Blocking Abusive or Unwanted Callers

What blocking does

When you block a phone number, the next time that number dials any of your Allison numbers, they hear a busy signal and the call is rejected before your agent ever answers. The caller can't leave a voicemail, the agent never engages, and you aren't billed any AI minutes for the attempt.

The block is scoped to your account — if Company A blocks a number, Company B's Allison account is unaffected.

Typical reasons to block:

• Repeat scam or robocall traffic
• Abusive callers refusing to engage constructively
• Former customers misusing the line
• Known bad actors identified from call history

Where to manage the list

Sidebar → Operations → Blocked callers (/dashboard/blocked-callers).

The page shows every blocked number for your account, newest first. Each row shows:

• The phone number
• The reason you noted (optional)
• Who blocked it and when

You can search by phone number (any substring — useful when you remember the last four digits), edit the reason on any existing block, or unblock someone.

Blocking a caller

Two entry points:

1. From a call record. Open Calls → click a call to see its detail sheet → click Block caller. The phone is pre-filled; add an optional reason; confirm. The call record links to the block in your audit trail.

2. From the Blocked callers page. Click Block a number → type the phone + optional reason → confirm.

Reason is optional but recommended for your own future reference. It's limited to 500 characters.

Unblocking

Click the trash icon next to any entry on the Blocked callers page, then confirm. The caller regains access on their next inbound attempt.

What callers actually experience

• Busy tone on the line, immediately. No ring, no greeting.
• No voicemail prompt. We don't record attempted messages from blocked callers.
• No SMS notification — the rejection is silent on their end beyond the busy signal.

This is deliberate: legitimate callers who genuinely have the wrong number won't be confused by a friendly greeting that then rejects them. A busy tone is unambiguous.

What you see in your dashboard

• The Calls page records a row for each blocked attempt with disposition Blocked and duration zero. Useful for counting how much abuse you're actually blocking.
• The attempt does not count against your plan's AI minutes.
• The audit log (internal) records the attempt with the reason on file at the time the block fired.

Phone number format

We normalize to E.164 (+1XXXXXXXXXX for US). US numbers only in V1 — type digits in any format, we'll convert. International number support is a future enhancement.

What this is NOT

• Not a content-moderation system. Allison doesn't decide on its own who to block. You decide who's on the list.
• Not pattern-based. You can't block "every area code 555" in V1 — only exact phone numbers. Let us know if pattern-based blocking matters for your operation.
• Not time-limited. Blocks are permanent until you remove them. No auto-expire.
• Not cross-org. A number blocked by your account is NOT blocked for other Allison Voice customers.

What happens if you block your own team's phone?

Your team member's number will hear a busy signal when they call your Allison line. If you need the agent to recognize team members (for transfer purposes), add them as team contacts on the Team page — that's a separate concern from the blocklist.

Limits

No hard cap on how many numbers you can block. Lists up into the thousands are fine. If your operation involves large-scale moderation (tens of thousands), let us know.