VCA Eligibility Requirements and Download Locations
KaLin
Khoros Partner
Khoros Partner

Please post any questions about eligibility for VCA and where to download here.

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48 Replies
nyt
Enthusiast - Level 3

I live on Long Island and I signed up for the Free Call Assistant via VOD which said was available.  Today I called to check on the status and the operator said it is not available on Long Island yet just the five boroughs of NYC.  Why are you saying its available but its not??

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MagicMan
Contributor - Level 1

Are you talking about the VCA that we get on the web at verizon.com/callassistant or the vca that you get so you can see callerid on your fios tv?   If tv, do you have 1.7 on your settop box?  I saw on dslreports that the callerid on tv will only work with settop box verzion 1.7

If you are talking about the web/pc version, I thought that was available just about all over.  Try logging into www.verizon.com/callassistant.  But if you signed up on VOD (video on demand????) that might not work.   If it doesn't work, try signing up on the verizon.com/callassistant page to sign up for it.

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JDHouser
Newbie

I live in Nassau County and have been trying to figure this out since my FIOS triple bundle install on 01/13/2010.  I successfully installed the VCA software on my desktop, successfully set up and activated my VCA account, and I can retrieve VM messages via telephone, but every time I try to retrieve my messages using the www.verizon.com/callassistant web site, I end up with an error message.  The web page indicates that my VCA passcode is not set, which (of course) it is.  When I attempt to enter and save the passcode, I receive an error message directing me to contact Verizon at a toll free number.  I finally spoke with someone at Verizon on 01/21/2010, and I was informed that VCA is not yet available on Long Island.

It is almost inconceivable to me that Verizon doesn't have this basic capability operational at this point in time.  I switched to Verizon from telephone service provided by my cable company, and in truth, the voice mail functions provided by the cable company were far superior (not to mention, functional).  Beyond that, Verizon should at least indicate somewhere on one of its many confusing web pages, that VCA service in not available on Long Island, even though it is activated and appears on account statements for customers on Long Island.

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MACE
Newbie

Same thing for Westchester.

With STB at 1.7, you get VCA to work on your TV and will get emails with the CallerID BUT you can not retrieve VoiceMail Msgs over the WEB...no eta

I had VZ open a trouble ticket into their switch (check my local serving switch settings) to check on VoiceMail retrieval about two weeks ago and was told...NOT AVAILABLE...NO ETA

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al7601
Newbie

when I check availability of tv caller id on my stb it states that I must subscribe to caller id which I already have. I'm in bergen county New Jersey which is north east jersey.  I've heard that I need VCA for the tv caller id to work but everytime I try to setup it forwards me to a page to select a bundled service, which I already have.  then if I go to account changes, there is no option for VCA any where. what gives?

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Cdelg
Newbie

I am having the same exact problem...seems the only way to get it fixed is to spend a couple of hours on the phone with them...

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mcorbo
Contributor - Level 2

Having the exact same problem here.  Not even sure if I need to have call assistant as I already have iobi.

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e654562
Newbie
I am having a similar issue.. and here is what I found out today.. you cannot have CALL WAITING CALLER ID. According to the guy I was IM'ing at FIOS tech support you must have them remove the call waiting caller id and just have basic caller id. If anyone else can confirm this that would be a great help.
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Justin46
Legend

@e654562 wrote:
I am having a similar issue.. and here is what I found out today.. you cannot have CALL WAITING CALLER ID. According to the guy I was IM'ing at FIOS tech support you must have them remove the call waiting caller id and just have basic caller id. If anyone else can confirm this that would be a great help.

Completely untrue. I have had Caller ID on TV for months, I have Caller ID and Call Waiting ID (those are the correct names of the features as shown on the Verizon website) and I can assure you that Caller ID on TV works just fine with both services. I have seen many times the popup on the TV when my wife has been using the home phone Smiley Very Happy

For completeness, here is a list of the features I have on my phone:

Call Waiting/Cancel Call Waiting

Caller ID (Anonymous Call Block Not Included)

Call Waiting ID

Verizon Call Assistant

You might want to check and see exactly which services you have on your phone, maybe another one is incompatible.

There is a tremendous amount of bad information out there on the Caller ID on TV service, I don't understand why Verizon doesn't come out with some complete and accurate item on their websites, here on the forum, etc, to set the record straight. And why they don't give their support techs the correct information. Really, really poorly handled IMO.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7C, Build 09.83
Keller, TX 76248

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e654562
Newbie

This is what my bill looks like.. does anything appear like it would cause a problem?

Verizon Freedom Essentials

Call Waiting

Home Voice Mail (Call Forwarding not included)

Call Forwarding - Busy/Don't Answer

Message Rate Service

Call Waiting ID (Includes Caller ID)

Anonymous Call Rejection  

No International Calling Plan

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e654562
Newbie

So just got off the phone with another tech and a document just came out to them that states that if you get the message

"Caller id for fios tv is not available to customers without a home phone caller id subscription or with incompatible features such as distinctive ring. To order or change your service contact us at 1888 553-1555"

and your number was ported over from another carrier there is a problem right now and the developers are working on a fix.. .there is no hard time to fix this.. just another unknown timeline.. BUT atleast it is an answer and not as frustrated thinking it was for no reason!!!!!

