Symptoms (What Customers Told Us)
- “It never rang—went straight to voicemail.”
- “I called and it rang then went to voicemail.”
- "Why did you call?" (Some company I had not called- spoofing by someone else).
- Long stretch of reroute of voicemail to unused number (I found the fake number they had routed it to).
Why We Missed It for So Long
We didn’t initially suspect telecom. 2020–2021 brought market chaos, so a slower phone felt plausible. Also, a silent failure is sneaky: there’s no “missed call” count to clue you in. If analytics or routing treat your number poorly, calls can be diverted pre-ring or dropped before your handset ever sees them.
What Likely Happened (Nerd Mode)
Think of the call path as: originating carrier → transit → terminating carrier (your provider) → features (forward/no-answer/voicemail) → handset. If the terminating carrier has bad provisioning or a stale feature toggle, two ugly outcomes are common:
- Pre-ring diversion: The call is adjudicated (spam analytics, graylist, or mis-set conditional forwarding) and dropped to voicemail or another destination before the handset is invited to ring.
- Dead routing: An old conditional route (e.g., CFNA/CFB) points to a retired number or mailbox. Call goes into a black hole; you get no log.
There’s also the labeling/analytics angle (STIR/SHAKEN, CNAM reputation, third-party scoring). If your number gets a bad reputation, some networks apply harsher call treatment. We submitted to industry registries and cleaned up any possible flags, but the ultimate fix came from forcing a clean, correct re-provision of the line.
Timeline (Condensed)
- 2020–2024: Notice fewer inbound calls. Customers later report “straight to voicemail.” Multiple support contacts over the years did not produce a lasting fix.
- 2023: Separate headache: we lost control of our original domain (caldwellsroofing.com) after a third party acquired it via a registrar marketplace. We rebuilt the site at caldwells-roofing.com.
- Summer 2025: Ported the business line to Verizon and escalated until the number was fully and correctly provisioned post-port. Calls began ringing normally again. We also enrolled with the major caller registries for reputation hygiene.
Other Body Blows We Survived
- Domain loss (2023): In the middle of running jobs, I genuinely believed our long-held domain
caldwellsroofing.comstill had years left. I did not receive a renewal call from GoDaddy. When I checked, it was already gone and had been registered by someone else. Losing it wiped out years of SEO and links; we rebuilt at caldwells-roofing.com. - Change-order retaliation (2020): We issued a legitimate, documented change order and were punished to a scary degree for it—proof that subs are most exposed during change orders, which are infrequent but sometimes necessary.
Business Impact
With phones effectively “ghosting” many callers, new-lead volume and revenue cratered—roughly to a third of pre-2020 levels. Once calls began ringing normally in 2025, inbound interest rebounded immediately.
Quick Self-Audit for Any Small Business
- Test from outside your network: Call your main line from at least two different carriers (AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile). Try during business hours and after hours.
- Check conditional forwards: Ask your carrier to verify
CFU(unconditional),CFNA(no-answer), andCFB(busy) are set correctly. Remove any legacy destinations. - Voicemail path: Confirm which mailbox the network is actually using and that it’s provisioned to your device/account.
- Reputation hygiene: Register at the major caller registries (Free Caller Registry) and ensure your CNAM/name is accurate.
- Escalate provisioning: If symptoms persist, request a full reprovision of your line or a “reset push” after any port or feature change.
- Add a backstop: Put a secondary number (and a text button) on your site while troubleshooting. Most callers won’t try twice.
If You’re Reading This Because Your Phone Is Quiet…
Don’t wait. A quiet line might be a market lull—or it might be a silent technical failure. Verify the call path, fix the routing, and keep an alternate contact method visible. It’s the difference between a thriving calendar and empty weeks.