Calls Going Directly to Voicemail
RMBLAW
Enthusiast - Level 2

About a month ago, nearly all of my dad's phone calls on his iPhone X began going to voicemail.  Oddly, he could receive calls from me, and we discovered that if someone  else called and went to voicemail, then hung up and immediately re-dialed, their calls would go through.  He spent hours on the phone with various Verizon tech people, all of whom took him through the same list of questions - such as is DND on? is call forwarding on? is your phone on mute, etc.  The whole list.  No solutions.

Thinking maybe it was something wrong with the phone, my dad purchased a new iPhone XS Max last Friday.  Unfortunately, his incoming calls are acting exactly the same way.  We spent an hour with another Verizon tech yesterday (after my dad spent several hours with them on both Saturday and Sunday), went through the same drill several more times, including re-setting the phone multiple times, and same result!  Last night, the Verizon tech, thinking it must be an Apple app problem, hooked us up with a tech from Apple, who took us through all of the same drills, before sending us on to more technical tech at Apple, who had us try a number of new things we hadn't tried before, but nothing worked after two hours with the Apple techs.  The Apple tech then tried to connect us with a Verizon tech again - thinking that everything on the Apple side was working perfectly, and that it had to be some kind of a carrier issue - maybe something with the timing of calls going into voice mail.  After waiting hold for Verizon for 25 minutes, the tech hung up on us after we explained our problem.  So here we are.  And as far as I am able to learn, there isn't any way to change the length of time before a call goes to voice mail.

BOTTOM LINE:  Most (but not all) calls go directly to voice mail.  Calls from me, or call backs immediately after going to voice mail, hanging up and calling right back, are going through.  We are at wits end trying to figure this out.  Verizon says it is an Apple problem, and Apple says it's a Verizon problem.  At this point, the only choice I can see is to start over with a different carrier and a new phone.  Can anyone out there help?

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Re: Calls Going Directly to Voicemail
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Thanks for your loyalty to Verizon and your patience, because I know that I would be feeling frustration by now.

 

We never want you to leave us because of a device issue. The most obvious question is, do any of your Dad's contacts start with a 1 in front of the 10 digit code? 

 

I recommend you erase the iPhone completely back to factory settings, set up as a "new device," and manually enter his contacts one by one, making certain there is nothing in the number as in special characters (like hyphens) and only ten-digit numbers for contacts so that no 1s (ones) are present.

 

Please let us know what happens because this is most likely a one-off situation we haven't come across yet. Thanks.

 

TinaN_VZW


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If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: Calls Going Directly to Voicemail
RMBLAW
Enthusiast - Level 2

Here's what turned out to be the answer:  My dad's Apple Watch was set to do not disturb.  As soon as he turned that off, calls began coming through on his iPhone.  A simple but effective answer.  Problem solved.

Re: Calls Going Directly to Voicemail
DEHURTER
Newbie

what is the answer to this problem.  I am having it  too.  Level three did troubleshooting and they say it's not the network.  I also completely changed phones (went from a 7 to a iphone 10) and am still having the problem.

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Re: Calls Going Directly to Voicemail
RMBLAW
Enthusiast - Level 2

The problem turned out to be an Apple Watch that was synced with the iPhone and was set on do-not-disturb. Once we turned that off, the problem was solved.

Sent from my iPad

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Re: Calls Going Directly to Voicemail
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

I'm sorry you are having issues with your calls going to voicemail, Dehurter. I appreciate the helpful information and thanks for trying those troubleshooting steps for us. Rmlaw, has provided us with helpful information on how to get this resolved. Please confirm that the 'Do Not Disturb" feature is disabled on all your Apple devices. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204321 Keep us updated and let us know if this resolves this problem.

 

Gerson_VZW
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If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: Calls Going Directly to Voicemail
gentry001
Enthusiast - Level 1

I  contacted verizon the call had to be escalated to a senior Tech. James 

He figured out that we had to remove the Phone from the Network completely.

Then next my Iwatch was improperly paired on the network.

Here are the Steps:

Had Verizon refresh the network for the phone.

Powered off the phone.

Turn off bluetooth on the watch..

Make sure Cellular is tuned on on the watch.

Waited for the watch to force itself to connect to cell network.

 

well you get the idea  I am not a tech but this is the general direction - Good Luck!!

 

Re: Calls Going Directly to Voicemail
SuzC331
Newbie

I am having the same issue with my iphone X, but I do not have an Apple watch.  Do I have to return my phone to factory settings?  I have missed a lot of work and personal calls over the past 4-5 days.  

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Re: Calls Going Directly to Voicemail
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Our valued customer's service concerns are always our top priority and I'm sorry to hear that calls to your iPhone X are going straight to voicemail. Rest assured we'll do everything we can to get this matter resolved. We only recommend a factory data reset as a last resort after all troubleshooting steps have been exhausted. We certainly don't want you missing any more calls (e.g. personal and business). Let's work together to get this matter resolved. How long have you been experiencing this issue? Have there been any recent changes with your device? (e.g. software update, new apps downloaded, etc.) The website link provided earlier in this forum about checking to see if the "Do Not Disturb" feature has been enabled, is a very good troubleshooting step. You can check this option from your device by following the steps provided at http://spr.ly/6608ES4Lk. I'd also recommend checking to make sure that the Call Forwarding feature has been turned off from your device. To turn off Call Forwarding (Immediate or Conditional), dial *73 then press Send. Please let our team know if this helps. -  RobertC_VZW

 

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If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!

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Re: Calls Going Directly to Voicemail
79Meg
Newbie

@RMBLAW wrote:

About a month ago, nearly all of my dad's phone calls on his iPhone X began going to voicemail.  Oddly, he could receive calls from me, and we discovered that if someone  else called and went to voicemail, then hung up and immediately re-dialed, their calls would go through.  He spent hours on the phone with various Verizon tech people, all of whom took him through the same list of questions - such as is DND on? is call forwarding on? is your phone on mute, etc.  The whole list.  No solutions.

 

Thinking maybe it was something wrong with the phone, my dad purchased a new iPhone XS Max last Friday.  Unfortunately, his incoming calls are acting exactly the same way.  We spent an hour with another Verizon tech yesterday (after my dad spent several hours with them on both Saturday and Sunday), went through the same drill several more times, including re-setting the phone multiple times, and same result!  Last night, the Verizon tech, thinking it must be an Apple app problem, hooked us up with a tech from Apple, who took us through all of the same drills, before sending us on to more technical tech at Apple, who had us try a number of new things we hadn't tried before, but nothing worked after two hours with the Apple techs.  The Apple tech then tried to connect us with a Verizon tech again - thinking that everything on the Apple side was working perfectly, and that it had to be some kind of a carrier issue - maybe something with the timing of calls going into voice mail.  After waiting hold for Verizon for 25 minutes, the tech hung up on us after we explained our problem.  So here we are.  And as far as I am able to learn, there isn't any way to change the length of time before a call goes to voice mail.

 

BOTTOM LINE:  Most (but not all) calls go directly to voice mail.  Calls from me, or call backs immediately after going to voice mail, hanging up and calling right back, are going through.  We are at wits end trying to figure this out.  Verizon says it is an Apple problem, and Apple says it's a Verizon problem.  At this point, the only choice I can see is to start over with a different carrier and a new phone.  Can anyone out there help?


 

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