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ginahoy
join:2003-01-04
Sierra Vista, AZ

1 edit

ginahoy

Member

Anyone with Cox phone service use Selective Call Reject?

With the growing nuisance of telemarketing calls and the political season almost upon us, I need some help! I love my phone company's Selective Call Reject feature whereby I can block repeat offenders. The only problem is their ridiculous 25 number limit. If they were smart, they'd offer expanded capacity for a small monthly fee as it would incur no additional cost to the company. Sigh.

My telephone has a built-in call reject feature but blocked calls still ring once, and still populate the incoming call list, which I then have to clear. I don't even want to know these a$&holes have called.

For separate reasons I'm considering switching my landline to Cox. I just learned that Cox offers call reject service with unlimited capacity. Boy, that caught my attention!!

If anyone here has Cox phone service and uses this feature, please let me know if you can manage your reject list via your account on Cox website, or if you have to enter everything from the telephone keypad as required with traditional phone switches. Ideally, a web interface would support uploading a txt or csv file, as I've accumulated well over 100 numbers over the last couple of years.

I apologize if anyone considers this off-topic but this site doesn't have separate forums for telephone related questions.
johnpd
Premium Member
join:2003-11-20
Green Valley, AZ

johnpd

Premium Member

Re: Anyone have Cox phone service and use their call reject feature?

I have used "Selective Call Rejection" for quite a while. Unfortunately it has a few shortfalls.

1. There is no web interface "Phone Tool" to access this service. Don't know why. I would think it would be a natural for this type of thing. You have to access it via your phone.

2. It is limited to about 31 numbers, at least this is what their documentation says. It would be nice if they would increase that number. Another nice option would be to have wildcard capability so you could block those telemarketers that use a number series.

3. They have Selective Call Acceptance and Selective Call Rejection options. It would be difficult to use the call acceptance option. You would have to enter all phones numbers you would want to allow through which would not be feasible for most people.

4. One good thing is that when a block caller does attempt to call you, your phone will not ring. If you also have Cox TV, phone calls will display on your TV if it is on when the call comes through (I think this is only with the "Advanced TV option). The blocked call will still register on your TV but your phone will not ring.

Here is the Cox info page on using the Selective Call option:

»www.cox.com/residential/ ··· 00000000
ginahoy
join:2003-01-04
Sierra Vista, AZ

ginahoy

Member

Thanks for the report John. The rep I spoke with today clearly said there's no limit to the number of entries for Selective Call Reject. Since your comment regarding the 31 number limit is based on what appears to be 'ancient' documentation (still refers to rotary phone access!), I'll investigate further to be sure this hasn't changed.

Too bad Cox doesn't support wild cards but if capacity is indeed unlimited, this won't be much of an issue. I've used this feature with my current phone provider (CenturyLink) to block toxic exchanges (xxx-xxx-****) that become apparent over time thus freeing up slots for more entries.

CoxJimR
Premium Member
join:2002-01-17
Atlanta, GA

CoxJimR

Premium Member

Just to jump in here... the 30 Reject limit is the actual limit. It probably won't change in the short term but I know some people working on feature development and I will pass that on. FWIW, I have a similar limit at home (25 maybe) on my Xfinity Voice service, so there's probably some hardware limitation I may not be aware of.
ginahoy
join:2003-01-04
Sierra Vista, AZ

1 edit

ginahoy

Member

@Jim, with traditional telephone networks, this is a limitation of the digital switch commonly in use by phone companies. If cable telephone networks use the same switches, then modifications like that would have to be instigated by the switch manufacturer. I'm not holding my breath for that.

On the other hand, if your switches are unique to cable networks, it's possible they may offer more flexibility in terms of options configuration.

Hard Harry7
join:2010-10-19
Narragansett, RI

Hard Harry7

Member

Not to further complicate the issue, but I notice Cox Business Voicemanager combined selective call rejection and acceptance, into one feature " Call Acceptance & Rejection" which doesn't mention a limit in any of the literature. The old features had a limit of 12 calls each. Maybe a upgrade that will make it down to Resi?
ginahoy
join:2003-01-04
Sierra Vista, AZ

ginahoy

Member

Re: Anyone with Cox phone service use Selective Call Reject?

Slightly off-topic, but I have a question about phone number portability. The Cox rep said I can keep my existing CenturyLink phone number. I already knew that was possible when switching local phone service providers, or cell service providers, but I'm wondering how far this capability extends. For example, I don't imagine Cox can port my present number if I were to move to another city.

But what about local moves? Later this year I plan to move a few miles up the road to an area with different Century Link exchanges, but still within the local calling area for my town. As I understand it, if I stay with CenturyLink, I'll be forced to get a new phone number because it's a different CO (central office).

But if I switch to Cox phone service while I still have my present number, can Cox port that number to the new location, assuming Cox has service there? That alone would be worth switching to Cox.

Anonguy
@68.106.20.x

Anonguy

Anon

said by ginahoy:

Slightly off-topic, but I have a question about phone number portability. The Cox rep said I can keep my existing CenturyLink phone number. I already knew that was possible when switching local phone service providers, or cell service providers, but I'm wondering how far this capability extends. For example, I don't imagine Cox can port my present number if I were to move to another city.

