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How do you turn off Google Voice voicemail?

Started by magicwine, March 23, 2018, 06:49:16 AM

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magicwine

I googled how to turn off voicemail, had to go into legacy GV, but my home phone is ringing via Obi 200, and it is not a forwarding number..so is there a way to turn off voicemail another way?

Thanks
Bob

drgeoff

There is NO way to turn off GV voicemail.  If someone or something does not answer within about 25 seconds the call goes to voicemail. Period.

What problem or difficulty are you trying to solve?

magicwine

The current issue this past week that all or most calls go to voicemail and can't be picked up. As when I answer the call no one is there, and the caller is sent to voicemail.

Was hoping turning it off would allow the calls to flow directly to me when I answer.

Thanks.

Bob

drgeoff

That problem is said to have been fixed.  See SteveInWA's post at https://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=13680.msg87969#msg87969 and the (currently) final post by Bluescat (same person as StevInWA) at https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/voice/ouSBboXA1zY/vRKFyQotBQAJ

Are you saying that problem is not fixed?

magicwine

Hi,

All the calls that went to voicemail today were when I was on a call, so not sure if the going direct to voicemail issue has been fixed. BUT...all the other issues I reported 4 days back are still occurring, and someone here told me it was all related to the Google voicemail problem. I'm pasting my original post, and deleted what I now consider unnecessary info, for brevity:

(I have powered off and on the unit 3 times with no change)

Hi,
I have an Obihai 200 installed and working perfectly for more than a year.

1. I have checked and Google Chat is still checked in Legacy GV.

2. I had a power failure for 2 weeks - approx March 17 I got a new sim and phone number and added that as a forwarding phone #. March 22 I turned off forwarding to that number but it didn't fix the issue.

3. Making my first call March 18 nighttime EST, I keep hearing redialing tones as if someone had pressed redial on their phone. My phone was on a table, not held by me, as I use a corded headset. This has continued for the past 5 days - and still happening as of March 23 -18 at 152PM EST.

5. I only have one number, this GV one.

7. My cell phone which is listed as a forwarding number in GV, WAS ringing. But now I stopped forwarding to it.

Thank you for your help.

Bob

drgeoff

Are the phone and OBi directly connected by a single cable, ie no connection to house phone wiring?

magicwine

If it makes a difference, I am using a wifi dongle.

My alarm /telephone installer rewired some of my  jacks so that the one obi 200 is powering 3 2/set cordless phones. And my alarm dialer.

A new issue that happened once yesterday, is after speaking for about 30 minutes, the person I called disappeared. Waited a few minutes, but they were gone.

And just now after about 10 minutes I heard a soft click, kept saying hello, person was gone, and after about a minute, a dial tone.

Bob

magicwine

PS - Just had a friend call....picked up on 1st ring, no one there...he said it disconnected - no voicemail.
He called again and I picked up instantly as I was awaiting his call...he said on his end it rang twice then disconnected.

drgeoff

My interpretation of your answer is that the OBi is connected to house wiring.  If that is so, please connect one phone directly to the PHONE jack on the OBi and report what happens on inbound and outbound calls.

magicwine

Yes it is connected to house wiring.

Have received two calls since I connected one cordless phone directly to obi 200 as you suggested, and I was able to pick both of them up.

I didn't hear the redialing tones either.

Everything has worked fine for more than a year - my power was out for 2 weeks, which also meant no internet - the Verizon Fios and power lines were disconnected from my home by a felled tree....just telling you this in case it is relevant at all - and these issues started only when power and internet were reconnected.

What do I do know to get my other two sets of phones working as before using the jack and my house wiring?

Thanks for your help.

Bob

magicwine

PS - something just happened twice that happened before, except now I'm plugged into the obi200 directly as you suggested, so I thought you should know.

When I make an outgoing call it rings and rings and then stops. One of the calls I just called back and asked her what happened on the call that just rang and she said she picked it up and no one was there. But this doesn't happen on most outgoing calls.

How do I fix this and are all my issues related?

Thanks
Bob

drgeoff

#11
Quote from: magicwine on March 23, 2018, 03:07:54 PM
Yes it is connected to house wiring.

Have received two calls since I connected one cordless phone directly to obi 200 as you suggested, and I was able to pick both of them up.

I didn't hear the redialing tones either.

Everything has worked fine for more than a year - my power was out for 2 weeks, which also meant no internet - the Verizon Fios and power lines were disconnected from my home by a felled tree....just telling you this in case it is relevant at all - and these issues started only when power and internet were reconnected.

What do I do know to get my other two sets of phones working as before using the jack and my house wiring?

Thanks for your help.

Bob
That suggests (but I cannot say unequivocally) that your house wiring is not properly disconnected from any external telco wiring. is it possible that the felled tree also took out the lines to other properties and the telco guy(s) who restored service thought your wires were available to restore service to someone else and your house wiring is now also connected to someone else's phone line?  I don't know enough about US practices to advise you on visually checking that.  You need to get someone who knows what they are doing.

