I've been trying without success to get the FU folks to help me make my FU line work such that I can use it as a forwarding number for home (GV) when I am out & about...for a number of days already - without success.
(Maybe it is also affected by some sort of language barrier like with their phone folks ??)
No matter what I ask or what they've done, their service defeats the GV VM by picking up too soon (1 ring or less).
I had to disable the FU line at GV because of this - which makes FU pretty much useless for me as my AT&T based provider.
(I can now see why folks here have chosen to use it as a glovebox only phone service !!)
Here is their most recent ticket response to my request:
At any event - after wasting loads of time & efforts on this project, I will merely use it if there is a dire need to make a call someplace that has zero other coverage - until the Red Pocket specials may appear, then it will become irrelevant.
If I was doing this as an initial test to see if their service was suitable to use as a paid service vs. Red Pocket, it would be a very solid failure for FU just due to the hassles involved (and of course Red Pocket on special also costs less anyhow).
Perhaps it will get better over time, but most likely by then this user will have replaced them with Red Pocket (and zero hassles).
Interesting idea...uncertain if that would aggravate folks calling who are used to just getting through.
Seems to me that there have been conflicting reports about this VM stuff with FU here...
I thought I read how 1 or 2 folks were able to have them do SOMETHING such that the GV VM worked OK, but as posted above, they now claim it is just not possible ?!?
FWIW---on my FreeUp paid plan phone, I never set up FU VM and I have been using GV app on the phone while having all calls forwarded to my GV number. GV has always picked up my VM with no interference, as far as I can tell, from FU VM. You can call your GV number from another phone and leave a voicemail to see if it works ok without doing anything concerning FU VM. Oh, and mine works ok without call screening enabled.
Edit: reread your--E_Z's--original post and it looks like you've already done the above without success.
My experience: I do fine with FreeUP and Google Voice, with GV as my contact #, forwarded to FU.
Regardless of your carrier, I've found it necessary to turn off call forwarding to any phone that is not powered on-- voicemail or "not available right now" will intercept.
I do not have FreeUP voicemail disabled. I was under the belief that some had managed it through customer service.. On my phone, it's a game of who rings first-- my phone may only ring once at times, although apparently having rung AT&T's system the 4 times necessary for voicemail to pick up. I'm in the habit of checking for carrier voicemail on the phone, as well as GV voicemail, so I just find it wherever it is. (I just remember to check it before putting the phone away or changing phones......)
I've read about convoluted setups forwarding in loops, or to a non-answering number (from the native #) to prevent voicemail from picking up. (But I think it requires that the carrier support conditional forwarding.) I've never been desperate enough to decipher the process.
Thanks for your responses Isamorph & KentE !!
As of now I didn't register the phone I'm using for FU with the gmail used for the house number...yet, so no GV app in use there...again, yet - maybe I'll do that soon as it seems like a way to resolve this more easily.
(Though with zero data it may only work via wifi...is that right ??)
As to the rest - even with the phone powered on GV VM didn't catch it before their silliness did - and worst of all I keep cellular phones powered off when at home, so that will really cause problems with forwarding to FU most of the time.
Again though, no such problems when using Red Pocket as they shut their VM right off for me without any hassles whatsoever !!
Thanks RoadRanger.
I have tried it multiple times & it didn't go to GV, sadly.
(A couple of folks panicked when they called my house number & got that recording after 1 ring too.)
I'm linking to the middle of that thread, to a comment from LouP, that I thought was especially interesting. It's probably worth reading through the entire thread to see if any of the solutions work for you.
If something does, let us know!
My wife has Total Wireless and this worked to get GV happy dunno if it will work with FU :
*71[10-digit Google Voice Number]
*90[10-digit Google Voice Number]
*92[10-digit Google Voice Number]
They are all conditional call forwarding for different scenarios. One is if you reject a call, another one is an unanswered call, and I think another is if you are already on a call (but I could be mistaken about this one).
KentE - you are always so wonderfully helpful - Sincerest Thanks !!!
When I tried the method provided by LouP...
I dialed in: 0048002215807*11#
Pressed call, and the code is rejected as connection problem or invalid mmi code, sadly.
Thanks all the same !!
With your experience, I'm left wondering if the difference between you and me is that I have a paid plan. The line that I had them disable voicemail in it's entirety was the paid line. I have not requested this on the free line since that line is rarely used.
Either that, or they do not want to do this (completely remove the voicemail option) anymore.
Many, many moons ago - during the era of 80286 CPUs, I shared a house with a man who surely qualified as a brilliant coder - mostly because he made loads of $$$ from his works.
How does this relate with FU you may ask ?!? (Good question)
He hated doing anything EXCEPT coding - had zero business or management skills - and was firmly determined that he was FAR smarter than everyone else.
So he hired the cheapest help possible - a seriously desperate couple with time limitations & children ('under the table', of course...), she to manage the 'office' and he to provide tech support.
Fast forward some months to the result=> His customers fled in droves & he went broke.
The FU folks seem (via this user's exposure) to be quite similar & will likely out-clever themselves enough to send potentially paying customers RUNNING for a better alternative.
I have gotten into this at the 'free' level with an actual expense of ~$6 for the SIM & a much larger expense of my time & efforts in trying to make it useful for me - which have thus far failed 100%.
So I'm with Tech-stitch on this one - they just don't 'feel like' helping the 'free' customers - thus assuring that we will most likely NEVER consider paying them - which just ain't very shmart, shmart !!
Once you hit pound it should send the code but if it doesn't only then hit send. as always YMMV
Also I use to have Red Pocket and if I remember right they had a feature where you could say haw many rings before VM picks up. For example you could say pick up after 10 rings which solves the problem of it picking up before Google Voice.
It can be a pain to work out for sure, but once you get it done...it's done!
I've had H2O, Airvoice, Tello, Red Pocket, Ultra, Freedom Pop, Powertel, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, CellNuvo, RingPlus, PagePlus, Truphone, as well as others I cant remember and they all present challenges. Especially when you add in Ooma, Google Voice, and Obi to the mix as I have.
I started with a "bag" phone (3 watts) I got from Service Merchandise back in the mid 80's and it came with ZERO free min and 50 cents a min for analogue cell service. (plus a monthly fee) Boy, we have come a long way!
Like you I've had many of the same providers over the years:
And also like yourself - I was among the 1st 100 analog cellular users in Vermont with a truly wonderful bag phone !!
In terms of the entire subject of phone usage nowadays - I find that GV is most useful & to have FU without it grabbing calls away from GV is a total non-starter for FU, as simple as that.
@St3fx:
Thanks for the further info !!
The FU geniuses must have implemented blocks for ALL codes as I only get the same response with any of those suggested by he kind & helpful folks here.
.