But what about local moves? Later this year I plan to move a few miles up the road to an area with different Century Link exchanges, but still within the local calling area for my town. As I understand it, if I stay with CenturyLink, I'll be forced to get a new phone number because it's a different CO (central office).

But if I switch to Cox phone service while I still have my present number, can Cox port that number to the new location, assuming Cox has service there? That alone would be worth switching to Cox.

Yes you will be able to port it. Cox can port/transfer a number anywhere in the local calling area of that number.No CO limitations like the telcos.
ginahoy
join:2003-01-04
Sierra Vista, AZ

ginahoy

Member

Thanks for confirming this.

CoxVegas
join:2011-07-25
Las Vegas, NV

CoxVegas to ginahoy

Member

to ginahoy
For Arizona, basically it's by area code. So anywhere inside Phoenix would be fine, but we can't do Phoenix to Tucson for example.
phxuser
join:2010-03-16
Scottsdale, AZ

phxuser

Member

Phoenix metro area has 3 area codes so your move has to be within the same area code. I recently had a 50 mile move from Phoenix to Scottsdale and since my Phoenix number had the same 480 area code as Scottsdale the number port worked without a hitch.

billaustin
they call me Mr. Bill
MVM
join:2001-10-13
North Las Vegas, NV

billaustin to ginahoy

MVM

to ginahoy
If you port your number to a VOIP Provider (Anveo, Callcentric, etc.), you can take it anywhere you have an internet connection. I still have an active number with CenturyLink DSL, but ported my other two CL numbers to Anveo (and reduced my bill about $60/month).
ginahoy
join:2003-01-04
Sierra Vista, AZ

ginahoy

Member

said by billaustin:

If you port your number to a VOIP Provider (Anveo, Callcentric, etc.), you can take it anywhere you have an internet connection.

At this point, VOIP isn't on the table. Maybe later. At least for the presently contemplated move, it sounds like I can have my cake and eat it too.

Ender3rd
join:2001-07-15
Connecticut
·Frontier FiberOp..

Ender3rd to ginahoy

Member

to ginahoy
said by ginahoy:

If anyone here has Cox phone service and uses this feature, please let me know if you can manage your reject list via your account on Cox website...



I use the Selective Call Reject feature and would love to see a web interface available to manage the numbers that I have entered on the list. The ability to do this with the phone is much more time consuming than it should be. I'd also love to see an option for "Simultaneous Ringing" added to the Cox phone service to allow the use of "Nomorobo" to handle the mass dialer bots that spam phones continuously.

Regards,

Ender
jrusling
join:2003-04-27
Mustang, OK

jrusling to ginahoy

Member

to ginahoy
I would love to see this. I have quit using call rejection because it is such a pain to work with. I do have that feature on my cordless phone system. The only draw back is that it will ring once before it is blocked.
ginahoy
join:2003-01-04
Sierra Vista, AZ

ginahoy

Member

Can anyone who uses Cox selective call reject confirm if it supports entries with area code + 3 digit exchange or not? (e.g., xxx-xxx) According to the initial reply in this thread, it does not. That would be a deal killer since most of the limited number of reject numbers in my CenturyLink list (25) are toxic exchanges. I'd need at least twice that many slots just to cover the individual phone numbers I've received from these exchanges.

BTW, some of the Panasonic phones that support 250 blocked numbers have a feature that allows the initial ring to be suppressed. For example, the KX-TG684x supports this (menu/#173). I'm considering upgrading since my current Panasonic phone doesn't have that feature.

zipturtle
TNET
Premium Member
join:2001-08-27
Mesa, AZ
ARRIS SB6141
Netgear R7000
Netgear WNDR3700v2

zipturtle to ginahoy

Premium Member

to ginahoy
Click for full size
I've used this for years. Had it added as an option outside of a normal package (only have 1 line) on my business phone.

It really is the only reason why I have a land line now. I give this number out and have it forward to my cell if not picked up after 2 rings. I rarely give out my cell phone as a result.

I only have 12 slots though.. Not sure how people get 30. That would be nice.
ginahoy
join:2003-01-04
Sierra Vista, AZ

ginahoy

Member

said by zipturtle:

I only have 12 slots though.. Not sure how people get 30. That would be nice

That screenshot indicates a web interface for business line customers. According to previous posts, the residential version must be accessed via telephone prompts. Perhaps you can also dial a code to enter more #'s via telephone?

Hard Harry7
join:2010-10-19
Narragansett, RI

1 edit

Hard Harry7

Member

said by ginahoy:

That screenshot indicates a web interface for business line customers.

+1. As mentioned before, its now called "Call Acceptance & Rejection" and removed from the manual. Found a old PDF for the feature by its formal name and should give some more info.

Call Acceptance & Rejection
»media.cox.com/cbsupport/ ··· tion.pdf

Voicemanager Manual
»www.cox.com/wcm/en/busin ··· 0613.pdf