Incorrect Outbound Caller ID Name

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 26, 2008 Posts: 2

What's happening is that when I call someone, their caller ID reads my number along with my name, but my name is spelled incorrectly. I have contacted Vonage about this, and they just keep insisting that they do not supply names in their outbound caller ID information, only the number and insinuate that I am pretty much lying about this. Vonage support refuses to help me address the situation. I don't know who to turn to now to have this fixed. I'm hoping that someone on here has had this experience before, and has a path I can follow to get it corrected.

Thanks!

Posts: 41 · Full Forum Member Joined: May 22, 2007 Posts: 41

I have previously done tech support for them and they are not entirely wrong here. I'll explain it much better than the rep you spoke with.

When anyone receives a call, their telephone company will perform a database lookup on the incoming number if it does not have an existing record stored for that number.

Now if you call someone on Verizon lets say, Verizon cant lookup your number in Vonage's database because Vonage doesnt have one to support outbound CallerID w/Name (CNAM). So as a fallback it uses whatever it has on record which in your case is a misspelled version of your name.

Vonage does have some kind of rudementary database however where they can adjust the name value for all their numbers to "Unknown" to be consistent since they don't send your name outbound.

So with that the other thing that can happen is that the phone company receiving the call has simply not updated their callerID records any time recently and thats why your misspelled name is still appearing.

Long story short, if Vonage has "Unknown" set in their system for your number, there is nothing they can really do to correct the receiving carrier's system. You could have your friend or family member call their phone company to try and resolve it but more than likely they will just update the record and it will begin displaying "Unknown 1-XXX-XXX-XXXX"

To others who may know more please correct me if I'm wrong but this is basically the case. The Vonage tech support rep may not have been fully trained when you spoke to him or her.

Good Luck

Posts: 50 · Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 2:31 pm Post subject:

One more thing that I might add. If your name, spelled correctly or incorrectly, is showing up on the recipients caller ID display then you either ported your phone number from another provider, or, that person has your phone number programmed into their phone along with your (incorrectly spelled) name.

If you ported your number and the phone company of the recipent has not updated their database recently, the number is still referencing your name from your previous provider. Eventually, when they update, the caller ID will simply show "unknown."

The Vonage folks were being honest with you when they said that they don't send caller ID name information -- no phone company does so. The original specifications for caller ID had provisions for the number only. The name field was a later addition and was made possible by the creation of a database containing the names of the subscribers of all companies who participate (Vonage does not). When the call is connected to the distant phone company, a lookup of that number is done in the database, and the associated name is then passed on to the subscriber.

Therefore, no one at Vonage will be able to solve your problem.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 26, 2008 Posts: 2

Thanks for the replies.

I did port from Cox Communications to Vonage back in June. But here's the deal.

When I signed up with Cox last year, they had my name spelled incorrectly (the same misspelling that others are seeing when I call them now). At that time I called Cox and told them about it, and they corrected it immediately. My name appeared with its correct spelling up until my last day with Cox. When my number got ported over to Vonage, it displayed SOUTHINGTON, CT (that's the town and state I live in) along with my number. Last week a family member told me that when I called her, my misspelled name was showing up again. Then a day later a friend in a different town told me the same thing.

So that's where I am now, I guess I should have given all of thsoe details in my first post since it explains the whole timeline. So I guess the big question here is, why would my information all of a sudden change back to the day it was for only the first day I had Cox, whcih was over a year ago? I was fine with it when it said the name of my town, but am just bothered by the misspelling of my name.

Thanks again.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 28, 2008 Posts: 1

not trying to hijack this persons thread but i am having simalar issues, heres the deal. when i call some one my number does not show up on their call ID instead a completely different number is displayed. any idea why? (this only happens some times its not an every time thing)

Posts: 50 · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:51 am Post subject:

Paulie,

Your only solution is to just wait it out until the phone companies that are displaying your old, misspelled name update their databases. This WILL happen!

I really don't know much beyond what I've already told you, but I suspect that there may be some sort of "caching" system. Perhaps if you've called an area in the past, and there's no current info on the number available, then it checks in the cache. This may not be true, at all, but how else can we explain how a brand new number from a POTS company will show the proper Caller ID information, immediately, but it takes several months for that information to disappear when the number is ported to Vonage?

Vonage subscribes to the databases, but for incoming calls, only. They do not register their subscribers. Therefore, when I call someone in another locale, usually the recipient's Caller ID displays "Unknown" because there is no entry for my number in the database. When I call other areas, however, the display shows "Arlington, VA" because the system there looks up any unknown numbers to see where the area code/prefix is located.

Posts: 23 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 09, 2006 Posts: 23

Vonage doesn't support OB CID with name. if your name shows you are lucky. you can call us up and we can remove your name only. that is all.

Posts: 227 · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:58 pm Post subject:

echardcore wrote:

Vonage doesn't support OB CID with name.

I wish Vonage would announce and admit this limitation to prospective customers before they commit to becoming customers. They readily admit that their 911 service has some limitations; that your service reliability will depend upon local power and your Internet connection. In the interest of full-disclosure, Vonage should also tell prospective customers that their CNAME database entry (i.e. outbound Caller ID name) will not be reported to parties they call.

Better yet: fix the problem -- put customer names in the CNAME database, as virtually every other carrier does.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 10:36 am Post subject:

Just so that everyone understands, even if Vonage were to have their LEC's and CNAM providers update each customer's account name in the CNAM database, this still does not mean that every person you call would see the correct name Vonage has just updated.

Vonage has numerous inbound LEC's that own the respected TN based upon the market you live in. Each of these providers may use a different CNAM database owned by Targus, Verisign, or Syniverse to name the top 3. So for example, you live in LA and the Vonage inbound carrier for the LA market is Focal. Vonage tells Focal to update 1-310-555-1234 with the name John Smith. Focal now puts this name into their CNAM database.

Now, John Smith calls a Verizon customer in PA. They go into their database, which could be cached and they have a different name for 1-310-555-1234. So the callee sees Mary Banks on her caller ID instead of John Smith because Mary Banks previously leased this number. In addition, even if the CNAM database used by the receiving carrier is not cached, if they do not have an entry in their database for this number and do not do an extended DIP into an external database, they still may return a variable of Unknown, Unavailble, or Los Angeles, CA. A lot of carriers will not do this extened DIP since each DIP performed into someone else's database costs money. This is how providers save.

In short, now that there is choice outside of the old Bell monopolies, there are going to be caller ID issues since there are many different databases being used and this data is not replicated to all of them. Even if you switch from ATT or Verizon to your cable companies Voip or any other standalone Voip operator, you willl have caller ID discrepancies.

Posts: 433 · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 2:45 pm Post subject:

Then where does the company named, Intrado, come into this. They have contacted me many times to ask what name I wish listed.