Cell phone or service? Phone not ringing (Wake Forest, Holly Springs: rent, month to)

[dinalkulp]

For the past week or more, my cell phone has not been ringing but rather my calls are bouncing directly to voicemail. Funny thing is my husband calls me from his cell phone and my phone will ring but does not ring when other people call. We have Verizon, and I am up for contract renewal. I have the new-every-two plan and am eligible for a new phone; however, if it's the service I certainly do not want to sign another two year contract even if they gave me a new phone free. I thought I would check in the forum to see if it may be a service compatibility issue and see if others in the Wake Forest area are having the same problem. Thanks!

[autumngal]

Verizon is who we use. And we have had no issues. Maybe check your ringer is on and has not been silenced? And also recheck your settings to be sure.

[Janecj]

I have verizon and haven't had any problems as you mentioned. However, do call them and tell them what's happening. They told me I would have to update my phone every so often with just dialing something like.. *231.. (don't use those numbers.. only used as an example). They have been very helpful when I have had issues in the past.

[dinalkulp]

I have checked my settings, and all seems fine. As mentioned, my husband's calls are coming thru, so the phone seems to be working fine...the ringer is on and set to high. I have dialed the *228 to update the tower reception several times with no change in this issue. I will have to call them I guess. Thanks!

[miamiblue]

I don't have Verizon, but every now and then something similar happens to me. I don't know if it's my phone or my service, but I have noticed one thing.

I usually never turn my phone off, when it needs to charge I leave it on, if I don't want it to ring I turn the ringer off, but the phone stays on. When it stopped ringing when people were calling me, I turned it off for a minute and then back on and it seemed to cure th issue. When I was having problems with my service when I first got it, the people from the phone company said to turn the phone on and off every now and then to reset things and let the updates install properly.

I don't know if this is helpful for you, but thought I would throw it out there.

[lauren4521]

We live in the Archer Lodge section of Clayton (east clayton) and had Verizon when we moved here. We couldn't get a signal to save our life, just about made the cell phone useless.

After some research, I did find out that often it is the actual phone that is the issue (don't skimp) BUT we ended up going to Costco and getting a new service. I'm so glad we did as we now have AT&T and have perfect service.

We live in on the outskirts in a more rural area..not sure if you're in a similar place but figured I'd share. It all really depends on so many things. It's a tough decision to make (was for us) as you're committing to TWO YEARS.

Lauren

[MikeJaquish]

AllTel here.
Generally I have been very happy.
I am curious how the service may change with Verizon buying AllTel.
Should have a really good footprint.

I think we mess ourselves up with provider contracts in lieu of buying a phone.
I bought my AllTel Treo on Ebay, saved a ton of money, got it activated, and am on the month to month since last month.
I am out of contract for the first time in years, and it feels good to know that I can move easily if I want to.

[Nelly622]

We live off West Lake Rd down by 1010 and Optimist Farm. We've had Verizon Wireless for years with no problems, but here the reception is horrible. I can't even make a call on my cell phone inside my house. Plus, there are "dead" reception areas on almost all roads around our house (Holly Springs Rd, 1010, etc).

I've also had times when I've gotten a new message tone when I never heard the phone ring. I think the problems are with Verizon. My phone is fairly new, and I never had problems with it until we moved here.

So maybe we should switch to AT&T?

[lauren4521]

Nelly,
I don't really get how one service can be worse than others as I thought that they all used the same towers. Still, for us AT&T was better (or was it the new phones?) Who knows. With Verizon we also could not ever make a call from inside our house and never heard the thing ring.

Mike,
I've heard of buying a phone and then having it activated but haven't looked into it. Are the mo to mo plans more/less expensive? Nowadays, most contracts are for 2 years which bugs me to no end. I'd much rather invest in a really good phone next time and do month to month. Any tips?

Lauren

[Trevor92]

It sounds like it may be a call routing problem. I assume your husband is also on Verizon. Do the people trying to call you when your phone isn't ringing use another provider?
One thing you also may want to try is power cycling your phone, the old restart your computer trick.
The second, if that doesn't help, is one day when your husband isn't expecting any important phone calls, call in and get his phone activated on your account (not sure if Verizon charges for this but alltel has never charged me for it). If the problem continues or not, will help determine if it's the phone or the local tower.
Describing the experience to tech support may help, but I'm sure it would be helpful for them for you to describe your exact address that it happens, as well as what providers your friends are using that are trying to call.

Originally Posted by MikeJaquish

I am curious how the service may change with Verizon buying AllTel.
Should have a really good footprint.

Once it gains Dept. of Justice regulatory approval, it'll probably still take a while to integrate networks, eliminate redundant cell sites, etc. It'll probably take another year at least, I just hope they don't just shut down the alltel side of the network since both provider service here because it is the better one imo after using them both. What I'm really worried about is if they'll eliminate My Circle and try to move everybody over to Verizon's more expensive rate plans. Time will tell I guess, and I'm also happy to not be in a contract for the experience so that I have a few bargaining chips.

Originally Posted by lauren4521

I don't really get how one service can be worse than others as I thought that they all used the same towers. Still, for us AT&T was better (or was it the new phones?) Who knows. With Verizon we also could not ever make a call from inside our house and never heard the thing ring. ...
I've heard of buying a phone and then having it activated but haven't looked into it. Are the mo to mo plans more/less expensive? Nowadays, most contracts are for 2 years which bugs me to no end. I'd much rather invest in a really good phone next time and do month to month. Any tips?

Cell providers, alltel, Verizon, Sprint, At&t, SunCom, Cricket etc. don't all use the same towers. They each have their own network, own cell sites, own call routing equipment, etc. Sometimes they may rent space on the same tower, and many towers are owned by tower companies which the providers rent space from, but that is it. It's not uncommon for several providers to have problem areas that others don't have, and vice-versa in different areas. The only real advantage to not having a contract is that you can cancel at any time without paying the Early Termination Fee. Sometimes to keep you as a customer, some providers will give you bonus anytime minutes and other advantages, depending on the provider.