In the meantime I advise you not to reconnect to the house wiring.  If it is connected to telco wires your OBi is at risk of being damaged.

magicwine

Note the Verizon Fios I have is ONLY internet not phone.

Would your statement about Verizon connecting my phone lines to someone else's still apply?

If your possibility is correct, what do I need to ask Verizon to check?

Thanks
Bob

drgeoff

Quote from: magicwine on March 23, 2018, 03:56:47 PM
Note the Verizon Fios I have is ONLY internet not phone.

Would your statement about Verizon connecting my phone lines to someone else's still apply?

If your possibility is correct, what do I need to ask Verizon to check?

Thanks
Bob
You need to take anything I say about US phone wiring and practices with a health warning.  I am reasonably au fait with phone service and xDSL on UK landlines.  Basic principles tend to be applicable worldwide but specifics do vary.

Having said that, if you have any service from a telco their records should indicate if a pair is in use and by what customer.  And if your line was also connected to someone else I would expect your internet speed to be affected, probably quite drastically.

However, it is not unusual for telcos to provide two pairs into a residence. And in-house phone wiring typically also has two or more pairs.  I would expect that your wireman has connected the telco internet (xDSL) pair to one pair in the house wiring which then connects to the FIOS modem.  He would then have used another pair in the house wiring to connect all your house sockets for phone service from your OBi.  If he forgot to disconnect that second internal pair from the second external pair (or made some error doing it) that could explain some things.

I can only guess and speculate as I'm not there to see things for myself.

magicwine

I understand what you say is an educated guess, and may not be the case.

But....the Fios guy did NOT enter my house. So whatever inside wiring I had remained the same.

He just connected a new line from the street to my house to replace the line that got pulled out and torn.

But at one point he did tell me that he found that their OUTSIDE Verizon connection had changed and he had to reconnect the wire or some other connection to a new connection point. But again, nothing was done inside my house and I only have internet, no phone service from Verizon.

On the side of my house I have a Verizon box which brings the Fios service into my house. They might have done something there - but again nothing to my inside wiring as the tech never entered my house.

Based on this, is your scenario still possibly valid?

Thanks.
Bob

drgeoff

I assume that the "My alarm /telephone installer rewired some of my  jacks so that the one obi 200 is powering 3 2/set cordless phones. And my alarm dialer." guy was not a FIOS technician.  Any chance that he used an (ahem) "unconventional" method of separating the internal and external second pairs which the FIOS technician (not knowing why they were separated) put back together again?  :)

Another thing.  Could the dialling tones you've heard be coming from your alarm system?

magicwine

All the work my alarm tech did was in my  basement and then the jacks on my first floor that related to the basement wiring change.

My alarm/phone tech did that wiring about a year ago so that I could power other jacks  in my home with the obi GV service.

There was no new work done inside my home since then.

And the FIOS tech only was outside.

Based on this, is your scenario still possibly valid? If not, what other things do I need to do to get the service back working, since no inside my home changes have been made?

Yes, it is possible the redialing noise I heard could have been my alarm - perhaps it stores the calls it was trying to make when I had no power or internet. But if that was so, since the service was reconnected this past Sunday, those calls would have been completed by now and then I would have gotten calls from my alarm monitoring co.

Thanks.
Bob

drgeoff

#17
Sorry but I'm literally calling it a day on this one - it is well into Sunday here.

And I'm not convinced that guesswork and speculation are going to solve this one.

Edit.  That should have been Saturday.  Just shows that I really should have a rest!

magicwine

Thanks, I appreciate your help.

(Feel free to answer tomorrow)
But all I need is some direction from someone so experienced like you - since no inside work was done, I don't have Verizon phone, only internet service, is it still a possible Verizon issue?

I just have no idea how to revert this back to working as it did  before and my alarm cannot resume working until I figure it out.


drgeoff

This needs to be tackled methodically and logically.

Eliminate GoogleVoice from suspicion by not using it for outbound test calls.  Instead use the OBi test number by dialling **9 222 222 222.  You can make as many calls as you want but each will terminate after 30 seconds.

Start with one of your phones plugged directly into the OBi.  Make calls to the test number until you are satisfied that there are or are not any problems.  If there are none, you know that your OBi and that phone are fine.

Unplug that phone and instead plug another of your sets directly into the OBi.  Repeat the test calls until you are sure that the second phone working with the OBi is all OK.

Unplug that phone and directly plug in the next one.  Repeat the test method until you have tested every phone set.

Next step is to disconnect the alarm system from the house wiring  Then connect one of the phones to its usual jack in your house wiring and connect the OBi to its usual jack in the house wiring.  Make calls to the test number.  Are they all OK?  If yes, unplug that phone and plug another one into its usual jack.  Repeat the test until you have tried all phones over the house wiring.  Now plug in all the phones and make calls to the test number.  All OK?

Now reconnect the alarm system to the house wiring and make calls to the test number.

If at this stage, all your calls to the test number have been OK then make some GV calls.  If they are not 100% I'd say there is a GV problem.

But if you found issues with calls to the OBi test number, the situations when those did and did not occur should enable you to home in better.