Page Plus incoming calls won't allow "press 1 to accept."

[whacker]

Debated on whether to post this here or in the PPC forum as this one is more lightly trafficked, but I'll start here.

I (as my handle-heading indicates) use two prepaid, pay-by-the-minute phones: T-Mobile and Page Plus Cellular. I use Google Voice for all my calling and texting, and with the T-Mobile phone this has been the case for over two years, with no major problems. The PPC phone is a more recent addition, and I don't do much with it currently. It's mainly backup for when I have coverage problems with T-Mobile.

Today I decided to use the PPC phone (HTC Incredible) only for the day (I'm on the Standard Plan, and no Google apps or extra dialers are installed). I received an incoming call to my GV number, and did what I always do (on the T-Mobile phone) to answer: Listen to the GV lady voice prompt, telling me who the caller is, and to press "1" to accept (I use the Call Screening feature for various reasons). To my surprise, as soon as I pressed 1 to accept, another voice prompt came on (interrupting the call), and said something to the effect of "this feature is not supported" (not the exact wording), along with a spoken number code. It then dropped the call. A friend was trying to call me. I let it slide for a few minutes, then he tried me again, and the same thing happened. A little later I made an outgoing call, first calling my GV number manually, entering "2" after the prompt to make a call, then my friend's number, with no problem (this being the normal way I call out). I also made a call using the GV alias number for another person.

This last part would seem to indicate that I can use the phone's dialer when in a call, to manipulate/control the call, at least in the outgoing mode. It's just during incoming that it doesn't like it (it being GV or something).

So it leaves me wondering, what's going on? Is this something with GV or with Page Plus or maybe even Verizon Wireless? I received subsequent calls with the T-Mobile phone later with absolutely no hiccups. I've posted a question on the Google Voice forum, but thought I'd also pose it here to see if anyone has any experience or thoughts on the matter. If all else fails I'll stop using Call Screening (at least just to see if calls come through), but I'd rather not. I know there are some flakey things that happen with GV sometimes, so maybe this is just another one.

Edit: Just another thought: I wonder whether the phone is interpreting my 1 press somehow as a long-press, and then trying to start a new call to the voicemail number stored in speed-dial 1. I can't remember how I hit the button, short or long, soft or hard. I'll have to get someone to call me and maybe find that out! Just another possibility I s'pose.

[fratermus]

Dunno, but you could make a contact group "pageplus" or something, add your friend to it and turn off the announcement only for that group.

Might be useful to google whatever the error message number is.

[whacker]

Thanks fratermus. Wow, one whole reply! I might post this in the PPC forum in another day or so.

I did find out a few other things: The voice prompt that I said occurs when I press 1 only happens about 50% of the time. The rest of the time it just dumps the call, and leaves my phone running (doesn't hang it up that I can tell). Also, in the voice prompt it does mention "code DU0", or error code DU0. I've done searches on it, but nothing comes up. In addition to posting about this on the GV forums I did what I guess could be called submitting a trouble ticket, so we'll see what happens. Google is kind of slow with stuff like this, as many of us know.

Oh, and I also found out that if I turn off Call Screening, I can receive GV calls on the PPC phone, so at least I have that to fall back on.

[fratermus]

Did you do the "make GV your voicemail" thing? I wonder if it's trying to do that and failing. If so, the times you pick up before the (erroring) vm transfer occurs would be the ones that get through.

[whacker]

No, my whole setup with both phones is having people call the GV number. Absolutely no one uses my regular cell nos. And I don't have any call forwarding setup for either phone; no need. I think it's just one of those flakey GV things we hear about, especially sometimes with Verizon Wireless numbers. It's just nuts though that I can use the numeric keypad calling out, but just to respond to the incoming GV prompt to accept a call, it runs into this snag. Well, I know I'm not the only one, as evidenced by other posts on the GV forum, although I'm so far the only one who is getting the voice prompt with the number code. Luckily my PPC phone is not my main device at present, although I do want to clear this up pronto. I plan on keeping PPC service.

[telmesrin]

Do the other people who are getting this error also use PPC, or is it happening with other carriers, too? I was leaning towards the idea that it was something PPC was doing that was preventing the sound of the button press from getting to GV, but if it's happening to other people, maybe that isn't true.

