News:

On Tuesday September 6th the forum will be down for maintenance from 9:30 PM to 11:59 PM PDT

Main Menu

CallerID Name: Disappeared circa 11-14?

Started by lrosenman, November 17, 2018, 06:52:58 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

lrosenman

Quote from: SteveInWA on November 21, 2018, 01:37:51 PM
Google is investigating this issue.  If/when I have an update to share, I will do so here.  Given the Thanksgiving holiday, I don't expect anything to happen until at least next week.

I THOUGHT you said DEFINITIVELY that Google didn't change anything and this was a Polycom issue.

Was that incorrect?  Have you heard anything from Polycom?

SteveInWA

This video might explain what I may or may not have said:

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/saturday-night-news-segment---nathan-thurm/n9367

All kidding aside, though:  yes, that's what I said, because that's what I was told by the Google Voice engineer who I contacted about it.  I also contacted the engineering team at Polycom, and they said it wasn't something they did.  As it turns out, everybody was correct.  A change was made elsewhere in the Google infrastructure that broke the function, unbeknownst to the Google Voice team.  There are so many separate pieces to make Google Voice work, that unexpected interactions occasionally pop up, and this is one of them.

I can't get into any specifics at this time, except to say that Google knows it's broken, and they are looking into how to fix it.  When I have more details that I can share here, I will.  Given the imminent holiday season, I don't expect resolution on this near term.

lrosenman

so the current state is:
1) GVSIP is SUPPOSED to be sending CNAM data from your Google contacts
2) Something changed within the greater Google infrastructure between 2018-11-14 12:44:09(US/CST) and
    2018-11-15 00:29:18(US/CST) that broke that functionality
3) Google folks are investigating and hopefully will have a fix at some point in the future, but
    no guarantees on a timeframe

I'm not trying to point fingers here, and as my COO says "Assume good intent", but is this an accurate summary of where we are?

SteveInWA

Am I under oath on the witness stand? 

Yes, that is my understanding as of now.  I can't commit to any resolution on Google's part, since I don't work for Google.  All I can say with certainty is that they know about the problem.

lrosenman

Quote from: SteveInWA on November 22, 2018, 12:28:00 PM
Yes, that is my understanding as of now.  I can't commit to any resolution on Google's part, since I don't work for Google.  All I can say with certainty is that they know about the problem.

Is there any way we (as mere mortal users of the service) can get any sort of commitment from Google?

SteveInWA

No.  Remember:  There is no service level guarantee, nor direct customer support, for the consumer version of Google Voice, nor any guarantee that a specific feature may or may not continue to work.  It's an "as-is" service.  I've already gone way above and beyond what you'd get without my intervention to investigate it with both companies, so on this Thanksgiving day, be thankful.

Let's be realistic:  This is a first-world problem.  If you can't wait for Google to fix it, then either detour your calls through a free Callcentric NY State DID to pick up CNAM, or pay Polycom for OBiEXTRAs.

GeeObi


lrosenman

Quote from: GeeObi on November 22, 2018, 11:09:56 PM
You have to buy ObiExtras for that feature. See here>
https://www.obitalk.com/obiextras

That was not true at least until 11-14-2018.  SOMETHING changed in Google's infrastructure between 2018-11-14 12:44:09(US/CST) and 2018-11-15 00:29:18(US/CST) that broke that functionality. 

LTN1

Quote from: SteveInWA on November 22, 2018, 02:07:22 PM
Let's be realistic:  This is a first-world problem.  If you can't wait for Google to fix it, then either detour your calls through a free Callcentric NY State DID to pick up CNAM, or pay Polycom for OBiEXTRAs.

Did somebody say we may have a first world problem? This may help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN2WzQzxuoA

stealth94rt

#29
[Edit] I should have started by saying that I was seeing the Caller ID Name on incoming calls without OBIEXTRAS up until 11-14 like the original poster stated. Since then, the display has been showing "Unknown Caller" for every call -- even those in my Google Voice contacts list.[End Edit]

So I just signed up for the OBIEXTRAS free 1 month trial, and then I imported my Google Contacts. However, I'm not seeing a caller ID name when I make test calls from my cell to home phone. The only difference I see is that it no longer displays "Unknown Caller" above the phone number.

Also, I thought I would see a contact list somewhere in the OBi dashboard, but I can't find that either.

