. You can review/manage your VMs with ease on a computer; even create customized folders to store them.

[Akai]

Ibmofo,

Unless you subscribe to the Premier service, Ooma voicemail does not give you call screening? That is why I am using my phone voicemail feature instead of Ooma.

Why is call screening not a standard feature?

[lbmofo]

Unless you subscribe to the Premier service, Ooma voicemail does not give you call screening?

Tha't correct. You can only enable call screening (listen to folks leaving you a message much like a local answering machine and decide to pick up if you want) if you have Premier. This "call screening" is unique to Ooma as far as voicemail systems go (other VoIP providers such as Comcast, Centurylink, Uverse, etc don't have "call screening" capable device deployed for their services). Some of them use the term "call screening" to mean blacklist or anonymous call reject; essentially Ooma's privacy features (but Ooma's privacy features are much more powerful).

That is why I am using my phone voicemail feature instead of Ooma.

If your local answering machine is recording messages okay, in your situation, may make sense to use it for the call screening feature. If you have call waiting calls you don't answer, your Ooma VM will pick it up so you have a nice backup too.

Why is call screening not a standard feature?

Like I mentioned earlier, no other company's voicemail system does Ooma's "call screening" like local answering machine. Ooma's basic service comes with voicemail but this unique feature "call screening" is not included. But you get to enjoy it if you are Premier.

[Mr.CC]

The behavior that you experience is the same with my Ooma system.
When remote party hangs up, there is a brief disconnect and then you'd get an Ooma dialtone immediately.

my local answering machines were able to detect the Ooma disconnect and stop recording immediately after someone hangs up.

[Sorry about this messed up Quote. I can't quite figure out how to do it! ] Figured it out. Ignore this comment

I contacted tech support and as soon as I mentioned the line staying open, he immediately said it's a known issue and they're "working" on it.

On my phones, including a wired old Western Electric AT$T phone, I have never gotten the brief disconnect -- at least none that I could ever notice.

And, yes, the answering machine stopping does appear to be brand/unit dependant. My newest one keeps going but an old unit stopped after only a couple of seconds of dial tone.

Since this "open line" seems to be a known Ooma issue, I think we have beat this to death enough. Thanks to all that responded.

[parity_bit]

Unless you subscribe to the Premier service, Ooma voicemail does not give you call screening?

Tha't correct. You can only enable call screening (listen to folks leaving you a message much like a local answering machine and decide to pick up if you want) if you have Premier. This "call screening" is unique to Ooma as far as voicemail systems go (other VoIP providers such as Comcast, Centurylink, Uverse, etc don't have "call screening" capable device deployed for their services). Some of them use the term "call screening" to mean blacklist or anonymous call reject; essentially Ooma's privacy features (but Ooma's privacy features are much more powerful).

I haven't used Google Voice in a while, but from what I recal when using it, there was the option to screen calls.
It worked quite well, in fact even better than the Telo with premier.
From what I remember it let you actually pick up the phone and listen to a voicemail being left along with having the option to break through and connect to the caller with a simple button press. This is certainly a feature that I'd recommend for an Ooma wishlist.

[Akai]

Perhaps voicemail screening can be offered a la carte?

Wonder how many percent of OOMA users subscribed to Premier?

I am sure more people will be willing to buy just call screening if offered a la carte.