[whacker]

That's an element of the equation that I haven't seen anyone comment on. I'm inclined to think it has nothing to do with PPC, because they really don't have anything to do with the actual content of signalling (which would reveal some particular service) on VZW's network. I mean, yeah, somehow they monitor or receive reports from VZW about your usage and how your plan is structured. That's about the extent of my understanding in that area, and I'm only guessing.

I'm more inclined to think it's something between GV and VZW. I had a friend with a VZW-based Net10 phone, who used GV for incoming. He later moved his Net10 service to the AT&T side. He kept his forwarding settings in GV. However, calls made to the GV number were still looking for his number to be attached to VZW, as evidenced by the recording that would play, saying the number you're trying to reach is not in service, with a VZW operator tag. At the same time you could conventionally call the guy with his new AT&T-based Net10 service. This shows that there is some lingering tie with forwarding numbers and their original carriers, and how GV uses that info. It eventually straightened out after about ten days!

The point being, there's a bit of mystery involved with how GV and its software works, and how that interfaces with the public switched telephone network. Just look (if the urge ever strikes) at all the complaints there are in the GV forums, and for everything under the sun! Man, how'd you like to have a support job with them?

I didn't receive even a minor hit doing a search with the error code I received. I can only hope GV's support takes an interest.

As far as the key press being registered (heard by some part of the system), it is definitely causing either the connection to end, or the voice prompt to occur (the one telling me this service isn't supported by my carrier, with the announced code). If you don't press anything, the standard GV prompt keeps going until it times out and (I assume) the incoming call goes to voicemail. And like I said, with Call Screening off you can answer the call without problems.

Thanks for your interest, Telmesrin.

[taoman54]

So it leaves me wondering, what's going on? Is this something with GV or with Page Plus or maybe even Verizon Wireless?

Just tested it with one of my PP phones (LG vx8300) and call screening worked fine for me. Listened to the voice prompt and then just pressed "1" and the call was put right through. I doubt the problem is with either PP or Verizon. If it was I would think there would be more chatter about it in the PP and/or Verizon forums.

In the Google Voice support forums were there a lot of complaints specific to Page Plus or Verizon?

[telmesrin]

It might be something specific to the phone. If you have a different phone available you could try moving your PPC account to it and see if the same thing happens. At least it could help narrow down the possibilities.

[whacker]

@taoman54 - I didn't see any consistent mention of anyone's carrier in the GV Help Forums, although something may have popped up incidentally. Definitely nothing focusing on PPC/VZW. Thanks for the test check! That phone is a standard nine-key (maybe a flip?) as opposed to a touchscreen, right?

@telmesrin - I do have other phones I could try. One I have to perform a repair on, then I'll probably give it a try. That's a good idea.

One additional clue: I typically like to have audible DTMF (touch tones) turned off, and such is the case with this HTC Incredible as I've been using it so far. My understanding is that tones are still sent over the connection; you just can't hear them. Today I turned on the tones (short setting) intending to test this out, but I get so few calls I didn't have a chance to try it out. But as I've stated earlier, I'm able to call my GV number, then use the keypad to, for instance, press 2 to make a call and that sort of thing (when the tones were not audible), so this should be a moot issue.

Thanks for the input.

[Slinkwyde]

My main forwarding phone is an Incredible 2 on Page Plus, so I may be able to help in some way.

Have you tried Groove IP or Talkatone? They're apps that let you do free WiFi calls on Google Voice (using Google chat), and I wonder if they'd get a different result for you on the same phone.

[whacker]

Well, I'm not inclined to have to rely on a Wi-Fi environment at this time, and besides, the main issue is being able to receive random incoming calls off the cell network, wherever I may be. But it's something I may consider in the future. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Slinkwyde]

I meant that more for testing purposes, since it would be a different calling method on the same phone.

Also, if you wanted to keep using those apps after doing the testing, you wouldn't be limited to WiFi for calling. You'd set the phone to prefer WiFi calling when WiFi is available, while keeping the cell network as an automatic fallback.

[whacker]

Being on the Standard Plan, I don't think there's any circumstance where I'd want to use the cellular data network to make a call. Not when most of my calls would cost me $0.50 or less over the regular voice network.

[Slinkwyde]

I wasn't talking about cellular data at all. When WiFi is available, the phone would use WiFi for calls (free calling). When WiFI is unavailable, it would use regular voice calls. All automatic, and either way it would be through your Google Voice number.