Calls sometimes go directly to voicemail 2

[threevalvematt]

Hi. I have a Merlin Magix with Merlin Messaging.
I have an extension 7139 that people will get if they press 4 at the Auto Attendant. This will then ring 8 extensions that have Shared System Access of 7139's first 9 buttons. This works fine, but sometimes a caller will press 4 and go directly to 7139's voicemail. This happens during daytime hours when only 1 or 2 of the shared extensions are in use. The rest don't ring, the caller hears no ring, and they go directly to voicemail.
From my testing it appears that 2 calls are coming in at the same time and one of them goes to voicemail. These calls have to go through to a live person, who's waiting there to answer the call.
I'm not sure what to do.

 

[merlinman]

Is 7139 an ADJUNCT?

 

[tdaugirdas]

Why not use a group - instead of a single extention for choice 4 from the AA? You could then set up a mailbox for the group - and make one of the group's extention's the owner.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[threevalvematt]

Thanks Merlinman and Tom.
No, 7139 isn't an adjunct number. It's just a regular extension like the rest of ours.
As far as using a group, I'm not sure why that wasn't setup to begin with. I wasn't here then. Do you know what the advantages would be to doing it that way?
A little more about this:
Last night the voicemail box for 7139 filled up (we use this mailbox for all our customer service calls). It's at the 180 minute maximum already, so I think the only fix for that is to have someone check and delete the messages more often.
This morning, after our regular business hours start, all calls started going through directly to voicemail. The guys in the customer service room would hear a little half ring and then it would stop, because it was going right to voicemail. I think the half ring and no more rings is a symptom of a full mailbox. But I wouldn't think all calls going directly to voicemail would be a symptom of a full mailbox. Not sure though.
What I did to fix the fact that it wouldn't let our customer service guys answer the phone was plugging in a phone to the 7139 extension. It's never had a phone before and that didn't seem to matter. Now with the 7139 phone plugged in, all their phones ring when you press 4 at the AA to get them. But now when I unplug the phone, the calls go directly to voicemail again. And the mailbox is almost empty at this point.

 

[tdaugirdas]

Well - the advantage of using a group, instead of the single extention - is that you will no longer need the shared access buttons on the phones. You could set up a seperate mailbox for the Customer Service Group and use overflow to define how long group phones would ring before the call went to voicemail. Depending on the version of Magix processor software you have - there are several types of groups you could set up (autologin, autologout) and several group hunt types (linear, circular, least idle, all ring). There are advantages and disadvantages to each type. You should read through the Feature Reference Manual (available at Avaya.com under Support, Documentation) to better understand the options.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[threevalvematt]

Thanks Tom. That's very helpful. I'll try this when I get a chance. I have Merlin Magix 2.2 v7.2.
That should fix having to have an extension plugged in for their phones to ring. But, like I said before, we never used to have a phone plugged in there, so I'm not sure what changed, other than the obscene amount of calls we get this time of year.
Thanks.

 

[merlinman]

The reason I asked about 7139 being an ADJUNCT, was we thought that was our issue the other day when we encountered the exact same failure.

Now, I have come to a different conclusion.

I am assuming that 7139 is a TDL Set. AM I RIGHT?

We were lucky, we had a mix of TDL and MLX sets.

SO, we fixed our problem by putting 10 SSA Buttons from an MLX set on all the TDL Phones that wanted them. (Up to 16 of course)

AND - that fixed our issue of 2nd ringing call going to Voice Mail.

My conclusion is that the TDL can't have MULTIPLE RINGING CALLS on it like the MLX can, at least not in the SSA Mode.

 

[threevalvematt]

From what I can tell all our phones are TDL. They are all 4412D+ sets, except for the operator phone. It's a 4424LD+, which appears to be a TDL set as well.
That 7139 line has been randomly going directly to voicemail lately. We probably didn't notice it before our call volume increased this last month. When I tested it a call came in at the same time as mine. The other one rang through and mine went to voicemail, even though there were probably 4 open phones that have SSA with the 7139 line. If a TDL phone can't handle that, maybe that's the issue. Do you know if we could just buy a MLX phone and use it on our Magix?
It sounds like if I just went with Tom's suggestion to use a group instead of an extension, that might save all this though.
Thanks.

 

[merlinman]

To use an MLX Phone, you would need an MLX capable module.

They are made for the MAGIX.

 

[tdaugirdas]

I believe using a group setup would solve your problem - you just need to experiment with the best group format for your needs. A group gets around the two simultaneous calls issues discussed above.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[merlinman]

TOM, I still think this is an issue with the TDL.

Group can not deliver 10 calls to 16 people and still have EXTENSION Coverage to Voice Mail and stuff like that.

Based on the original post, that seems to be what he is looking for.

BUT, threevalvematt try it and let us know....

 

[threevalvematt]

Thanks to the both of you.
Right now we've got 8 people who have to be able to answer the calls sent to that one extension by the AA. They also need to be able to put customers on hold and have the ability for another person to pick up that call on their phone. We have that ability now with SSA. I've got 9 buttons devoted to it on each phone, labeled 1-9. Without having those buttons I guess they'd need to be able to park the customer somehow. The nice thing about the way it's done now is the visual reminder of the customer waiting on the blinking line 8, or whatever.
I have to confess, the abilities of this switch are a little foreign to me. But you guys both gave me some good ideas.
I'll probably need to work on this after the new year. Right now it's working except when we randomly have 2 calls come in at the same time.
Thanks so much for the help, both of you!
Thanks!

 

[kwing112000]

I had a strange issue like this along time ago and putting a coverage button on one of the phones would sometimes solve the issue. For some reason it would help to generate the ring on the second call. I used to just put the coverage on a button that really wasnt there. Something on Page 2 that was kind of like a Phantom. Might be worth a try.

 

[merlinman]

I wonder what might happen if you:

(A) Lied to the system, and using the BOARDS command, made it think there was an MLX board in an empty slot.

(B) Programmed the SSA BUTTONS on one of those PHANTOM MLX Ports.

(C) Put SSA's for that PHANTOM MLX on all the phones that has the SSA's now.

-AND LAST-

(D) Programmed AT LEAST 1 COVER BUTTON for that PHANTOM MLX on a phone somewhere. (A Phantom would have to have coverage just to RING, otherwise the system sees it as Do Not Disturb).

That would emulate what I did with my client, except for the part about using a REAL MLX Set.