Hello, I'm pretty new to pbx programming but I've read the relevant manuals and studied this and other forums to get to this point. I have added a TVS50 voice processor to an existing TD816 system working as an automated attendant using DIL 1:1 to redirect 2 of my incoming lines to the VPS.

I set the VPS to direct keypresses of 0 to the operator. Currently that places a call on hold, which is nice because they hear our background music, and rings the phone on extension 1 using program 201 - transfer recall time.

The problem I am having is that now only extension 1 can pick up this call. Other phones see the transfer waiting on the flashing indicator, but they are unable to answer the call.

I have read about using ring groups and phantom extensions to allow the other phones to answer calls transferred from the VPS, but I am unclear on what would be the best way to accomplish this. Any suggestions?

Thanks

use a ring group, make a Mailbox with that ring group. No Message light unless 816 supports other ext message wait buttons. This would ring all phone then over flow to mail box when you cant answer.

Like Brokeda said then you could edit that mailbox to automatically move messages after 5 minutes to the receptionist mailbox.

5 minutes unfortunately is the lowest time you can set to move messages

Thanks for the help brokeda and Dalavar, if I use a ring group is there a way to have callers placed on hold when they press 0 so that they hear my background music rather than ringing? Our background music contains messages like 'thank you for holding, a receptionist will be with you shortly. did you know that you can request appointments through our website at...'

I would like callers to hear that rather than ringing if possible.

also how do I set a mailbox to automatically move messages? I'm searching the programming guide and the subscribers guide but have not found that. Thanks again for you help!

--ignore previous message about automatically moving messages, I was not reading closely enough.

For anyone else looking for this you need to set up a Class of Service to do this and assign that class of service to a voice mail box. This feature is not available for the Manager's mailboxes (default 998 and 999). See install guide page 290 for more info.

Unless I am misunderstanding the previous answers, I have not solved the problem of getting more than one phone to be able to answer calls transferred from Automated Attendant to operator, while maintaining background music for the caller. Thanks for all the help, I look forward to your ideas.

You need to make a mailbox with the same number as your ring group like 191 you shouldn't be working with mailbox 998 or 999 unless your moving the messages to those mailboxes the settings you need to change are for mailbox 191.

And change operator dial 0 to ring 191 instead of 101

You can change the 816 to use ringback on transfer or play MOH it is in additional function programming.

Awesome, thanks Dalavar. The reason I was trying to set this on 998 is that calls were getting through to that mailbox and I wanted to stop that. I believe my problem was the 2 port limitation of the TVS50 - it was handling 4 CO lines and we sometimes get incoming calls on all 4 at a time. For the time being I have set the TVS50 to only handle 2 CO lines but I am looking to upgrade to a 4 port unit.