Any pointers on this would be appreciated. Thank you.

frankpc

#30
I have had ObiExtras for about a year now.  I have an OBihai202.  I have 1 Gb Google Fiber.

I do get names and numbers on my home phones.  The data comes from my Google Contacts.

The problem I have is the extraordinary effort necessary to import my Google contacts to the OBi world (I have been told by OBi Support that the data is stored on the cloud - not within the Obi).  Typically, to import contacts using ObiExtras, I attempt the import 15 or 20 times.  Most import attempts fail.  However, they are successful now and then.  The exact format of the Google Contacts seems to be important.  I am beginning to believe that you cannot have more than one number per "name account'.  In other words, if John Doe has a mobile phone and a home phone, they need to each be on a separate line in Google Contacts as opposed to both being under a single John Doe entry.

But there is so much inconsistency with the process and results and testing takes a lot of time, so I can't be sure.  In any event, I do have Google contact names and numbers that show up on my home CID phones.  And the quantity of those unique name-number pairs show up under "PhoneBookEntries".  Obihai support has been working with me and over the past week, they've emailed 5 or 6 times.

I hope to learn more about this so I can obtain some efficiency with the process.

Sp0012

I also signed up for OBiExtras trial. It was a painful process to import data from Google Contacts. Also, as frankpc mentioned, OBi does not like more than one phone number for each contact.

I really wish Google resolve CNAM issue which started around Nov 15. This will help us to get CNAM without going through OBiExtras.

Thank you Steve (@SteveInWA) for checking with Google on this issue!!! 

frankpc

Quote from: Sp0012 on December 04, 2018, 02:32:22 PM
It was a painful process to import data from Google Contacts. Also, as frankpc mentioned, OBi does not like more than one phone number for each contact.

Did you learn anything else insofar as the optimum format of the Google Contacts data?  I appreciate your confirming that there should be just one number per line.

I am using the following fields for importing to Google Contacts from an offline "contacts list" I maintain:
Name, Given Name, Family Name, Group Membership, Phone 1 - Type, Phone 1 - Value

For example:

John Smith, John, Smith, *My Contacts, Mobile, 19135551212

All I know is that I got that to work.  There could be several unnecessary fields listed there.

Also, I do not yet know which fields are used to display the name on the CID phone display.  I am assuming the name comes from the "Name" field.

And I try to eliminate most punctuation within the fields....  No commas.  No periods.  (apostrophes & hyphens ??)

Thank you!


lrosenman

Anyone with inside contacts at Google/PolyCom: Has anyone acknowledged if they (both companies) consider this a bug?

SteveInWA

Why do you keep hammering on this issue?  Yes, both companies are aware of the issue.  It is a very low priority to fix, as there are a lot of major changes being worked on at Google Voice, so while they acknowledge it as a bug, I do not expect that it will get fixed anytime soon.  Google made a required and unrelated infrastructure change that caused this issue, and it is Google's not Polycom's bug to fix.

Whenever I see people repeatedly focusing on something like this, that is relatively trivial in real life, I can't help but explain it this way:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxyhfiCO_XQ

Meanwhile, if this problem is making you upset, then route your calls through a Callcentric DID.

lrosenman

I handle this like I handle ANY trouble ticket in my real life day job, which is check to see it's being worked, or what, but apparently that's not acceptable here.

I'll drop off the forum and deal with it.


dvddavid

I'm guessing nothing new to report here?

I just noticed this today. Though I could almost swear it has worked intermittently sometimes.

mike1971

I did notice that a number in my gv contacts showed up on 2/1 exactly how I had her name entered, but then today there was no name display again so maybe this is a sign that things might be turning around.


paimarc

I am trying to import 1,796 Google contacts (with multiple phone numbers for most of them) through my OBiEXTRAS and my status PhoneBookEntries shows only 675 Unique Contact/Number combinations.  OBi is trying to work with me on this, and a recent reply was...


"We have not seen limits set by Google Gmail Contacts (so far).  We have seen up to 2000.  Make sure all contacts are properly set with Name correlates with Number and try imports again.  According to some users, if Names/Numbers does not correlate in Gmail Contacts, the import will ONLY pull the correct Name/Numbers together."

What does "correlate" mean in this case?  How do I make sure a Name and a Number are "correlated"?  And is that part of the issue with having imported contacts generate an accurate Caller ID display?

Sp0012

It has been over 3 months and Google did not fix the CNAM issue. Is it still in their to do list? Thanks.