Setting operator ring group to ring continously?

[davewarnes]

Hi- I'm rather new to all this and certainly not that technical. Anyway, we just implemented our AA at our busy 24-hour animal hospital. Aside from a few little bumps (system reboot wiped everything from memory!), the only on-going issue I have is trying to get our zero/emergency option to ring through without ever going to voicemail.

My tech guy setup both hunt groups and ring groups. The reason is that during the day, ring group 587 rings to specific extensions, and at night, 586 rings to additional extensions. 201 is the prime set. Everything rings through without a problem. It's just that even though we set the prime set to go to even 10 rings, it runs into voice at 6 - what seems to be the general delivery mailbox. I've checked all extensoions in both the hunt groups and ring groups and none are set to go to voice at all. As a hospital emergency option, we need to have this one continue ringing until someone picks up.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how I could do this or where I should look? I appreciate any assistance-

Thanks

Dave Warnes

 

[bluemr2]

Do you have your huntgroups overflowing to voicemail? Or you have the transfer return set to 6. The latter is probably what is happening. Extend the transfer return as long as it will go. (I think 12 is the longest)

 

[davewarnes]

Thanks for the quick reply! First off, not sure where I'd go to see if the hunt groups are set for overflow. I know where to get to them in system programming, but it doesn't seem to offer me the option.

Second, not sure where I'd look for the transfer return either. Is that a setting on the prime set, or would it also be something I'd need to look at the hunt group for?

 

[bigcat919]

Delayed ring transfer (DRT) is found under system programming,then under featured settings. Might want to check forward no answer delay under forward no answer on the recept. phone.

 

[bluemr2]

Forget about the overflow then. Transfer return is under system programming, feature settings I believe. Look for transfer return, not delayed ring transfer (DRT). It doesn't look like a DRT problem or it would ring the prime set.

 

[curlycord]

Yep DRT and Transfer call backs look like your issue, crank them higher....have your prime set as the Hunt group for all lines (under lines)in case any problems then all calls will DRT to that group.
If vmail transfers the call and nobdy answers it will transefer to Gen Delivery.
Also maybe have hunts 01 overflow to 02 and 02 over flow to 01??
This way both groups will cycle and ring day and night?

Go into a Hunt group say 01 and click next untill you see the overflow...it's there you just need to find it.

Another option is to use night service (service modes) and have designated sets ring, make sure they dont have vmail behind the sets.

Any set in a hunt group should not have the lines assigned but should have a hunt group key added.

 

[RikRodgers]

The only danger you run into with a "circular hunt" (hunt group 1 cf to hunt group 2 cf to hunt group 1) is that you may get a ring off (phones continue to ring after a caller has hung up) if the system doesn't detect a disconnect from the CO.

Make sure you lines are programmed Supervised.

 

[davewarnes]

Thanks for all the responses! It sounds like a good idea. I was able to find the transfer return and will change that today to 12. As far as setting up a circular hunt group - I assume you mean creating a new group that mirror's the original, and setting the hunt overflow to say hg002 from 001, and then overflow from hg002 back to hg001? I checked the system and currently, the overflow for my existing hg is set to the prime set of 201. You're saying all I need to do is change that to the new (hg002?) hg and it will route there and back?

Thanks again everyone!

 

[davewarnes]

OK. I just set up the circular hunt group where hunt group 001 is set to overflow to 002 and then 002 overflows back to 001. I also changed the transfer return from 6 to 12. I placed a couple test calls and now it rings 12 x, but it's still going into voice. It is the general delivery voicemail. We have that mailbox associated with the prime set 201. I didn't think anything about that because I was under the impression that hunt group programming superceded anything with regard to the phone setting. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[bluemr2]

It would if the call rang directly into the hunt group. This call isn't. Its being transfered from voicemail, thus transfer return comes into play. There is no way of turning transfer return off. What you could do is loop analog extensions into analog lines. You would transfer the call to an analog extension, it would be looped into an analog line. So when you call the extension an analog line would ring. Put those analog lines on the phones you want to ring, turn Delayed Ring Transfer (DRT) off, and make sure the phones aren't call forwarded to vmail. That would take care of 1 call at a time though. You would need to set up a hunt group, and loop multiple extensions with multiple lines to get more than 1 call at a time. This is a pretty crazy solution, but it works. Obviously you would need unused analog line and analog station ports.

 

[davewarnes]

OK- I've made some adjustments and we've changed from using the zero path to using 6 for our emergency calls. However, I need to have the staff re-program the tree path to a different hunt group each day so that it routes correctly. I'd like to avoid that as I can see additional problems being created.

I'd like to send the call to one phone dn, allow the users to use call pickup to answer from all phones, and then use call forward on that specific set to go to a hunt group. I've tested it and it works great with the exception that the overflow I've set up doesn't seem to be working - it rings 12 x, and goes into voicemail for the set identified in the path. That set is not telling the system to go to voice at all, but rather to that hunt group.

Any ideas on how I can deal with the overflow issue? I'd like to send it to a hunt group, and then on to a mirrored hunt group and back and forth in a circular loop as referenced above. I'd appreciate any help-

Thanks

 

[OCCOMM]

I would suggest using setting your emergency option to dial a phone that sits on a desk somewhere (dummy phone). Turn call forwarding no answer to none and turn your transfer call back feature to the highest setting possible. I try to avoid using huntgroups on a system with voice mail for the simple reason that voice mails tend to end up in random boxes and never seem to get responses. With the dummy phone you can then program answer dn buttons on any/all phones. If hearing the phones ring is part of the issue then set the dummy phone to ring on the aux ringer then add speakers through out the site. You then know when the speakers ring that you have an emergency call and you can use the pick up feature from any phone to answer that set dn.

Using answer dn buttons will also allow you to leave the call forwarding on the user sets at a reasonable number say 4 for example. The sets should not pick up the ringing dn with the individual voice mails. If you want callers to be able to leave a voice mail on the dummy phone than you can set the call forward feature to 12. This will allow callers to try emergency option again or to go ahead and choose another extenstion. I would avoid the circular hunting for the exact reason mentioned in a post above. If the disconnect is missed during a transfer it is possible to end up with a line that is tied up until the power is pulled.

 

[RikRodgers]

Forwarding on ans dn exts will trip.