Hey everyone! First of all, this forum is a wonderful resource and I'm very glad I ran across it in my Google search. Now, my question:
Our small business has three CO voice lines through our local provider, AT&T. For the purposes of my question, I will label them as the following:
- Line 1 (XXX-1321) Our advertised main #
- Line 2 (XXX-2130)
- Line 3 (XXX-1149)
For many years, we had a basic hunt group set up on these lines. If 1321 was busy and someone called that number it would roll to 2130, and if both 1321 and 2130 were busy it would roll to 1149. The downside to this arrangement was any outgoing calls placed on 2130 and 1149 would show these numbers on a customer's caller ID instead of our main line.
We were getting ready to install a new phone system, so we decided to remedy the caller ID problem at the same time. I called AT&T, told them what we wanted to happen, and they set up a Terminal hunt. They told us we would still have three lines but only the 1321 number assigned to them all now.
So, they made the change and I made test calls from all of our lines (btw, we have a key system) to my cell phone and the caller ID showed 1321 on all three lines. Yay! Except...
Now the incoming calls seem to be switching which line order they ring in on. For instance, if all lines are free, the call will ring on Line 1 the first time. When we hang up that call and all lines are free again, the next call rings on Line 2. When we hang up that call and all lines are free again, the next call rings on Line 3. And then it starts all over again. Whereas with the basic hunt group we used to have, calls would always ring on Line 1 first as long as it remained open.
So, my question is: Is that the way a terminal hunt is required to work or can it be changed to always ring a certain line first as long the line's open? I asked a rep this question and she basically didn't know.
Thanks for your help!
