VOIP Tech Chat → [Voip.ms] Callers sometimes hear a busy signal instead of call r

We have several DIDs on my voip.ms account, and I'm having troubles with at least two of them. One is an 888 number, the other 618. The POP is Houston.

Both DIDs are set to forward automatically to a cell phone (also a 618) number. I can dial either DID from my own cell phone, and it appears to forward properly -- that is, the cell phone rings.

Today, we received a report from a client that whenever they would dial either our 618 or 888 number, they would hear busy signals, as if the numbers were disconnected. They said this problem has been going on for a few wees.

I tried calling the numbers again, and all is fine for me! I also tested to make sure it wasn't an issue with call waiting on the cell phone.

I just opened a ticket with voip.ms, but I'm really baffled (and kind of concerned) as to what can be going on here.

We HAVE received a number of other calls on both DIDs over the past few weeks, so it appears that the forwarding is all set up properly. But then why can't certain people get calls through?

I did check my voip.ms CDR, and I do see the "attempted" calls from the client. The calls show up with a duration of 00:00.

Any thoughts? Anybody ever experience anything like this?

Forgive a possibly silly question, but do you have any call blocks in place?

That could account for this behavior and the 00:00 duration.

For example, if you had your Voip.MS controls set to give a busy signal to inbound anonymous calls, and your client's call was coming in as anonymous.

Or if you had somehow blocked calls coming in from your client's area code and exchange (for example, you did a wildcard block on 311555xxxx and your client happens to be in that group too).

Is there anything else different about your client's phone service? What is HIS phone company, the one he is using to call you with?

Thanks for the ideas.

I'm almost positive I don't have *any* call blocks set up in place at the voip.ms level.

The client has the same area code as us (618), and we receive plenty of other calls from people in that area code.

I do not know about the client's phone service/company/whether or not they use VoIP or anything. I could ask...

If anybody has any other troubleshooting tips, fire away!

This is reminiscent of a problem I used to have with VoIP.ms. Calls to my DID from the PSTN would sometimes result in a fast busy signal. The VoIP.ms control panel would acknowledge the call attempt and mark it as a 00:00 call, however my PBX had no record of the call whatsoever. It's as though the VoIP.ms server was having trouble passing the call to my PBX.

My solution? I ported my DID away from VoIP.ms to Anveo, and I haven't had a single problem since.