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Iphone 5: Incoming Calls won't go through.

Hello everyone,

I purchased the Iphone 5 about 1-2 weeks ago and so far i love it. However as of recently i've been expeirencing a few issues where incoming calls won't go through.

I'll try my best to break it down:

Someone calls me.
Phone "rings" on their side.
My iPhone doesn't ring.
I get no notification of a missed call, and maybe a few minutes later i'll be alerted to a missed call or a voicemail.

I've tested various things that i assume would cause the issue, but so far none of them seem to be the case. I even went to Verizon (a few minutes ago actually) and they did a soft-reset (pretty much what i did prior) and soon as i got home i called the phone and nothing went through. I waited about a minute, called again, and then i rang. However seconds later i tried calling again, and it didn't ring. Also it happens are random times. First insident was a few nights ago around 10 PM. Then again a few days ago around 3 PM and finally this morning around 8-8:30 AM.

No my "Do not disturb" isn't on.
I have good (if not great) connection.
At home the phone is always on WiFi
Yes i've tried turning off LTE.
Yes i've done a network reset.
Yes, phone is up to date.

One question i have is could it be only having this issue at my house? I have no way of testing if it only happens at my home (cause no one really has that kind of time to waste with me lol) so i'm not sure.

Comments

Verizon_Support

I want to ensure those important calls get through Huxable! I understand why you are concerned!

My first recommendation would be to make sure you are power cycling the device(turning off and on) at least once a day. This allows the device to refresh with the network and update the tower information on 4G handsets.

Second, it will definitely be valuable to test the device in different locations to determine whether it is a location issue versus an equipment issue. If this happens in multiple locations for example, it is likely device related.

If you find the issues occur mainly inside your home, the network extender accessory is an excellent option to boost indoor signal strength.

http://bit.ly/AKkC

Sincerely,

JonathanK_VZW

VZW Support

Follow Us on Twitter@VZWSupport

Huxable

I've tested it in other locations but it still persists with the same issue. I've also done many re-boots which led nowhere.

Is this possibly a defective device?

alefkoff

Just throwing my hat into the ring - I'm having exactly the same problem. My mother alerted me to it when she kept calling and it wasn't ringing, but I would get notifications of voicemail. It happens all around Atlanta and in my home (where I consistently have 3 bars). My husband (who is on Verizon) stood next to my phone and called it - his phone rang, but mine didn't. After 4 rings on his phone he got my voicemail. Please let me know if you figure out the problem.

I have the same problem. I've been working withVZW tech support for 6 weeks and no solution. I've replaced SIM cards and phones. Problem happens randomly in all locations and signal strengths. I've tried all different settings (LTE on/off, wifi on/off, different ring tones, everything.). My last iPhone switch I set up as new phone and didn't use my back-up. I still have the problem. Happens intermittently and when it does phone goes directly to voicemail after one ring. HELP. VERY FRUSTRATING!!!!

cjhubbs

My wife is having exactly the same problem. If I call her it'll ring twice on my end (never on her end) and then go straight to voice mail. If I hang up and call again, then it'll go through. No idea why. Plenty of cell signal.

I should also add, that my wife got an iphone 5 at exactly the same time as i did and she has never had the problem. Someone will call me and not get through (call goes to voicemail) and they will immediately call her phone and it will ring and she is standing right next to me.

I've also tried with cover off, cover on no difference. I originally thought it was the iPhone 5, but after reading through the on-line community this problem seems to be happening with a number of phones (e.g., Samsung Galaxy III). So now i think it must be something in the VZW network. When i've talked to VZW tech support, they have called me and actually experienced the problem first hand when their calls back went to voice mail. They indicated everything appears normal on their view of my phone on the network, but something must be amiss somewhere.

Verizon_Support

Huxable, after all the trouble-shooting your new phone should not be having issues. Let's also try resetting the network settings. Here are the steps http://tiny.cc/myubpw .The phone may be defective and we may need to replace it. If the phone has no damage, we can replace it with the same model as long as its under the one year manufactures warranty. This can be discussed at a corporate store or by phone with customer service.

KinquanaH_VZW

KrugBlog

My Iphone 5 is having the same problem:

I can use every function of the phone (including calling other phones) however I am unable to receive calls because the call goes straight to voicemail for the various people who call me.

I am wondering if this problem may have to do with the fact that I switched from AT&T to Verizon once I purchased this Iphone 5.

