Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Having trouble placing or receiving calls or using your voicemail system on Ooma Telo VoIP Phones? Post your questions here.
escoop
Posts:8
Joined:Sun Apr 25, 2010 2:25 pm
Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Post by escoop » Sun Apr 25, 2010 2:35 pm

I have an Ooma Telo and one additional Telo handset with integrated landline backup setup. I have my landline based answering machine disabled so I am now dependent on Ooma for voicemail. It worked for a few hours when I first set it up last week. Now, when callers reach me and are directed to voicemail it will NOT play the greeting. I have tried turning call screening off. They are sent to voicemail as I hear their recorded confused comments like "Hello... anybody there?' It is acting like call screening - but even with call screening the greeing usually plays in setups I have had elsewhere. I have power cycled until I am blue in the face. I have shortened and lengthened the ring duration before VM pick up. I have set up my voicemail with a personal greeting - then tried automated greeting with name. I am concluding that nothing works and it is a bug in with my Telo or OOoma software. Help!

mattbake
Posts:2
Joined:Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:50 pm

Re: Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Post by mattbake » Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:04 pm

I am getting the exact same issue. It worked great for the first few days after signing up on 4/17. My landline is still active while I wait for my number to be ported. Now my symptoms regarding voicemail include the following:

- Greeting not working: I can leave a message, but cannot hear the greeting. I have tried a standard greeting with phone number, a standard greeting with name and a personal greeting to no avail.

- Incoming number in voicemail shows as my home number: Even though the call log shows the correct number and the caller-ID passed to my phones is correct, the VMs left all show they came in from my home number, not the number of the person that left the message.

My troubleshooting also concluded that this has to be a bug in my Telo.

Has anyone else had this issue? Ooma, can you help?

escoop
Posts:8
Joined:Sun Apr 25, 2010 2:25 pm

Re: Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Post by escoop » Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:37 pm

mattbake wrote:My troubleshooting also concluded that this has to be a bug in my Telo.

Has anyone else had this issue? Ooma, can you help?
I have been waiting for Ooma to help for 3 days now. For sure they are not reading these posts. I am left to conclude that the Telo is simply not ready for prime time and their tech support has no better option than "Have you tried turning it off and On?"

I'm very disappointed and I think the answer for you is bail on the port and run for a refund. I know I'm not trusting these jokers with my only phone line!

mattbake
Posts:2
Joined:Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:50 pm

Re: Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Post by mattbake » Wed Apr 28, 2010 2:14 pm

I guess I am more forgiving on this problem as I have a viable workaround. My temporary fix is to use my external answering machine for the time being as everything else seems to be working great.

I have a strong suspicion that the problem will go away completely once my number is ported and fully within the Ooma domain. If that wasnt the case, I know we would be seeing many many more complaints regarding this on this forum. From a business model perspective, I can see that their bread and butter (VoIP) be their primary focus, and the backward compatibility (land line) be their secondary focus.

Regardless, this is a problem that Ooma needs to work on as long as they offer it as a feature.

Are there any Ooma support reps out there who can help!?!

User avatar
lbmofo
Posts:9337
Joined:Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:37 pm
Location:Greater Seattle
Contact:

Re: Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Post by lbmofo » Wed Apr 28, 2010 2:28 pm

escoop wrote:I have been waiting for Ooma to help for 3 days now. For sure they are not reading these posts. I am left to conclude that the Telo is simply not ready for prime time and their tech support has no better option than "Have you tried turning it off and On?"
I suppose you already tried Customer Service right? Maybe PM/Email one of the staff Bobby B, Dennis P, or ntoy.
I have a Hub and during landline integration days, I was not getting incoming callerid even though I subscribed to it on my landline; ooma couldn't do anything about it. Some people had the same issue but others didn't.

escoop
Posts:8
Joined:Sun Apr 25, 2010 2:25 pm

Re: Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Post by escoop » Wed Apr 28, 2010 2:45 pm

Tried email, tried calling, tried forums, tried self help. Strike 4 Ooma is out.

I can't "forgive them" on this one. They don't advertise as "Our VoIP voicemail works as long as you DON'T have an integrated land line". They say that they CAN work with with an integrated land line.

Really. This is simple - either you are as advertised or you have your support people working, wotking , working to make it right. Ther service is not working - nor are the technical support folks. No communications in 3 days.

If you are working with Ooma - you are obviously all ON YOUR OWN !!!

Are you reading this Mr potential customer? If you are then you will know to stay the heck away from Ooma unless you like that lonely feeling of haveing shelled out for something that limps along only partly effectively!

User avatar
lbmofo
Posts:9337
Joined:Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:37 pm
Location:Greater Seattle
Contact:

Re: Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Post by lbmofo » Wed Apr 28, 2010 3:40 pm

Too bad it didn't work out for you escoop.

I wasn't as upset that my callerid didn't work while I was in landline integration mode partly because I was going through port process to get rid of landline anyway.

New friends that I introduce ooma to (have been quite a few), I recommend getting temp number instead of landline integration until port completion.

Everyone I know has been pleasantly surprised with ooma's call quality and are very happy. A huge bonus here is that the service is inexpensive with premier and free with basic. As of now, no one can beat that.

Konnerth
Posts:7
Joined:Tue Jul 01, 2008 8:48 pm
Location:Palo Alto, CA

Re: Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Post by Konnerth » Thu Apr 29, 2010 5:27 pm

Hi,

I have a Hub with landline. My personal greeting was not playing for calls this afternoon, but now it seems to be working. Perhaps they are having intermittent problems.

---Karl

WayneDsr
Posts:3790
Joined:Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:28 pm
Location:Northern Indiana

Re: Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Post by WayneDsr » Thu Apr 29, 2010 6:14 pm

I have a Telo integrated with a landline and I am having the same issue.
If I call my Telo with my cell phone, sometimes I get a partial announcement and sometimes I get a full announcement, but most of the time, no announcement. I get the same caller response "Hello? Hello?"

So far ooma has not had a fix for this issue. It seems to only happen with you have an integrated landline.

Wayne
ooma customer since January 2009
ooma hardware: core (hub/scout) and Telo
Lifetime Premier Member

dasman
Posts:8
Joined:Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:22 pm

Re: Voicemail - Inbound VM Calls Not Playing Greeting

Post by dasman » Wed May 05, 2010 4:26 am

I am a new Ooma using and also having this issue -- as of right now, it will be a show stopper and we will likely be returning Ooma. The plan was to port the number to Ooma once I "proved" to the wife that Ooma worked reliably (she is a very hands on person and doesn't take a forum posts as proof, she wants to experience the proof before losing Verizon service).

Our external answering machine doesn't want to work with Ooma at all, due to unresolved problems in this email http://www.ooma.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7685. (which I note that an Ooma rep/moderator never bothered to respond to).

So we tried the Ooma based answering machine, and that doesn't work either. The personal greeting is recorded, set to work, etc, but the mechanical greeting is the only one that ever answers. When leaving a message, the message doesn't appear to ever be actually recorded -- the notification doesn't come on the Telo, when trying to check it says that there aren't any messages and the message doesn't show up in My Ooma.

We are happy with the voice quality, but until I can prove that this will work and we can turn the landline off, Ooma is out of the game. I really wish I had not chosen an integrated Landline when I initially set this up, but I can't figure out a way to change that now (any ideas?)

dave

Post Reply