disable "Callers who transfer out of voice mail"

[GaryMumford]

Is there any way to disable the option for callers to transfer out of voicemail?

In the PBX settings (V15) I can change the extension that callers go to if they transfer out of voice mail, but there is no way to stop a caller from transferring out of voice mail! We run several little companies all in the same office and all using the same 3CX server each with their own SIP trunks. If a caller called company 'A' who's is busy the call goes to 'A's voicemail, and thats fine. But, if they transfer out of voicemail the call gets directed to a specific extension. But this extension may not be associated with the SIP for that specific company, It could be for company 'B', 'C' or 'D' and therefore it will get answered by the wrong company. Yes we can transfer the call back to the correct extension, but if the staff answer by saying the name of their company (as they all do) the caller gets confused and thinks they have dialled a wrong number. Our work around is to set up an extension that nobody answers so the caller has to leave a voicemail and then everyone can access that extension to listen to see if it's for them. But this is not ideal and very frustrating for our staff and the caller who opts out of voicemail and ends up having to leave a message.

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Hello there,

I know that what i am about to suggest is not ideal but considering that this function is hard-coated into the PBX and can not be changed it could act as a workaround.
You could create a dummy extension and set it's status to Do Not Disturb. You set the forwarding rules of that status to forward external calls to an extension and you direct it to an IVR. You could have a prompt in the IVR that says press 1 for company A press 2 for company B...

You then set that dummy extension as an operator extension.

So in this scenario a caller calls in and he is forwarded to voice mail. He either leaves a message or he opts out to the operator extension where he will be given the option to reconnect or you could have a prompt in the IVR that says something like "sorry we could not answer your call please call again later"

 

[GaryMumford]

Thank you @YiannisH_3CX Great idea. Much better that my existing workaround. Very much appreciated.

 

[nenglish]

In addition to Yiannish's suggestion you can also manually edit the default voicemail message to remove the part where it says "or press star for additional help" (I don't recall the exact words off the top of my head). While they can still press the * key to opt out at least they don't have the prompt telling them they can.