Customer can only put 2 calls on hold at a time

[ReidTel]

I have a medical office customer that has IP Office 9.1 with 6 line appearances on each phone. They have 6 hunt groups configured with ring mode set as collective call waiting. I was just informed that their receptionist (HG 401) cannot put the 2nd call on hold when a 3rd call rings in. Instead she has to go to another phone to answer the third call. I did recently add a couple of phones to this group and I just checked the saved configuration and noticed that one of them has "unknown device type" as well as "user data" in the user's rights view. Could this be the issue or might there be something else that I'm overlooking. I appreciate any help you can give. Thanks.

Larry Reid
Reid Telesys Communications

 

[teletechman]

You only have 3 line appearances which limits the number of calls on hold that is why you should use park. Each call on hold uses an appearance button, you can add more appearance buttons but that does not solve the problem. You might try to use park and page to send the callers to a park zone but the use should be able to pick up via the line appearance. You should test to make sure.
Mike

 

[ReidTel]

Hi Mike. Thanks for your response. Each phone has 6 line appearances so shouldn't they be able to put 6 calls on hold like normal pbx systems?

Larry Reid
Reid Telesys Communications

 

[teletechman]

When you place a call on hold do you see the corresponding Access but go on hold as well? When a call comes in it rings on both the line appearance and the System appearance buttons then when you put it on hold both the system and line appearance buttons go on hold so you only can hold as many as you have system appearances depending on programming.
Mike

 

[critchey]

Each phone has 6 line appearances so shouldn't they be able to put 6 calls on hold like normal pbx systems?

Nope that is not how it works. IP Office is a true PBX, not a key system (which is how you are trying to program it), and it uses the call appearances (NOT line appearances) to put calls on hold. My guess is you only gave the phone 2 call appearances so you can only put 2 calls on hold. If you want to put more calls on hold increase the number of call appearances (again NOT line appearances).

The phone system should not be using line appearances at all.

The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.

 

[derfloh]

Who is able to handle six calls at once?

IP Office remote service
IP Office certificate check
CLI based call blocking
SCN fallback over PSTN

 

[ReidTel]

Critchey to set the record straight, I didn't program the system. That was done by an Avaya BP that is no longer in business. I am just responding to a service call. Each user in the reception hunt group actually have 6 line appearances when I check the button programming menu. So what you're saying is that they need 6 appearance buttons rather than 6 line appearances and they should be able to put more than 2 calls on hold at once? I'll return to make those changes. Thanks.

Larry Reid
Reid Telesys Communications

 

[ReidTel]

Mike I haven't gone on site yet. I just wanted to get an idea what could be causing it before I went out. I have their system config file saved to my pc and I checked to make sure that each user in the group had 6 lines assigned. I will go there and change the line appearances to appearances as Critchey suggested and see if that's the fix. Thanks again for your response.

Larry Reid
Reid Telesys Communications

 

[ReidTel]

Derfloh lol... no one. With the staff cutbacks because of the pandemic I'm guessing that they have one receptionist doing the job of 3 and the call volume has increased

Larry Reid
Reid Telesys Communications

 

[critchey]

Just because you have 6 calls coming into the system does NOT mean you have to have those 6 calls ring at once... especially to a single extension. The default group that is created is collective, not collective call waiting, so only 1 call is presented to the user at a time. The rest of the calls are queued until the extension(s) in the group are free (in this case just the receptionist). Let the phone system do the work instead of having users do the work which leads to user error.

The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.

 

[ReidTel]

Critchey once I'm on site I will better be able to determine exactly what's going on. I'm basing my post strictly on the customer admin's explanation which in most cases aren't an accurate assessment of what's happening. I'll get back to everyone once I can see for myself.

Larry Reid
Reid Telesys Communications

 

[rcc1000]

Larry,
I think this is going to be you best solution.
Get rid of all the line appearances, read somewhere here before, that time has passed using those.
Have 3 Appearances a= b= & c=
Put 3 Park buttons on all phones, Park positions 1, 2, & 3. Might need 4 but I've done systems with more that 6 lines before & they never say they need more.

Have the Users never use the Hold softkey, but use one of the Park positions.

Answer first call, second call comes in, place first call on Park 1, answer 2nd call, say can you please hold, put caller on Park 2,
retrieve 1st call on Park 1 (this will free up Park 1 again) Just keep repeating the process as other callers call in.
As soon as you put a caller on a Park position it frees up your Appearances a,b,c

When you put caller on Park LED turns Green, others put someone on Park it appears Red on your phone.

Just found out last week had a phone with Line Appearances & that stops any outside call forwarding.
Customer wanted her phone forward to her cell & no go until I removed the Line Appearances.

 

[critchey]

As rcc100 stated you want to be using call appearances and park buttons no line appearances as that can/will cause issues. I see you took over this project so it will most likely be an uphill battle to convince them of the proper way to use the system but in the long run if you can get them to switch you and they will be much happier.

The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.

 

[ATI2ner]

If you assign those park zones specific numbers, you can put those same park zones on other phones, and someone can back up the receptionist when they are underwater. Every extension I create gets 2 park zones, 8888 and 8889. Calls can be picked up by any phone in the building by pressing Zone 1 or Zone 2 button. Put the receptionist's special park zones on another phone and label them "ANSWER WHEN FLASHING" and maybe someone will help the person out!