Bad call audio comes in a few recognisable flavours, and each points somewhere different. Crackling and robotic voices usually mean the call is losing small pieces of audio on the way. Dropouts mean it is losing larger pieces, or losing the connection entirely. Echo almost always means a microphone somewhere is picking up a speaker. Working out which one you have is most of the job.

Try this first

1. Note who hears the problem. Can you hear them badly, can they hear you badly, or both? "They cannot hear me properly" points at your microphone or your upload. "I cannot hear them" points the other way. Ask on the next call, because it genuinely changes the answer.
2. Change the headset. Swap to a different headset, or try the handset instead of the headset. Worn cables, a loose plug and a failing Bluetooth headset cause more crackle than networks do. If the problem follows the headset, you have found it.
3. Try a cable instead of Wi-Fi. If you are on a laptop using the phone app, plug into the network with a cable for one call. Voice does not cope well with a marginal Wi-Fi signal, because it needs a steady trickle rather than a fast burst.
4. Look at what else is using the internet. Large uploads, cloud backups, video streaming and big file transfers all crowd out voice. At home, ask who else is on. In the office, note whether calls are worse at particular times, such as when backups run or at end of month.
5. Kill the echo at the source. Echo is nearly always a speakerphone in a hard room, two devices in the same room joined to the same call, or a headset volume set high enough for the microphone to hear it. Turn the speaker down, close the second device, use a headset instead of the speaker.
6. Restart the phone or the app, and restart the modem once if the whole office is affected. Give it two minutes to come back.
7. Move closer to the access point if you are on a mobile using Wi-Fi calling, or turn Wi-Fi off on the phone so the call uses the mobile network instead. A phone hovering between weak Wi-Fi and mobile is a classic cause of chopped-up calls.

If that didn't fix it

Call quality faults are traced from the details, so the more precise you are, the faster it is found. Log a ticket with:

• The date, the time and roughly how long the call lasted.
• The number you were speaking to, and whether it was a mobile, a landline or an overseas number.
• Which extension or which person was affected.
• What exactly was wrong: crackling, robotic, one-way audio, echo, dropped mid-call.
• Whether it happens on every call or only some.
• Whether you were on a desk phone, the app on a computer, or the app on a mobile.

A single bad call with the time and number attached is far more useful than a general report that calls have been poor lately. If it is happening often, keep a short list for a day.

Why this happens

Voice calls travel over the same internet connection as everything else, but they are much less forgiving. A web page that arrives a second late is fine. A voice call that arrives a fraction of a second late has to throw the late piece away, and that gap is what you hear as a crackle or a robotic syllable. That is why a connection can test fast and still carry poor calls: what voice needs is steadiness, not speed.

If your calls are consistently poor and the checks above do not explain it, tell us. There are settings that give voice priority over other traffic, and there are connections that are simply not up to carrying a busy phone system. Both are worth looking at properly rather than living with.

Still stuck?

Log a ticket at portal.yougrowit.com.au or email support@yougrowit.com.au. If it is stopping you working right now, call 03 9028 4358.

Support hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm Melbourne time, excluding Victorian public holidays.