No call arriving
If the trunk on Phone system still says Waiting for the first call, the call never reached us. Check the side your calls come from.
From a carrier
- The address exactly as on the card. Your carrier must send to that name, not to the IP address behind it.
- The number is assigned to this trunk at your carrier, and sent in full with its country code.
- A new address takes up to a minute to reach our phone server. A call before then is refused.
- Some carriers only let a PBX sign in to them, and can’t send calls to an address. Those need a PBX in between.
- Allow G.722 first, then G.711 µ-law or A-law.
- Forwarding from another number? Call the carrier number directly first. If that works, the forwarding is what’s missing; see Keep the number your callers know.
From a PBX
- Use the name
sip.vorelai.com, not an IP address. The address behind it can change. - The username and password exactly as on the card. The trunk’s connection check says when your PBX signed in, or tried with the wrong password. After 10 wrong tries in 5 minutes, that address is blocked for a while.
- Registering the trunk is up to your PBX: we accept it, and never call your PBX back.
- An outbound route that sends
7000(or your numbers) to the trunk, and a call routed to it. - Your PBX keeps the caller’s number on calls it sends on, so the agent knows who’s calling.
- Allow G.722 first, then G.711 µ-law or A-law.
- Your firewall lets SIP out to port 5060 (5061 if you encrypt calls) and audio out to UDP 10000–20000.
- One call gets through but some don’t when several ring at once? Switch off the SIP helper (SIP ALG) on your router, or encrypt the trunk: the helper can’t read encrypted calls, so it leaves them alone.
Calls turned away
Sometimes a call reaches us but the agent can’t take it. The caller then goes to your fallback, or hears a busy tone if there isn’t one. It happens when:
- The agent is switched off (its Answers calls switch), or the number has no agent.
- All your lines are busy: more calls at once than your plan allows.
- The trunk takes encrypted calls only and this one wasn’t encrypted.
- Calls can’t be paid for: the trial ended or its credit is spent, the Vorelai credit ran out, the monthly limit was reached, a payment is more than 7 days overdue, or Google refuses your own Gemini key. The dashboard shows which at the top of every page. See Plans, trial and credit.
The fallback
Each trunk can have a fallback: a phone number in full (for a carrier) or an extension, queue or number (for a PBX), set on Phone system under “When the agent can’t take a call”. Callers go there when the agent can’t take their call, as above, when the voice model fails mid-call, and when your carrier or PBX refuses the agent’s transfer.
Use Test transfer to check it before you go live: arm it, wait about 30 seconds, then call. The call goes straight to the fallback, and the result shows on the page. A failed test usually means transfers aren’t allowed on the trunk; see below.
Transfers refused
The agent transfers a call by handing it back to your carrier or PBX to ring the number (a SIP REFER). If that’s refused, the caller goes to your fallback.
- Twilio: on the trunk, General → Call Transfer (SIP REFER) on, transfers to the phone network allowed, and the transfer host set to the trunk’s termination address.
- Telnyx: the connection needs an Outbound Voice Profile that allows the country you transfer to, and the transfer host
sip.telnyx.com. - A PBX: the trunk must accept transfers (allow REFER), and the extension or number must exist and be reachable from it.
Sound problems
- Silence one way, or the call drops after about 30 seconds: the audio isn’t getting through. Let UDP 10000–20000 out through your firewall, and switch off any SIP helper (SIP ALG) on your router.
- The agent mishears callers: put G.722 first on the trunk; ordinary phone audio loses detail the agent needs, especially in noise.
- It replies too fast, or too slowly: change “Waits before replying” under the agent’s Advanced settings. Shorter feels quicker; longer interrupts less.
- Long silences from the caller: “If the caller goes quiet” sets what the agent does then.
Emails we send when calls stop
Owners and admins get an email, once, when calls stop in a way you can fix, with a link to the page that fixes it:
- A quiet number or trunk that used to get steady calls. Often forwarding was switched off; if you’re closed, nothing needs doing.
- Google refused your Gemini key.
- Calls turned away again and again: the agent switched off, no agent for the number, lines busy, or calls that weren’t encrypted.
- Transfers refused by your carrier or PBX.
- Credit running low, or too low for a call.
Writing to us
Help is by email. To get an answer in one go, include the time of a call that went wrong (with your time zone), the number you called and the number you called from, the trunk’s name, and your carrier or PBX with its version.