VOIP incomming calls do not work (another one)

[Hangie]

G'day all,

Posted elsewhere about my incoming calls being met with a recorded message stating the number is disconnected.

I emailed voip@exetel.com.au detailing the problem.

This is the answer I got:

On 27/08/2008, at 10:54 , voip@exetel.com.au wrote:

Dear Sir,

I began to understand your situation.

Please find that this issue was not caused by your equipment or Exetel server or our carrier. We've been advised by our carrier before that this problem will happen for some end user who trying to dial your voip number.

This problem was caused by the caller party's voice service provider because they did not update or fix the interconnect dial rules / tables therefore it may work for some people who call you depend on which service provider they are using.

I'm afraid we cannot rectify this problem and this issue need to be resolve by caller's voice service provider.

Regards,
Jared L
________________
Exetel VoIP Service
Exetel Pty Ltd

My response (not unreasonable I would think...)

Thanks,

To confirm, the problem is outside the control of Exetel.
The problem is that of whoever is the service provider of the calling party.
The calling party needs to get their service provider to fix the problem.

I've tested the following voice service providers:
Telstra 3G mobile (Faulty)
Optus PSTN (Faulty)
Exetel mobile (Faulty)
Telstra POTS (Faulty)

So I'm paying $5 per month for a number provided by Exetel that will not work with any major telco, including Telstra POTS. And for that $5 it is my responsibility to contact every telco to let them know they need to update or fix their interconnect dial rules / tables regarding my DID.

I'd suggest to you, that Exetel have sold me a service that is not fit or warrantable for the purpose with which it is intended.

How about you sell me a DID that at least one major voice service provider in Australia (Telstra POTS) can contact.

Dale

Foolishly I advertised the VIOP number as a preferred means of contact and now find I've greatly inconvenienced a number of people. Anyone have any advice or feedback. ( A telstra tech pass and instruction on interconnect dial rules / tables programing would be usefull)

[jokiin]

Foolishly I advertised the VIOP number as a preferred means of contact and now find I've greatly inconvenienced a number of people. Anyone have any advice or feedback. ( A telstra tech pass and instruction on interconnect dial rules / tables programing would be usefull)

This is not uncommon when new blocks of numbers are released and carriers haven't updated their routing tables with the required info, it would most likely just come good in time once this has been done but as much as an inconvenience as it is the quickest way to sort it would be to call each carrier and report the fault, understand that this isn't the most pleasant task to have to carry out but would probably be the quickest way to resolve it.

Had you not advertised the number Exetel probably could have allocated you a new number from another block of numbers but too late for that I guess

[Hangie]

Thanks for that info jok11n!

I wonder if that could be added to the FAQ? I would have not made the number known at all if forewarned! Even a cautionary note on the number selector box on Exetels VOIP page would be useful.

I spent the better half of a day reading the VOIP help forums, and rebooting and reflashing my NB9W to try to fix the problem. Bloody frustrating.

I'm still recovering from spending a few weeks on the phone to Telstra after they disconnected my landline four hours after they connected it for the first time. (It was disconnected because a Telstra customer code showed that I had no cable, so thus although connected and making calls, I was disconnected to ensure my service complied with the faulty code...only took three weeks to get reconnected)

I'm not sitting on hold for the next day or so with Solstra just to get my DID going. I'd rather wait and spend the time on the counselors couch!

Anyways I received a reply again from Exetel saying that they are chasing up the supplier. For a no frills service ISP, they do respond very fast to emails.

[jokiin]

I wonder if that could be added to the FAQ? I would have not made the number known at all if forewarned! Even a cautionary note on the number selector box on Exetels VOIP page would be useful.

It's not too common fortunately but does happen from time to time, not sure that they have had this problem that often, all VSP's seem to get this problem from time to time, ironic that the blocks of numbers are often resold by the same carriers whose services can't call the numbers, left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing I guess, no surprises really that some of the biggest telcos still have the poorest communications internally

Anyways I received a reply again from Exetel saying that they are chasing up the supplier. For a no frills service ISP, they do respond very fast to emails.

Considering the bagging that Exetel often gets from people on Whirlpool about customer service I have to say that my experience with them has been very positive and I would have to wonder what the true stories behind some of the rants over there actually are, I'm sure many are unfounded, my experience anyway is that there is very little to complain about and the levels of service they do offer and at the price they do it at aren't available anywhere else in the market

[Hangie]

And just to close this, issue resolved with a replacement DID.