Digital Voice - Simultaneous Ring - strange behavior

[gary972]

Apologies if this has already been asked, but I searched and could not find anything.

I have 4 digital voice lines into my house (2 office, one fax, one home) and thought I would try the simultaneous ring feature out.

If I understand the feature correctly, I can get other phones to ring when the phone is called.   So, for example, I could set it up to call my mobile if I step away from my office desk.

However, I have noticed that if the device that I set up as the simultaneous ring is turned off, my office phone only rings once, then goes straight to voicemail on the switched off device.  I found this out because I forgot to turn simultaneous ring off.

Does this seem right?

The website describes simultaneous ring as:Never miss important calls.

The option to have your home phone ring on up to three unique numbers —your office and two cell phones, for example — all at the same time.

Is it really doing a call forward rather than a simultaneous ring?   Is it because I only have one phone number set up for it to call instead of the three?

Going by the true spirit of 'simultaneous ring' I would hope that it rang the entered lines, and if nothing was picked up, it went to the voicemail on the original digital line.

Just wondered if anyone else thinks this service isn't working as described before I get on the phone with support.

[jumpin68ny]

What you are experiencing is not strange behavior but very normal.

Remember that when your cell is not on calls go immediately to Voice Mail.  The simultaneous ring feature thinks your call was answered and thus stops ringing your home phone.  It does not know the call was answered by VM vs. you actually answering the phone.  

I have this feature with my Vonage service, my office phone and I know relative that enabled this feature on the cable phone system and all exhibit the same thing.  The feature thinks the call was answered since the ringing stops.  This is normal behavior and nothing is wrong.

The reason Verizon VM is not answered is because your cell VM is picking up first.  

I hope this helps,

[gary972]

Actually that makes perfect sense, thanks so much for explaining it.

I really should have thought of it... 

[Kayben09]

This behavior is not so normal!

I would like to see Verizon change this behavior.

When my cell phone battery dies or is disabled, I do not want my home phone to only ring once.  This even happens if my cell is turned off.  Not cool!

I love this feature!  But I really hate to be sitting right next to my home phone and it only rings once and cannot be answer because it is forwarded to my cell.

When my cell phone is disabled, I have to come online and disable this feature before I can receive in home calls!

[yze1]

The problem with Simultaneous Ring on multiple lines is that if one of the lines goes to voicemail immediately on the first ring (as would happen if it's a cell phone that's turned off), then it gets the call first before any of the other lines can answer.  The result is you will miss all your calls at home, unless you answer before the end of the first ring.

I have this set up with the other line being my wife's cell phone.  She's travelling and her phone is off.  So when someone calls my house, they go straight to her cell phone voicemail.  

To make matters worse, the Verizon website has a bug that wont let me turn this off, and after 3 hours on the phone with customer service, they can't turn it off either.  So, I'm stuck a phone that can't accept incoming calls!

I conclude that Verizon, as a corporation, is way over its head with this technology.  They are just not managed well enough to handle it.  I'm switching to another company as soon as an alternative in my area appears.

[jumpin68ny]

The feature of Simultaneous Ring is when the voice mail picks up not sure if there is a way for VZ (or any other prover) is to know whether the call is answered by a person or a voice mail. 

I have Vonage and it behaves the same way.  I know friends and relatives that have this on Cable and it behaves the same way.  Even my company desk phone behaves the same with simulatenous ring with my cell.

So IMHO this is working as designed.

As far as not able to disable on the VZ web site not sure why its giving you a hard time.  I can disable this feature on my vonage line right away and as soon as I disable it and call my home phone this feature is disable.

[Mike_VZ]

Hello Yze,

I have verified the website feature is working normally and there are 3 ways to terminate calls to the problematic number if your still having an issue.  You can A.) Modify existing number in question B.) Remove the existing number in question or C.) Turn off the feature entirely.  If you are unable to do any of these on your computer I can do this for you but will need to get a little information.  Please refer to the private message I am sending you to assist further and resolve this problem and get you back in service.

Thank you

[yze1]

Thanks Mike. The problem was finally resolved last night, after over 3 hours of calls to billing, cust support and ecenter. The reason I could not do all the things you mention above online was that I was logged in with a different type of user id. I have somehow, not sure, 2 accounts on verizon for one phone line. Both can access all my account info and bills, but only one can see the page that accesses the calling features. This was finally discovered by an astute guy in billing. This is a software design fail and it cost we a week of aggravation.