Ooma, please improve Blacklist options

[fred67]

You know it would be nice if from the Dashboard one could check their Missed and Recent calls and, if desired, click them to add to the personal Blacklist without having to go to Preferences and access Blacklist then manually add the number(s). Jus' sayin'!

Huh? You can do it exactly that way from the call log. Just click on the circle/slash icon at the right, next to the gear icon, and you can immediately add the number to your blacklist. In fact I've never done it the manual way.

He meant the dashboard, right when you log in, there's a "calls and messages" "widget" that you can look at recent calls from.

I was actually coming here to suggest the same thing, but wanted to read before being redundant. As a relatively new user inundated with robocalls despite being on the national DNC list, I need to thank you for pointing out that feature is available on the calls logs. Every few weeks I was logging in to add a few new numbers to the blacklist, and copying them off my phone. Now I it's much easier.

It's also cool that I can now add names to numbers that didn't have them (a lot of mobile numbers), including our cellphone numbers.

[philmarlies]

Hi Maybe this may help. Phil

To stop HIGH TECH Telemarketers and HIGH TECH spam callers who when they receive a call blocked message or number disconnected message THEN CALL BACK TO THAT PHONE NUMBER FROM a DIFFERENT phone number (Which has not been blocked) there by defeating the black list. SO JUST SELECT CONTINUOUS RING (your phone Number will not ring) they will only hear ringing and will not call back from a different phone number they will keep calling back from the same phone number and be BLOCKED forever by only entering 1 phone number into your BLACK LIST. Hope it helps Phil philmarlies

[joe123]

Hi all.

This is an issue dear to all of us, reducing the amount of Telemarketing calls - most of which are being done by machines today. I am getting some 80+ telemarketing calls per week.

First of all, there are some very simple rules that can eliminate most if not all Telemarketers.

I am using PhoneTray http://www.phonetray.com/ with some simple rules. PhoneTray let's me wildcard numbers, so I block all 800-***-****, 888-***-****, 877-***-****, 000-***-****. PhoneTray can also do name Wildcards, so I can block "Name Not Found", etc.

I can see where is would be very difficult for Ooma to offer an option to block by names using Wildcards - this takes a LOT of processing power. However, it would be very easy to block by number wildcard, specially doing just the 4 area codes I liseted above ( 800, 888, 877, 000 ).

Blocking these area codes would NOT be load on Ooma servers, or on our Ooma Telos.

The reason I want to get away from PhoneTray as good as it is, is that I have to keep my computer running 24/7 to run it. If Ooma had a simple blacklist of numbers by area code, just 4 simple area codes, that would elimated a very GOOD amount of telemarketers.

I like to hear from Ooma or others why this is so hard to implement?

[murphy]

It would also eliminate the call from your credit card company or your bank to tell you that your account has been stolen.
Many calls from 800 class numbers are valid calls.

[joe123]

It would also eliminate the call from your credit card company or your bank to tell you that your account has been stolen.
Many calls from 800 class numbers are valid calls.

I recently had AMEX call me due to a foreing charge being made on my card. Amex tried my home line, no cigar, then they tried my cell line, no cigar then then tried my work line at which point they were able to get a hold of me. When they want to, they will find you.

Even if my land line was all I had and I had to choose between Telemarketers or important 800 calls, I choose to block telemarketers. You can also choose to transfer to voice mail instead. I don't enjoy being called 6 times a day during my dinner by automated non-human machine telemarketers.

That being said, I like to hear why they cannot implement a simple 800, 888, 877, 000 block call or go-to voice message setup. It's not that hard to do and it will eliminate some ~95% of telemarketers.

[rschoonh]

I agree with the general tone and most of the specifics already presented. One of the great differentiating benefits of Ooma is the ability to filter out spam calls, and I think it is something that should get further attention and development effort.

A previous poster inquired about the "Community Blacklist" (or as he put it, "crowd-sourced"). When I signed up for Ooma, I considered this to be a tremendously powerful tool against the phone spammers, but since there is no indication of when this feature has been invoked, and I repeated get spammed from numbers that I'm sure others would have already blocked, I have to wonder frankly if this feature even actually exists!

Ooma, if you can post some statistics concerning the use and effectiveness of the Community Blacklist, I think many of us would be very interested. Even better would be to prominently display the count of community blacklisted calls blocked on each user's dashboard and a link to examine them.

Finally, a suggestion for a small improvement to the call log to facilitate dealing with calls in general: If you are like me, you often cannot recognize a telephone number with an ambiguous or unlisted CallerID and wonder if it is someone you know or do business with, or a spammer. In my case, I highlight the number in the log and then Google it (by right-clicking in Chrome). Usually, this will produce a quick result from a site like 800notes.com or whocallsme.com. How about just making this a bit simpler, and making the telephone numbers each link to a search request or a specific site such as above? This would make it quick and easy for anyone to research an unknown number.

Thanks

[joe123]

Ooma reps, any replys?

[BadBiscuit]

The ability to blacklist callers is the main reason I moved from Vonage to Ooma and pay for premier, yet it is obvious more sophisticated blacklist capabilities are needed for Ooma to continue to draw customers with this feature and retain their current premier customers. The ability to block using wildcards in the number or by use the callerid name would help me greatly to eliminate many of my recent harassing calls. I'd like to hear a response from Ooma on what can be done and when it is planned.

Without rehashing the problem too much, let me just add that my recent issue is with the caller id name "UNV VACATIONS" which calls from varied numbers, and a "lower your interest" robocall where the callerid name and number varies, but comes from one of a short list of exchanges and often ends in 9999. I'm currently using 21 entries in my blacklist for this one robocaller alone with no confidence that I wont need to add more in the future. The below link is for the last number they called from and shows others who they have called. I added all of the numbers reported to my blacklist, but shouldn't Ooma's public blacklist be taking care of this for me???

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/5035630081

Ooma, There must be a better way to stop such callers from from getting around your/our blacklists.

[lite1]

Plus 1 for most if not all of the suggestions. I also particularly want a White List where I can specify a number that will always get through regardless of any other rules and settings I have in place. Unless there is an improvement in black list effectiveness, it is not likely that I will continue with Premier.

[joe123]

Let's all stay in reality that Ooma is pretty much ignoring this request.

I personally believe that it's because of the fear of lawsuits from the commercial sector.

It is NOT a technical issue as it is easy to block numbers as Ooma is already doing in very VERY limited context.