We have an elderly parent with a phone on our account. They have Alzheimer’s. They were receiving fraud calls and falling for them. We used to be able to forward the phone in the app to one of our phones for when we don’t need to contact them on their phone and could turn call forwarding OFF remotely if we did need to call them, then remotely turn it back on. This worked fabulously as basically the only people that call are either us or people trying to rob them.. We could thus eliminate the threat of them losing all their money to fraud..
At some point fairly recently there was a change to the app where you can no longer forward phones on your account remotely. You have to forward the phone with the handset itself, which means their phone is either permanently forwarded and we can no longer reach them if they disappear somewhere… or it’s NOT forwarded and they’re open to fraudsters!
This feature could literally save a life and now it’s gone! What other options are available if you don’t bring it back? We hope that you will bring it back. I can see that it would also be helpful tor parents with young kids.
Hey Bobs_Ur_Uncle, as an adult with an aging parent, I can see how this was a lifesaver to protect your parent from being taken advantage of by fraudsters. I know I would want to make sure my parents were safeguarded from this type of call as well. Right now, the only ways to turn on and off call forwarding are from the device, or by contacting us. Neither are truly ideal for this situation. I may have another solution though.
While Verizon Smart Family is more geared towards protections for children, it does have the ability to set up Trusted Contacts, and block any unknown numbers. Learn more about Smart Family here: https://www.verizon.com/solutions-and-services/add-ons/safety/verizon-smart-family/
Also, here are some steps on how to us Smart Family if you do choose this option: https://www.verizon.com/support/how-to-use-verizon-smart-family/
Let me know if this option works for you.
-Joseph
Thanks for your answer.
Disappointing that Verizon continues to remove more perks from loyal customers.
I’ve never had a problem with the service and that’s the only reason I don’t switch. Used to get awesome deals on new phones for renewing contract… that went away. Now this, which was free, you want to charge for.
question. Does it work on a dumb phone?… or will it only work on a smart phone? Not that I will subscribe. Just curious, and maybe some other people with expendable funds might want to know. Verizon is already the most expensive there is and if we didn’t feel like we needed that line we would dump it.
We do want to clarify to make sure we are on the same page, the Call Forwarding feature is still available to all users free of charge, as my colleague Joseph mentioned. The Smart Family feature is an alternative so that you can set up trusted contacts for that line. The Smart Family feature does require a smartphone to work. If you have any other questions, feel free to let us know.
~Freddy
So frustrating! Just saw this post now and I can identify with that! My 100 year-old mother cannot operate a smartphone but we sure need to do remote forwarding and unforwarding of her home phone because she has exactly the same issue with solicitor calls. In fact , Mom had an iPhone two years ago and it was too heavy for her weak painful hands so we had to give that up. It feels like ageism in a way. And, almost no flip phones are available anywhere for our elderly citizens! Please Verizon, try to think forward about not just us Boomers but our parents who are still living as well!
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
