The Basics of Dedicated Toll-Free Troubleshooting

Before you begin troubleshooting your dedicated toll-free number, you must determine the extent of the problem. Opening a trouble ticket on your toll-free number will delay the resolution of your issue if the problem is actually with your entire circuit and also affects your outbound calling.

 Tip  Just as with troubleshooting a switched circuit, it’s always best to open a trouble ticket with your carrier for the outbound issue instead of taking a toll-free call that also has the problem and using that as the basis of your report. If your entire circuit is down, all of your toll-free numbers that terminate into that circuit will be affected. Check your circuit first, and only after you confirm that the problem doesn’t affect your outbound calls should you open the ticket on your dedicated toll-free number.

The most common problems that plague dedicated toll-free numbers are routing issues and DNIS configuration issues. These are the only two variables that really separate dedicated toll-free numbers from dedicated out-bound calls. They share the same dedicated circuit as your outbound calls and the same switched network as every other call you make.

 Tip  The limited number of variables makes dedicated toll-free numbers relatively easy to troubleshoot. Quality issues that exist only on dedicated toll-free numbers are quite rare, because the dedicated circuit and routing they travel on are shared by outbound calls. The following sections only cover dedicated toll-free completion issues.

Step 1: Identifying a provisioning issue

Switched and dedicated toll-free numbers have inherent similarities. Either variety can die or lose its way during the process of being activated by your carrier. If a dedicated toll-free number is being migrated from another carrier, or is new and is slated to be activated, and the line suddenly fails, your first call is to the person at your carrier who handles your orders. You need to speak to this person first to determine whether the toll-free number has finished the provisioning process and whether the carrier sees it as active.

There are quite a few situations that can prevent a toll-free number from being activated. Until the number shows completed in your carrier’s system, the customer service and troubleshooting people can’t help you. Jump to Chapter 9 to find out how to resolve activation issues and for more information about the pitfalls and timelines for resolving provisioning issues.

 Remember  Dedicated toll-free numbers must also be programmed in your PBX or phone system, especially if you use DNIS to route your inbound calls. If you made any upgrades to your phone system, the programming might have been lost. Check your phone system and confirm that all the routing is intact there before opening a ticket with your carrier. You might be able to find and resolve the problem yourself.

 Tip  When you establish that the problem might be a provisioning issue, you need to contact the provisioner. The provisioner can confirm whether the toll-free number is still in the provisioning process. If the problem turns out to be a provisioning issue, you will have to work through the issue with the provisioner’s assistance.

If you can’t get ahold of the provisioner, do leave that person a voicemail message that explains the situation. Make sure you remember to leave your contact information. Then open a trouble ticket with the carrier’s customer care department. You should have your provisioner check into the toll-free number when he or she picks up the voicemail, because you might save a lot of time. After you contact the provisioner, head to “Step 2: Redialing your dedicated toll-free number.”

If your toll-free number had already been activated and was passing traffic prior to the problem cropping up, you can proceed directly to Step 2, as well.

Step 2: Redialing your dedicated toll-free number

All toll-free troubleshooting beings with trying to dial the number again. There is always the propensity to dial 800 rather than 888 or to transpose some digits. If your call completes during the second try, ring your number up again a few more times to make sure everything is fine before you continue with your day. If your call fails, write down the phone number you dialed from, the time you placed the call, and the call treatment you received. This information becomes your call example to share with your carrier when you open your trouble ticket. Next, move on to Step 3.

 Remember  You can’t dial a toll-free number from a dedicated circuit. This means that you can’t dial out from your dedicated circuit to your toll-free number. When you are making test calls to a dedicated toll-free number, use a regular switched phone line (a nondedicated line) or a cellphone.

Step 3: Validating your dedicated RespOrg

There are two key elements involved in routing calls to a toll-free number: the RespOrg and the carrier receiving the traffic. Unless you have direct access to the national SMS database (which I cover in detail in Chapter 5), you can’t confirm any of this information by yourself. Your carrier has access to this information. You must find out who controls the RespOrg status of your dedicated toll-free number.

 Tip  If your toll-free number has not finished the provisioning process, you will be kicked back to the person who enters orders. Luckily, if you already left a message for your provisioner before you called (see “Step 1: Identifying a provisioning issue,” earlier in this chapter) the carrier is already working on your issue by the time you call to follow up.

 Tip  If your provisioner has already confirmed that the order is complete, don’t let the customer service person off the phone! Request a conference call with the customer service agent and your provisioner so that the issue can be resolved immediately. It can take hours to get the service side and the provisioning side of a company to view the status of an order from matching perspectives. If your provisioner is unavailable and the problem is an emergency, ask the customer service rep to conference in the manager of provisioning. Don’t be afraid to escalate the issue. As long as your issue is an emergency, nobody should fault you for pushing up the chain of command.

