Never get Automated Reminder from dentist

Problem Solving
#1

What phone do you have?
Moto X4
What plan are you on?
Choice
Does your plan include data, or just talk & text?
Data

Issue Description

For at least my appointment this week and my last dentist appointment (6 months ago), and I think previously but don’t really remember, I have not been getting the automated reminders that my dentist’s office uses - it comes from a different number than their local office line, but I’ve saved it into my contacts as the reminder line, and I get a voicemail left by them. It would be nice to get it the first time, since there’s a prompt in the call to “Press 1 to confirm,” and they keep leaving reminder voicemails otherwise. Sometimes a real person calls me from their office line and I get that one. Last appointment I didn’t get any of the voicemails, and would’ve missed the appointment altogether if my wife hadn’t happened to call them one day trying to move hers - they told her “Well, your husband has an appointment today, do you want that one and we’ll do his next week?”

So, do I have to turn off spam filter in Republic app to get the reminder calls? I assume the filter is catching a lot of the usual spam calls, so would rather not turn it off. Or is there a way I can unblock this one specific number for spam calls? Annoying that I can’t answer it, and weird that sometimes I don’t even get the voicemail. And I won’t be able to test it for 6 months after today, so if there is a solution, I won’t be able to test it right away.

Thank you!

#2

Hi @arica,

First, let’s make sure you haven’t inadvertently set that number to go straight to voicemail.

  1. Open the Contacts app.
  2. Tap the entry for the automated reminder
  3. Tap the three-dot :dots: menu at the top right of the screen
  4. Just under “set ringtone” there’s an option that will either say “Route to voicemail” or “Unroute to voicemail”. You want it to say “Route to voicemail”, so if it says “Unroute to voicemail” tap it to toggle that routing off. :dizzy:
#3

It was set that way already, by default I assume. Tapped it twice anyways just to make sure. As I’ve said, there’s no way for me to test it until six months from now, so if you have other suggested settings I’ll also try those now.

#4

I’m going to message you privately to get the number that is calling you so we can make sure it’s not being filtered as a spam number.

#5

Does your wife get her appointment reminders from this same number?

And do you have the Republic app set to send spam calls to voicemail, or to block for voicemail, too?

#6

I have the Republic app set to send spam calls to voicemail. My wife got a reminder message on her voicemail today, but she wasn’t sure whether the phone rang or not; I would guess that it didn’t.

#7

Thanks @arica,

I’ve researched the number you’ve provided and found that that on one sample day alone, this number called our members hundreds of times. It has been flagged as a high-risk spam number. I’ve submitted a request to have it removed from the spam filter and will let you know when that action has been taken.

2 Likes
#8

Interesting - I did a search for the number and found it on one of those reporting sites:

About 50/50 report it as Spam vs. actual reminder calls, so even if you unblock it I would guess a lot of customers are going to try to flag it again. It apparently traces back to a reminder service “Solution Reach”.

Anyways, I’m going to just set a calendar event for my June appointment and I’ll try to report back here whether I get the calls or not.

3 Likes
#9

Thanks @arica,

Our engineering team has unblocked this number, and calls will begin to be allowed through later today. I hope your recent dental appointment went well, and we’ll look forward to hearing from you in six months to confirm you received your reminder call.

(Don’t be a stranger in our Community in the meantime!)

I’m afraid the problem with some of the “crowd sourced” solutions for identifying spam numbers is that sometimes the “crowd” assumes any call coming from any number they don’t recognize is a spam call, when there are legitimate reasons a number we don’t recognize might be calling us!

I’m always saddened, too, at how angry the people making those reports can be. Their phone rang, and they are cussin’ mad about it! :disappointed:

2 Likes
#10

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