KrugBlog

Ok I went through the process and it turns out that this can occur when one switches from AT&T to Verizon and vice versa. They (being Verizon) simply had to confirm the switch (or something like that) and then voila, I received a text "welcome to Verizon you can now make calls on America's...etc"

I can now receive calls.

In case any of you have switched recently this maybe be your problem. Hope this helps.

Sylviasun

Hi, I am having the exactly same issue! I went to Apple store and was told that it should be Verizon's problem. I called Verizon 2 times. They kept asking me to reset my network, but the problem remains there. please let me know if your problem got solved~~~

I've not resolved yet. I'm receiving my 4th iPhone tomorrow from VZW support. If that doesn't solve, they are promising to send me to VZW Engineering as they will admit at that point it is a network issue. I had 6 calls today, 4 went directly to voicemail. Very frustrating.

cyclomaniac

This is just awesome. My wife and I are having a very similar problem with our new iPhones. I've called Verzion support 4 times and been into the store twice (once when Verizon support said I needed to take my phone in for diagnostics, only to be told by the store manager that they haven't had techs who could do diagnostics in years...) and it's like Groundhog Day with them. Reprovision the line, reset the network settings, make a test call out... next morning, same problem. Incoming calls ring straight to voicemail.

Description of our problem:

1. Go to bed at night with the phones in various states (charging, not charging, wifi disabled, wifi enabled, home, away from home, etc.)

2. Wake up in the morning. First thing I do is call one of the phones or both phones from our land line. Surprise! Straight to voicemail.

3. If I make any outgoing call, things seem to work fine for a period of time, usually most of the day. Wake up the next morning and the process starts all over again.

Some observations:

1. If I disable wifi so that only LTE is active, I still get all my mail and app push notifications overnight, so the phone is still on Verizon's network even though I can't receive calls. To confirm this, I streamed a bit of a netflix movie after my initial morning test call failed. Streamed for a minute and then called the iPhone. Rang straight to voicemail. Make a voice call... incoming calls start working. If it were a handset 'network registration' issue, I would expect that push notification and other data downloads would also fail.

2. My next door neighbor, who is also with Verizon, has no problems, but he doesn't have an LTE phone, or smartphone for that matter.

3. I heard second hand that another person who had the same problem after switching from AT&T solved their problem by getting a new phone number. A friend who works at Sprint suggests that this may be an LNP issue, though I don't know why that would be since the phone rings to Verizon voicemail, not AT&T voicemail. Regardless, I feel that switching phone numbers is a cop out on Verizon's part. I've had my phone number for the better part of a decade. I'd like to keep it, thank you.

4. I reject the notion that I should reboot my phone daily which has been suggested by some well meaning Verizon forum guardian on this or other similar threads (oh yeah, I find it interesting that not one member of the tech support community I've talked to over the past month has found these threads on Verizon's own website.) In 2 years of smartphone service with AT&T I can count on one hand the number of times I hard to reboot the device because of a cellular network issue. If this is required for Verizon, then Verizon has a real problem with their network infrastructure. Besides, reprovisioning my line, resetting network settings, rebooting the phone, etc. doesn't keep the problem from coming back the next morning.

At this point, Verizon has a few more days to get me in touch with someone who will do something besides go through the reprovision script before I demand a refund and nullification of my contract. I feel I've been very patient, but enough is enough. Either get serious about solving my issue or cancel my contract with refund.

cyclomaniac

My favorite part is how every time I talk to tech support they promise to call me in a day or two and then never do. This morning, for instance, a member of tech support was to call my phone early in the morning to see if it still had the same problem (it did by the way... I called from two different numbers, straight to voice mail.)

That call never came. Now, some of you may be saying to yourself, well maybe you just didn't know that tech support called because the phone was having the problem, but the retail store representative who was talking to tech support on my behalf yesterday gave the tech support staff member specific instructions to leave a voice mail so I knew the attempt had occurred since I had yet to receive any direct communication with tech support unless I call myself.

So, for the record, I have now been promised a return call by three different members of the Verizon tech support staff and have received none. I will now make my daily phone call to tech support where they will ask me to reset my phone, have me make a test call and 'reescalate' the problem.

KrugBlog

Hi Sylviasun,

Just to make sure, you did go physically into the Verizon store correct? As mentioned before my problem had to do with switching service from AT&T to Verizon, however, going into the store took care of the problem much faster as they had more incentive to deal with my problem immediately.

Rich9778

lets at least be honest here!