If your number was working fine yesterday, it might have been migrated or NASCed away. In either case, the RespOrg of your number may be some other carrier with which you don’t have service. If the RespOrg of your number belongs to your carrier, proceed to “Step 4: Validating the DNIS configuration.” If the customer service rep at your carrier doesn’t recognize the company in RespOrg control of your toll-free number, you need to begin steps to reclaim your number. Your customer service representative should be able to tell you the following information about the company that has your toll-free number:

• The company’s RespOrg ID code

• The company’s contact phone number for reporting trouble

This is all you need to begin your work. Your carrier can’t or won’t do much in this instance without your direction. You need to call the other carrier and require it to identify why and how it received the RespOrg for your toll-free number. When you have that information, you can either leverage your position against the carrier if it NASCed or migrated the number in error, or plead for compassion if your carrier somehow released the number.

 Remember  If your carrier released the number to the other carrier directly, or released it into the pool of nationally available toll-free numbers, you are between a rock and a hard place. Legally, the number belongs to the new carrier. The source of your problem is with your old carrier, which released the number. Taking legal action against your old carrier might make you feel good, but it does nothing to get your toll-free number back. You’ll have better luck pleading your case to the new carrier. Let the new carrier know about all the wrong-number calls it is going to receive for the next six months because your customers will continue to call. And don’t be too proud to beg.

Step 4: Validating the DNIS configuration

Most dedicated toll-free numbers are ordered with specific DNIS digits that are sent during the call setup portion of the call. The stream of information in which the DNIS is sent also includes the caller ID (what your carrier refers to as ANI delivery) and possibly a two-digit code that identifies the type of phone that initiated the toll-free call (such as a pay phone or prison phone), called ANI Infodigits. If you have questions on what DNIS is, browse Chapter 5. If you want to know more about how DNIS is ordered or provided, stroll to Chapter 9.

Provide the exact DNIS setup to your customer service rep for validation. If your toll-free number is 1-800-555-1234 and you ordered ANI delivery with a four-digit DNIS that matches the last four digits of the phone number, tell the agent that 800-555-1234 should have ANI delivery provided, and that the DNIS is 1234. The agent should be able to tell you whether ANI delivery is being sent, as well as the specific digits of the DNIS.

Dealing with DNIS digits that don’t match your toll-free number

If your toll-free number was working fine yesterday, and suddenly the DNIS configuration has changed, your carrier should be able to fix it quickly. The carrier might have upgraded a switch and some of the programming might have been lost. Depending on how your carrier is set up, the customer service rep might be able to change the DNIS back and resolve your issue in moments. Otherwise, the rep may have to open a trouble ticket (curses!) and a technician will resolve the issue in due time. If the rep has to open a trouble ticket, take down the ticket number and follow up every hour or two until it’s resolved.

Dealing with the situation if the DNIS digits do match

If the DNIS digits are correct, you need to press forward with a trouble ticket. Write down that trouble ticket number. Now you will have to wait for a technician to call you back before you can begin head-to-head testing in “Step 5: Head-to-head dedicated toll-free testing.”

Using the old stare-and-compare method

If you have several dedicated toll-free numbers that are working fine and one that is failing, inform your carrier of this information and give the representative one of the working toll-free numbers to use as a template. If any change was made in the setup of your other toll-free number, it will be immediately obvious after the carrier compares the routing and configuration of the two numbers. Any variation in the setup of the two numbers is most likely the source of the completion problem.

This comparison works even better if you have another toll-free number that shares the same DNIS digits. If you have three toll-free numbers with the last four digits of 9876, all sending DNIS 9876, yet one of them is failing, a quick comparison with one of the functional toll-free numbers should quickly identify the problem.

Step 5: Head-to-head dedicated toll-free testing

Head-to-head testing on dedicated toll-free numbers is less painful than intrusive testing on a dedicated circuit. The process doesn’t take down your dedicated circuit or affect your other service in any way. Your carrier can set up a test toll-free number in order to view and manipulate the DNIS stream, as well as to identify the responses from your hardware. After you get to the point of head-to-head testing on a dedicated toll-free number, your issue is as good as fixed.

 Tip  Having your hardware vendor on-site or available during the head-to-head testing with your carrier can expedite the resolution. Your carrier can view and manipulate the call it’s sending you, having someone with more experience around to identify what you are seeing can be infinitely useful.