sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Avaya - Lucent Telephones & Systems How do I turn off voicemail completely?

To keep it simple, is there a way to entirely disable the Avaya Partner Mail VS rel 5 voicemail system? We use the automated attendant to play a message when we are closed for lunch or at night/weekends. We never knew that callers being answered by the automated attendant while we are closed were given the option to leave voicemail messages. We have no desire to use this feature while open for business or closed. I've figured out how to delete the voice messages that have been received, and then to delete voice mailboxes, except for extension 10. Extension 10 will not allow deletion of the mailbox. Is there some way to disable or delete this mailbox or some other method to completely disable voicemail system wide? We'd like callers calling when we are closed to hear the automated attendant message then be disconnected. I've searched the forums and found the instructions for the individual extensions, but can't find anything that goes further. I don't know if it's because I'm using the wrong terminology or if it's just so unusual to not want this feature that it hasn't been discussed.

Help please. Thank you!

You can remove the Automatic Voicemail Coverage from Ext. 10, so that when the caller presses 0 or times out, the call will ring at Ext. 10 forever.

Can you still find an answering machine that offers announcement only? Plays the outgoing message but doesn't take an incoming message? Disable (or remove) the VS mail and plug the answering machine into the AUX jack of Ext. 10. Turn it on at night to answer and play your message and then hang up on the caller

Can you press Feature and dial 59 at a display phone, come back and tell us what the display shows at that point. If you have a version of "ACS", you replace the VS mail with a version that resides on a PC card that goes into the system. This one allows you to set Mailbox 10 to Answer Only, and not take incoming messages. Configure the system to direct calls to Ext. 10, and add a button to toggle the mailbox for 10 off and on. Turn the mailbox on at night to answer, play the message, and disconnect.

Any of these options, you would probably want to get a local technician to assist you in programming the system and possibly connecting hardware

Feature 59 brought up P ACS R6.0 C01

The first option seems like it would do the job, no one is here to mind if it rings continuously, but would they still hear the automated attendant message saying we are closed and with our open hours before it goes on to ring forever?

This sounds like it may be more complicated than I need it to be otherwise. We are a small business and may not be in business next year (owner's considering), so I don't see them wanting to put any expense into the matter. I was hoping I just didn't have the right terminology to find out how to turn this off in the manuals. If nothing else, I guess I could just change our auto attendant to reflect that we do not use the voice mail system and set the parameters for message length and mailbox size as small as possible and record a voicemail specifically to fill it up and leave it that way so they can't leave a message?

So what you want to do is disable Automatic Voicemail Coverage for Ext. 10, and re-record your Night Greeting to say "Thank you for calling, blah-blah-blah, this machine does not accept incoming messages". Maybe even wait a bit when recording after the message before you press 1 to end it, giving the caller extra time to hang up before it times out. And, make the Automated Attendant only answer in the Night Mode, add a Night Service button to Ext. 10 if it doesn't have that already.

You press the Night Service button before leaving for the day. Calls are answered by the auto attendant, if the caller presses 0 or nothing at all the call rings at Ext. 10 until they get tired of listening to it ring.

Thanks so much. I set this up as you described and it is working. I appreciate your taking the time to help us!