I believe the reason your calls go directly to voice mail is a DESIGNED FUNCTION FROM VERIZON. They have a choice, build more towers with more bandwidth or control it by shoving calls directly to voice mail when bandwidth is low.

PROVE ME WRONG VERIZON! I've had this problem for almost 10 years now and your silly attitude that its something that seldom happens is INSULTING!

Its ALL about money with Verizon, the company that tried to charge us $5 for making an electronic payment! The same company that steals our minutes by making everyone listen to their 15 seconds of how to leave a voicemail message! Its estimated that Verizon made over $800 million dollars on this trickery. Who in the 21st century doesn't know how to leave a voice message. EVERY TIME YOU LEAVE ONE 15 seconds of your monthly usage is reduced!
Google 'Give us back the BEEP" if you doubt me.

I don't respect or trust Verizon any more, when other companies catch up to their towers I will drop Verizon.

Rich9778

<Duplicate post deleted for crossposting per the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service. See post for the original message.>

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

Sylviasun

Hi, Krugblog, thank you for the reply.

I haven't physically go to the verizon store yet... I am with Verizon for a long time, and had HTC Incrediable, IPHONE 4S, Galaxy 3, and none of them had this problem....I missed an important call from my daughter's school las week... so fraustrating.

Maybe I should go to the store....

OK... after 4th new iphone and 3rd new sim card didn't solve the problem, the VZW tech support guy finally started investigating a VZW network issue. He did find some obscure setting (that he indicated is not always on every phone line for some reason and why it is not in their normal checking procedures for this kind of issue). This obscure setting had something to do with "don't answer, call forwarding". He didn't explain clearly, but he discussed with someone in Engineering after he found it. This setting was set to "null". He then set to a "proper value" based on Engineering input and it seems to have fixed my problem. I'm not 100% sure yet, but since that setting was "set", I've not had the problem. I will give it another week or two, but so far so good. You might want to try this... you will have to get to at least a 2nd tier tech support person. The normal tech support will not likely know anything about this setting as it was deep in the system.

cjhubbs

Wow, that sounds like it could be the specific issue with my wife's phone, since if I call her once, it goes to VM, but if I immediately call back, it rings through. I wonder what my odds are of being able to just get Verizon to send me to 2nd tier tech support to look for this issue w/o having to jump through all the SIM card and phone replacement hoops?

lmesc

The exact same situation happened to my wife's iPhone5. We searched every conceivable setting with no luck. Then our son discovered the little button on the left side of the phone. It's the top button, called the Ringer/Mute switch. It was set to Mute. We changed it. Problem solved. I think the button gets accidentally switched. Amazingly, we could find no option to set/change Ringer/Mute in any of the onscreen settings.

OK....I've finally got a fix for my issue. Not sure if you are having the same problem but issues certainly sound similar. I've been working for about 3 months with VZW second tier rep. I've gone through 4 phones and 3 sim cards. Turns out it was a line set-up issue. Just after receiving my iphone5 i switched from one number to another both on VZW network but in different area codes. I think this happened when the new number was set up. There is a setting that the VZW tech support found using the VZW diagnostic tool that was described as M Pass. Not sure that is the exact name or spelling. There are a number of settings that this tool allows them to see for your specific line. One of the settings: "Call forwarding busy/some markets" was set to null. The tech guy wasn't familiar with this setting but the null setting bothered him. He checked with Engineering and they gave him the right parameter setting for this setting. Once he changed this to the correct parameter, it fixed my problem. This was 3 weeks ago and I've gotten every call since. Whether this solves yours or not i'm not sure but it is worth a try. Good luck and i hope you find something that fixes as i do know how incredibly frustrating it can be.

alefkoff

2w, do you have contact information for the tier 2 rep that you can either post here or dm me? I'd rather try and avoid hours of calls to finally get someone familiar with the problem if it is possible. Much appreciated!

Sent from my iPhone

His name was Jerry. I don't know how to directly contact as he always contacted me. He did indicate on the follow-up that the "M Pass" tool (not sure that is exact name or spelling) is available to first tier help desk personnel. So they theoretically can find and fix. If they try to find and can't they will likely refer you to 2nd tier desk. That is what happened on mine (granted after multiple attempts to fix). The key is to be firm (but friendly) that there is a problem and that all the other approaches have not worked and you've tried them all.

AmySue919

I'm having the exact same problem with my iphone 5. Verizon keeps giving me the run around! I have never experienced any problems with other cell phone companies.

I have a business in my home and I need to have a phone that works. If they don't fix it I will never have Verizon again!

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