Put a caller on hold so someone else can pickup?

[RustBoy]

I am setting up a few YeaLink phones and I am stumped on a very basic feature.

1.) How do I see the active lines on my phones?

2.) How do I put a call on hold so someone else can pick it up without do a transfer?

We have a single trunk that can make four simultaneous connections. I have a single inbound route for our main company telephone number. When a call comes in we want to put the caller on hold and then page someone at our company to pick up line 1, 2, 3 or 4. We can transfer the caller to an extension with no problems, but how do we simply put the caller on hold so someone else can pick up the call?

 

[Bob1]

Rustboy,

1) You can't....this is a feature of legacy keyed PBX systems. It is restrictive in terms of the phones, as you need a button for each Line. This is why many companies have to keep upgrading as though grow, as the PBX or the phones only cater for so many lines.
There is/was a SLA feature which simulated lines on the phone, and could be setup in Asterisk, however it is not an ideal solution and don't believe it is supported.

2) The method that you roughly describe is call parking. This allows you to park a call on a virtual extension and have anyone in the building pickup that call by dialing the virtual extension (within a time frame). This is further extended by the use of some phone consoles being able to show a lit button of these virtual extensions, so that the person taking the call can just press the button and take the call. This is dependent on phone type.

We have a single trunk that can make four simultaneous connections. I have a single inbound route for our main company telephone number. When a call comes in we want to put the caller on hold and then page someone at our company to pick up line 1, 2, 3 or 4. We can transfer the caller to an extension with no problems, but how do we simply put the caller on hold so someone else can pick up the call?

Having just read this last part after describing call parking, this would probably be a good fit. The receptionist parks the call and the system will inform them of the virtual extension that it has parked the call on. they would then page the person and say that the call for "john" is on ext 71. John would then go to any phone and dial 71 to take the call. If the call is not picked up after the prescribed time, then the call can be made to go back to the receptionist. As I mentioned, this can be extended by the use of phones with consoles (although with phones with enough buttons could be used), and make it that each button is a virtual extension, and then can then just announce the call is on line 1 (providing that all the phones are setup the same)...

Regards

Bob

 

[RustBoy]

Thanks for your reply. I have the parking feature turned on now and it works great.

I have been trying to program a single button on our YeaLink phones to park the current caller but I have not had any luck getting it to work. I programmed a button to enter: ##70 but for some reason it's not taking it. If I enter it manually it works.

 

[Bob1]

What Yealink phone model are you using??

Regards

Bob

 

[RustBoy]

T38G

 

[RustBoy]

Well, I thought that I had the call parking working but now I cannot get it to do anything. I have an active call and when I dial ##70 I hear a message that says that it's not a valid extension. I Googled the problem and I came across several threads with people saying there is some sort of bug with the Park feature. Is there currently a bug in version 2.2?

 

[Bob1]

Rustboy,

Can you provide a couple of links to the "bug" reports that you have found....

I know of an issue with MOH a while back...but this is a separate issue.

With your yealink (using the soft buttons) when you have the call you want to park do..

TRAN
70#
{listen for the extension}
TRAN
Hangup

Goto another phone and type the extension number and press #

leave the ## out of it, and dont worry about automating it with a button just yet....

Regards

Bob

 

[RustBoy]

That worked! Thank you for your help.

I was following the directions in the Elastix Without Tears manual and it said to dial ##70, which was not working for me.

I am also have some problems with my new YeaLink phone, it does not like to dial "7". I have to press it pretty hard as compared to the other keys. If I am not paying close attention I frequently dial the wrong number. I am not sure if my phone is defective or if it's a firmware issue. I need to look into it.

 

[RustBoy]

Is it possible to park a call with a single click of a softkey? So far I have not had any luck. I tried setting one of the softkeys to "Speed Dial" and programmed it to dial (*270#) and (*2,70#) but neither of those worked.

My staff is really complaining about how the parking feature works. They want to press one button, park the caller and page the recipient. The also want the recipient to see the parked call (via a flashing illuminated softkeys labeled (Parked 71, Parked 72, etc.). Do you think this is possible?

 

[JordanLCN]

On the SoftKey or memory key do you choose DTMF? Im not sure since i dont have the phone but looking at the manuals it seems that it has this feature for the SoftKeys and Memory keys.

 

[Bob1]

Rustboy,

That worked! Thank you for your help.

Thanks for performing that test. It was not meant to leave you with just that method, I just wanted to remove some of the possible variables, associated with ##70, and confirm that Call park was working on Elastix and not a bug.

The issue you mention with the pressing the buttons hard could be a DTMF issue. Can you confirm what your yealink is set to on DTMF (RFC2833, inband, etc)

Yes, the Yealink is reasonably configurable and I believe a softkey can be done. I have a Yealink t28 here which is functionally the same as the T38 (no colour)...

I will look at it in the next 24-48 hours and have added it to the list of several things to look at this weekend.

Regards

Bob

 

[RustBoy]

The DTFM is set to RFC2833. I just requested an RMA to exchange it for a new one. For now, I swapped it with one from our conference room and the new one seems to be working normally.

I did some more experimenting and I almost have the phones doing exactly what everyone in the office has asked for. I have a single DTFM button that parks the calls (##70#) and I have four illuminated soft buttons labeled (Parked 71, Parked 72, etc) that flash when a caller is parked.

For the most part it's working great but there seems to be a few bugs.

1.) When you park a caller they are hearing some of the DTFM key presses. The system voice also starts to say the word transfer and then gets cutoff, and then proceeds to say the parked call extension location, i.e., "71". Not a major issue but it seems a little unprofessional.

2.) If someone excepts a parked call and then tries to park them again, things start to go wrong. The second time you try to park the caller the system seems to ignore the park button (DTFM ##70#) and the caller and the user hear all of the tones play.

A few things that I don't like on the YeaLink phones (and perhaps this is the same on all hardware SIP phones) is that the "Parked" softkeys (and all of the BLF buttons) are always illuminated. I really wish that they were off in the normal state and only illuminated when they were active.