Toll-Free Courtesy IVR

Owned by Tom Cavey
Last updated: Dec 16, 2022
4 min read

When it comes to Toll-Free call completion, there have been significant changes in how carriers treat this and how these changes can impact your bottom line and eat away at your profit. If you are not aware, VoIP Providers offering Toll-Free Origination Service have an expectation that all calls to Toll-Free DIDs are accepted with a 200 OK SIP response. It is understandable that an occasional call might not complete and a threshold is therefore set on what is an acceptable failure rate. A Toll-Free call failure would therefore be any call to a Toll-Free DID that did not complete with a 200 OK SIP response. If a caller does not reach a live person or IVR, but instead receives 20 seconds of ringing resulting in a hang up, the call is treated as a failed call and counts against the threshold set by the VoIP Provider. Most VoIP providers set a threshold of 90% completion as acceptable. Dipping below this threshold results in a per call surcharge of .05/call. This obviously can result in significant surcharges if you have a high volume of Toll-Free Origination and low completion rates. If you have Toll-Free Origination traffic, it is in your best interest to complete all calls for various reasons, not the least of which is to avoid the surcharge.

Unfortunately, and often for unknown reasons, many calls to Toll-Free DIDs do not complete and result in surcharges much to the chagrin of customers. Since this is a passthrough charge from vendor to reseller, nothing can be done to avoid the surcharge from the standpoint of waiving them. VoIP Innovations has nevertheless devised a way to at least minimize the number of incomplete calls if the call receives a specific reject SIP response such as a 603 Declined, or 503 Unavailable. As a general rule any call that is rejected by customer equipment prior to any signaling for ringing, will be sent to a courtesy IVR that will play a generic message stating the number being dialed is currently not accepting calls. The benefit to customers for this is that rather than being charged $.05/call, the call would instead be charged a minimum of $.0015 and a maximum of $.003 per failed call. The difference between the two is dependent on how quickly the caller hangs up; letting the message play in its entirety results in the higher rate, ending the call before the message completes (prior to six seconds for example) would result in the lower rate for the call.
One of VoIP Innovations' brand promises is "choice"; we therefore give you the choice to opt out of this service if you would rather pay the higher surcharge for failed calls.

By default, customers are opted into the courtesy IVR. Only Back Office main admins can decide to opt out of the service and this is done through the Settings link in the Back Office portal. Note that opting out of the service can cause significant surcharges to your account and it is in your best interest to take advantage of this option. There are no additional fees—the only price you pay is the cost of the call which should be accepted to a Toll-Free number as outlined in this article. To give an example of the difference between rejecting calls and paying the surcharge, or utilizing the courtesy IVR and minimizing the cost, consider this example. A typical account can receive 2000 total calls. If 85% of those calls complete, the 10% threshold would not be met resulting in 300 calls being subject to the surcharge (0.15 * 2000). The surcharge would therefore be $15 (300 * .05). If these had been sent to the courtesy IVR instead, the most it would cost is $0.90 and the least would have been $0.45. The courtesy IVR can obviously significantly reduce the cost of rejecting a Toll-Free origination call. It is therefore our recommendation that you do NOT opt out of the service.

To clarify: The difference in the max cost and min cost is whether or not the call is billed at 6 seconds or 12 seconds. VoIP Innovations bills in six second increments for Origination calls and courtesy IVR calls would have a maximum duration of 12 seconds.
Please also note that you can see your failed Toll-Free calls at any time by viewing Current CDRs in the Back Office. Simply navigate to Billing->Current CDRs and select Toll-Free Incomplete from the drop down options. If you are getting hit with surcharges this is one way to monitor your failures to avoid the surcharge should you opt out of the courtesy IVR. The CDRs are meant to point you in the right direction to avoid the call failures. One thing you want to look for when viewing them is extended ring time and an Origination Cancel (SIP 487). A SIP 487 Origination Cancel means the caller hung up before the call was answered. This would be easily remedied by routing to your own IVR. In lieu of that, if you do not want to accept the call, send a straight up rejection such as a SIP 603 Declined and have the call go to the VI courtesy IVR to avoid risking surcharges.
Please be aware that the best way to avoid Toll-Free Incomplete surcharges is to handle every call to your Toll-Free DIDs on your switch. The Courtesy IVR is NOT a failsafe method to avoid surcharges; it is simply an added measure to assist you as a VoIP Innovations' customer. You are ultimately responsible for handling your Toll-Free inbound calls to avoid surcharges.


To opt out of the courtesy Toll-Free IVR:

  • Click the house/home icon

  • Click Settings from the sub-menu

  • Change the radio button to Disabled

  • Click the 'Update Settings' button.



You can view current failures if you are opted out of the Courtesy Toll-Free IVR. To navigate to this page, click on the Billing tab and select 'Current CDRs':


From the Current CDRs page, select 'Toll-Free Incomplete' from the drop down menu:

Notice that the setting you chose under Account->Settings matches what this page shows:

You can use the link on this page to navigate to the Settings page and make any desired changes. We strongly recommend utilizing the Courtesy IVR as a way to avoid significant surcharges.