[VoiceOps] Bizarre toll-free routing issue

[Geoffrey Mina]

We had this same problem with Bandwidth.com/INet and let it ride out for 2 days while they tried to 'fix' the problem.  We eventually just started routing our traffic to another carrier.


-----Original Message-----
From: voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org [mailto:voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org] On Behalf Of Jay Hennigan
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2012 12:42 PM
To: VoiceOps
Subject: [VoiceOps] Bizarre toll-free routing issue

This is driving us nuts.  We use Inetwork/Bandwidth/Dash to terminate SIP calls to toll-free numbers.

About one out of every 50 calls results in something I have never seen before.  The caller hears an IVR of a company other than the one dialed.
 After a few seconds, it skips to a different, totally unrelated IVR, then another, and so on.  It seems to be related to load, occurs more often during peak calling hours, rarely if ever off-hours.  We have never gotten connected to a live operator, only IVRs.  The jump to a different IVR occurs after the initial greeting if we don't enter any DTMF.

The numbers we've had problems with are:

866-841-0143 - AAA
888-792-4900 - Franchise Tax Board (CA)
800-627-8797 - Anthem Blue Cross
877-776-2436 - Drive Insurance

I'm told that AAA and Franchise Tax Board terminate on AT&T and Anthem and Drive terminate on Verizon.

Getting Inetwork to fix it results in, "An intermediate carrier that shall not be named" (Voldemort?) says that another downstream carrier says that the customer has equipment problems.

Examples:
Call to 8668410143 supposed to answer "Triple A" went to Pacific Western Sales, jumps to ATT, then Child Support Division of the Office of Attorney General, then Free 411 then Comcast over the 1 minute 51 second duration of the  call.

8006278797 duration 1:40, was supposed to be Anthem but answered with Wells Fargo, then skipped to Employment Development Department then Classic Vacations.

8006278797 duration 2:28, was supposed to be Anthem but answered with Wells Fargo, then skipped to Citicard then S.M.U.D.

This is tough to troubleshoot.  It takes multiple calls to replicate as the vast majority go through without issue.  Most of our customers just assume that they mis-dialed and try again.  Where we become painfully aware of it is when a customer has one of these numbers on speed-dial and it becomes obvious that it isn't a mis-dial.

Has anyone else on the list run across this?  Other than "Don't use Inetwork", any ideas on getting it fixed?  My fear is that it may not be Inetwork but something beyond them, perhaps the companies involved outsource their call centers to a common hosted service that is having issues.


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