atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Avaya - Lucent Telephones & Systems ACS R3 programming question

I am having a brain cramp due to not working on ACS systems very much anymore....
I have a customer with an R3 processor and a Partner Mail VS R5. During day they answer with Auto Attendant and give several options but the main option is to "press zero for customer service" which transfers the call to a calling group (71) and rings 5 or 6 phones.
At night they actually forward their main number to a live answering service so they are currently not using the night mode on the ACS. I need a way for them to press a button (I'm thinking night service) which will have a call ring-in directly to a mailbox that will play a message that they are currently unable to answer calls and prompts the caller to leave a message.
I just can't think of how to get the system to do this....can i program "line ownership" to sta 10 and use a call cover to voice mail button then set VMS hunt schedule to day only?
Need some options....thanks!

Forgot to ask if a call group (71 in this case) can be made to forward to a voice mail box after a timeout? I don't know if playing around with the "Transfer Return Ext" programming would allow that or not....

Well, line ownership is not affected by night service. It's going to pick up the same regardless of the mode so unless you want this to happen during the day also it ain't gonna help you here.

I'm assuming they want to get rid of the outside answering service and have the AA handle calls at night.

What I would do is record a night menu telling callers that you are currently closed. Ask them to dial 10 (or whatever extension you want) to leave a message.

Program a night service button on extension 10, program the VM to pickup immediately at night. You can also put a Do Not Disturb button on whatever extension this will go to so the transferred call will go directly to the mailbox.

Can 71 be forwarded to a mailbox? No, not with your PMVS R5.

-Hal

If you get a little creative, you can cover 71 with a mailbox.

One way is to have 71 return to the VS mail, and then to Operator, and then cover to the Operator's voice mail.

Another way is to loop a station to a CO, include the station in 71, and have the "CO" owned by an extension that will take a message for 71.

Hal,
They are not trying to get rid of the answering service at night...the actual problem is that they are open for a few hours on Saturday mornings and are short staffed. It's a retail store in addition to a delivery business so the the two people that work on Saturdays get swamped with calls while also waiting on live customers. They want a way to have calls go directly to a voice mail box when they get busy but all their callers are very used to pressing "0" to get answered by cust service....the problem I have is that I can't program a different set of Selector Codes if the system is in night mode (I always hated that about the PMVS) so even if we use night mode people are still going to press zero and ring the calling group forever. I might be able to get away with Touch Tone Tommy's idea of using a station port as a "CO" but I'm not sure I have any spare line or station ports...may have to sell them a 5-slot carrier and a module to get that done....
Thanks guys for your ideas.

Timbo

If this is important to them I think it's time to bite the bullet and upgrade to a Partner Messaging which will do exactly what they need. If they are going to spend any money I would rather them spend it the right way than on a work around.

-Hal

If they only have one card you could get the little 2 slot holder couldn't you? I mean if you do not want to spend the money. I would do what Hal said though because if they are doing that good it would be smart to invest into something that would allow for expansion for the future.