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Rogers One Number: don't. Just don't.
Rogers One Number is a service provided by Rogers which allows one to make phone calls from a computer or other similar device with a microphone, sending data over broadband. It's essentially a VoIP system that can be associated with a Rogers phone number, to make calls as though they were coming from that number. One can regard it as a way of using a computer as an alternate mobile phone.
Because Rogers doesn't have calling cards and doesn't necessarily support third-party long-distance cards, I was trying to find a way to keep in touch with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mentisiterinvit while I'm away. One of the Rogers service-critters that I spoke to suggested that I could use Rogers One Number. Set it up for her cell phone, take a laptop with me, use the laptop to call her phone. I was careful to confirm with that service-critter that that would work: leave the phone here, call it from the computer elsewhere. Okay, I thought, that sounded like a plan.
I went to the Rogers website and activated it on Friday evening. My first test call from the computer was to her cell phone; I got a busy signal. That didn't sound promising. I tried a couple of other numbers and that worked okay, but I always got a busy signal when I tried to call her cell phone. I can't say I was surprised; from the description of the service on the website, it did seem that the system was attached to the cell phone number, and one can't call a phone from itself. That was why I'd double-checked with the critter.
When I tried calling her phone from a different phone, I got the usual rings. But when the call should have gone to voice mail, I got a canned message: "Is not a number associated with a mailbox. N'est pas un numero [etc. en francais]."
It appeared that not only did Rogers One Number not serve the only purpose I'd installed it for, it also screwed up her voice mail.
Over the next couple of days, I got bounced from one wrong Rogers tech-support to another. "I'll forward you to our iPhone support people." "Um, I'm pretty sure that this is a One Number problem, nothing to do with the iPhone." "No, it's the same department." [...] "I don't know why you got forwarded to us. I'll forward you to the One Number team." And so on. With me having to re-explain the problem each time. Finally I was speaking with a guy who said, in addition to the "I don't know why they forwarded you here", "... and I see that you were talking with someone from our group just a few minutes ago. Look, I'm going to put you on hold while I find the right people, and I'll talk to them myself to make sure you don't get bounced around any more. This should take me just a few minutes."
I ended up talking with a guy who confirmed that One Number wouldn't do what I needed. He then asked me if I was going to have broadband where I was going, and if the cell phone would be staying in a place with broadband. When I confirmed that, he told me that I should use Skype, and told me a bit about how to set it up.
Yay. The original problem was solved. On to the screwed up voice mail.
I tried several times over the weekend to leave messages on the cell phone, unsuccessfully. I spoke with several Rogers service-critters who assured me that the problem couldn't be due to the One Number thing. I told them that voice mail had worked just fine before, that I could even see a list of pending messages using One Number on a computer. They told me that it was just a coincidence that the voice mail had stopped working right after One Number was activated; they'd been having a lot of problems with voice mail that weekend. Finally, one of them told me that he could reset the voice mail on that phone number, which ought to fix things. I asked him if that would wipe out all of the pending voice messages, and he confirmed. I asked him to try disconnecting One Number first. He objected that that couldn't be the real source of the trouble, but I insisted. He put me on hold, turned off One Number, called the cell phone... and was able to leave a message. What a surprise.
So: Don't do Rogers One Number. I'll also point out that though you can activate it on their website, there's no way to deactivate it except to ask one of the Rogers support people to do it for you. And dealing with them is likely to be very aggravating.
Because Rogers doesn't have calling cards and doesn't necessarily support third-party long-distance cards, I was trying to find a way to keep in touch with
mentisiterinvit while I'm away. One of the Rogers service-critters that I spoke to suggested that I could use Rogers One Number. Set it up for her cell phone, take a laptop with me, use the laptop to call her phone. I was careful to confirm with that service-critter that that would work: leave the phone here, call it from the computer elsewhere. Okay, I thought, that sounded like a plan.I went to the Rogers website and activated it on Friday evening. My first test call from the computer was to her cell phone; I got a busy signal. That didn't sound promising. I tried a couple of other numbers and that worked okay, but I always got a busy signal when I tried to call her cell phone. I can't say I was surprised; from the description of the service on the website, it did seem that the system was attached to the cell phone number, and one can't call a phone from itself. That was why I'd double-checked with the critter.
When I tried calling her phone from a different phone, I got the usual rings. But when the call should have gone to voice mail, I got a canned message: "Is not a number associated with a mailbox. N'est pas un numero [etc. en francais]."
It appeared that not only did Rogers One Number not serve the only purpose I'd installed it for, it also screwed up her voice mail.
Over the next couple of days, I got bounced from one wrong Rogers tech-support to another. "I'll forward you to our iPhone support people." "Um, I'm pretty sure that this is a One Number problem, nothing to do with the iPhone." "No, it's the same department." [...] "I don't know why you got forwarded to us. I'll forward you to the One Number team." And so on. With me having to re-explain the problem each time. Finally I was speaking with a guy who said, in addition to the "I don't know why they forwarded you here", "... and I see that you were talking with someone from our group just a few minutes ago. Look, I'm going to put you on hold while I find the right people, and I'll talk to them myself to make sure you don't get bounced around any more. This should take me just a few minutes."
I ended up talking with a guy who confirmed that One Number wouldn't do what I needed. He then asked me if I was going to have broadband where I was going, and if the cell phone would be staying in a place with broadband. When I confirmed that, he told me that I should use Skype, and told me a bit about how to set it up.
Yay. The original problem was solved. On to the screwed up voice mail.
I tried several times over the weekend to leave messages on the cell phone, unsuccessfully. I spoke with several Rogers service-critters who assured me that the problem couldn't be due to the One Number thing. I told them that voice mail had worked just fine before, that I could even see a list of pending messages using One Number on a computer. They told me that it was just a coincidence that the voice mail had stopped working right after One Number was activated; they'd been having a lot of problems with voice mail that weekend. Finally, one of them told me that he could reset the voice mail on that phone number, which ought to fix things. I asked him if that would wipe out all of the pending voice messages, and he confirmed. I asked him to try disconnecting One Number first. He objected that that couldn't be the real source of the trouble, but I insisted. He put me on hold, turned off One Number, called the cell phone... and was able to leave a message. What a surprise.
So: Don't do Rogers One Number. I'll also point out that though you can activate it on their website, there's no way to deactivate it except to ask one of the Rogers support people to do it for you. And dealing with them is likely to be very aggravating.