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al7601
Newbie

Ok, I finally got it.  I'll start by saying that I've spent hours wasting my time with Verizon's horrible customer service.  Apparently no one knows what's going and I think I spoke with or chatted with every tech in every dept.  The only way I was able to get this done was by finding out from these forums that we can request VCA over the phone.  I told one of the techs this and he conferenced in someone from that dept who at first argued with us that it can't be done by her, so Verizon like.  After a 5 minute conference and the 2 Verizon techs from different depts going at it, she finally gave in and setup VCA for me over the phone.  2-3 days later I received an email to activate VCA and then viola, it worked.  FINALLY.   Once again, I thank only the other users of these forums for their tips because if I didn't know what to request, Verizon would of never figured it out.   Now the VCA works and so does the tv caller id.   

good luck everyone.

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ElizabethS
Moderator Emeritus

I'm glad it was resolved. Please feel free to mark the most useful answer as your "solution", and give kudos to anyone who helped along the way.

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BIOG
Newbie

I have "Windows 7 Ultimate" running on my computer. I just signed up for everything with "Verizon FIOS". I downloaded "Verizon Call Assistant"(VCA). It does not work well on my computer.

Things that do not work on desktop software:

Main tool bar at top:

Web Portal Option

Profile Option

Settings Option

Under "Advanced" Transparency Option

Feed Back Option

Help Option

Address Book Tool Bar:

Add Group Option

Contacts individual Click on Options:

Edit Option

Add Button at bottom of Contacts Window.

Call Logs Window:

Click on Contact, Then Edit Button

Click on Contact, The Add Button

Add Button at bottom of Window

Voice Mail Window:

(Pending, have not used, Yet.)

I guess, since "Windows 7" just came out, there has not been enough time to update VCA. Does anyone know when these Options will be available. Is this Beta Software?

Thanks

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Justin46
Legend

I have Windows 7 Home Premium and it doesn't work on that either. It is not that you are using Windows 7, Verizon has had plenty of time to make it work on 7 (7 Beta has been available for more than a year),  it is just a new and completely redesigned version of VCA and if it is even possible, it is worse than the original VCA and the first update that came out maybe a year or so ago. I don't think Verizon ever ran it on a PC anywhere in the world before they released it Smiley Mad

I have had VCA for about 1 1/2 years, the initial release actually worked pretty well for me, I got the pop-ups when the phone was about to ring, etc. Some people had lots of trouble with the first release, consuming lots of processor and memory, I didn't. The first update for me just didn't work at all, but apparently was ok for some people - strange. And now we have this new version, which to me is just awful. I installed it and like you I found virtually nothing worked. So I don't use VCA any more. But since I have Caller ID on TV now which gives me the pop-ups, and that was really all I cared about anyhow, I have a subscription to VCA only so Caller ID will work, but I don't use the PC program at all.

Do you really want the function of VCA on your PC? If you got it only for Caller ID on your TV, there is no need to run the PC client for that to work.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7C, Build 09.83
Keller, TX 76248

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meyding
Newbie

Installed it a few days ago and all of the same issues on Win 7 Professional.

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BIOG
Newbie

Thank You for the feed back. I cannot believe Verizon would even make this software available in its present state. The concept is great, I really like the possibilities of the options. Very frustrating, there has to be a programmer out of work, they could hire to fix these problems.

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Justin46
Legend

@BIOG wrote:

Thank You for the feed back. I cannot believe Verizon would even make this software available in its present state. The concept is great, I really like the possibilities of the options. Very frustrating, there has to be a programmer out of work, they could hire to fix these problems.


Well, if they hired an out of work programmer to work on VCA, I firmly believe he or she would be the first programmer to ever work on the program. Smiley Very Happy I think I could do better in my sleep, and I don't think I have written a program since 2001 or 2002.....

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7C, Build 09.83
Keller, TX 76248

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viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

Are you perhaps running the 64bit version?

When I saw your post I installed it on my win7 ultimate 32bit system and it appears to work OK - within the limits of the stuff that doesn't appear to do anuything under XP either.

The one bit that does seem screwed up under win7 is if you hover over the sidebar when it keeps popping up the toolbar and then reducing it until you mange to click the expand button at the bottom.

Have no idea what transparency is meant to do so assume it doesn't work in xp or win7

Is real annoying that you can only be logged on at one machine at a time and I can't work out any way to attach another userid to the telephone number.

Have not managed to get a caller id pop up to appear on xp or win7.

Is it a limitation that caller id on a tv does not work for an sd tv connected to an hd stb?

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QuantumFluxx
Newbie

Running 64-Bit Windows 7 Ultimate here. I have a few complaints about this software. I use this as part of my sidebar, everytime the computer reboots, the application "forgets" its position on the screen and resizes itself to fit the enitre right border of my screen, like an AIM buddy list (Running 1920x1200, so that's a pretty big border.)  I have to log into this thing everytime I reboot, I do not get pop-up notifications, and practically none of the controls work. I don't mind the "gadget-like" appearance, but all I really wanted was something that provided pop-up notifications IDing my incoming callers.

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ggma11261
Contributor - Level 3

I would like to just try VC A however everytime I try to download it - it brings me to a screen that tells me to call my local office .  I can't even begin the download let alone install it . I run win 7 prof 32 bit - I do have distinctive ring on my line (fios phone) but don't see what the problem is as other people with distinctive ring tell me it works for them.  So am confused - i used to have it on another computer that has since died  -  so guess I will have to wait a little longer to get it

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