Two Q's - Adding CNAM and GV email notifications

[BillDoe]

First - thanks to those who have been so helpful here. Two questions:

1 - Realize many have asked about adding name to caller ID. I am using LINE port on my 110 to access a Charter phone line for 911 access (spouse business line). Is there any way to leverage this to get CNAM thru my GV number or am I stuck with signing up and paying for one of the other services (Avneo, CCentric)? If the latter is my only option, which is the cheapest since all i would be adding to what I now have is name ID, not even 911.

2 - Anyone having issues getting email notifications from GV when a message is left? If I go into my Gmail acct associated with my GV number they are in my Inbox, but I also set it up to have vmail notifications sent to another (Hotmail) email acct I check much more frequently, but they never come through. Ideas?

[CoalMinerRetired]

1. You'd have to a.) forward GV calls to the Charter number. It would look like any other incoming call to that number, and if you paid for the service, Charter (or whoever, this applies to any provider) would look up the CNAM that goes with the Caller ID, and send both to your line. So you'll have pay the fee.  A clear example of where VoIP is less expensive than wired hard-wired ILECs.

2. No, mine are working as expected, through yesterday. Suggestion, try with a different email address, check hotmail spam's folders, set the GV email address as trusted sender in hotmail.

[BillDoe]

Tx - got the notifications working by checking to send missed calls notifications to hotmail and suddenly Both missed calls and voicemail notifications started working - go figure. Not sure why vmail notifications weren't working before as it was checked all along..

I am not sure I understand the CNAM idea. If I forward my GV number to my charter number, then that phone will get ALL the incoming calls, and that line is set up only for wife's business. so that isn't an option. We use Charter for her business line and GV/Obi for our home phones. Since the GV home phones don't get the name, I was hoping we could process inbound GV calls through the Charter service, get the name added, but then still only ring through the home phones.

[CoalMinerRetired]

A.) I am not sure I understand the CNAM idea.

B.) If I forward my GV number to my charter number, then that phone will get ALL the incoming calls, and that line is set up only for wife's business. so that isn't an option. We use Charter for her business line and GV/Obi for our home phones. Since the GV home phones don't get the name, I was hoping we could process inbound GV calls through the Charter service, get the name added, but then still only ring through the home phones.

B.) No way to get CNAM added to the incoming call without forwarding calls to and through the Charter line.  Bottom line is you can't do it. Note that this is not exclusive to Charter, forwarding a GV call to another service/provider, then answering the call on the other service/provider is the only way to do it. 

Also, in addition to the CNAM, you also get the GV voice prompts "Call from {person says name}, press 1 to ..., press 2 to..." provided you have GV call screening turned on. You do not get the GV voice prompts when answering a call directly via the Obi, the Obi behaves like Google Chat.  I hope this last point isn't confusing, it tripped me up at first, and it's been discussed on here a lot, sometimes not clearly.

[BillDoe]

I disabled call screening awhile back, do you find it useful? Would there be any benefit to using it if CNAM isn't part of it?

I think I remember that it asks callers to state their name first, then leave a message. GV call screening uses the recorded nameto tell you who the caller is before you decide what to do with the call. Based on the recordings, it sounded like it threw people for a little bit of a loop so that's why I turned it off back then. Thoughts?

[CoalMinerRetired]

I think it works great. Callers are only prompted to leave their name one time, the first time they call your number. GV uses the name recorded the first time for all subsequent calls. You can manually change it, it will be text to speech if you do, see Changing the screened name in the link.

Edit to add: I do have a few callers who recorded their name as "Hello, my name is.." and it cuts off there. So yes some are caught off guard.  During the recent political voting robo-call season, it worked above and beyond the call of duty.

You can set individual calls (via groups) to not be screened, i.e., create a group "Screened Callers."  

Here's the link to the GV explanation.