Unbelievable difficulty adding parties to existing conference call

[mgerity]

I frequently have to have conference calls where I initiate all of the calls (judges don't like being asked to call you). As such, I CANNOT use the 3CX feature to schedule a conference call, which sends everybody an email with a number and conference ID. That simply won't work for my calls. Also, the calls frequently have more than three participants, which is really what is causing all of my problems.

So, I wanted to do what I always was able to very easily and intuitively do on my multiple prior office phone systems, and simply dial the 1st number, hit conference, dial 2nd number, hit conference to connect all, and then I can simply hit conference again, dial 3rd number, hit conference to connect all, and keep repeating that as many times as I want to. Again, this has ALWAYS worked for me on every prior phone system, and it's simple and logical. Importantly, this process allows me to introduce the call and tell each person who is calling and what about before I join them to the conference. This also allows me to get through the receptionist or secretary or dial by name directory to get through to my intended caller before I joint them to the conference.

{I apologize in advance for the frustration that clearly bleeds through my text below, but I've now wasted hours and hours trying to accomplish something I was able to do instantly on every prior phone system, and finding ways to test 4-way calling is no easy feat, so, yes, I'm very, very frustrated at this point.}

This process works with my Yealink phones and 3CX system, as long as I only need three total people on the call. If I need more than that, everything completely blows up unbelievably. First off, my Yealink T54S will only support 3 callers. So, I'm stuck with trying to do this with the 3CX soft phone thru the Windows client, and that has so far proved, to be frank, to be an terrible joke. Here are all the ways that this does not work as it should:

• What I CAN do is to create a new conference call, give it a Subject, and enter every single number all at once, then hit "Start now." That certainly gets everybody on the conference call, but it does so in a clumsy and ridiculous way where every caller is answering at the same time and there is no possible way to announce who is calling or introduce the call. So that approach is a giant fail.
• Next up, I can call one person, hit conference, and then call a second person to join them to the call. So far so good. Now I just have to add another person to the call, which SHOULD be pretty simple. At the bottom of my existing conference call in the Windows client there is a big + button. I'm pretty sure that 100% of logical people would assume that button would allow you to add another caller to the existing conference. NOPE. Instead, it creates a second, separate conference call! Really? What human being on this planet has ever needed to have two separate conference calls going at the same time? And there appears to be no possible way to merge the two conferences, so, this approach gets another fail, and unbelievably so, because hitting that + really should simply accomplish my goal.
• I've also read on these forums that I can call the first person, blind transfer them to 700**{my extension}, then call another person, blind transfer them the same way, and then repeat. This also fails, because when I blind transfer the second person, I get forced into the conference call. So, I can once again manage a 3-way call, but then I'm stuck again. Once I am in that conference call, I get trapped in the problem above, which is that hitting the + to add more callers instead creates a completely separate conference call.

So, how on earth do I accomplish the task of adding a new caller to an existing conference call? How hard can this task possibly be?

 

[mgerity]

Here are some screen shots demonstrating how I can only create a second, separate conference call instead of being able to add new callers. So the attachment Existing Conference is where I get stuck, and you can see the big + at the bottom, which I expect to allow me to add a new caller.

The next image, Result of Pressing Plus, shows what I get when I hit that + sign, which is a screen making me create a new conference call. It forces me to enter a subject, and then I add numbers, and hit "Start now."

Doing so then gets me what is shown in the third image, Separate Conference Calls. You can see that my first conference call is called Active Conference, and it has now added a second call called Test (because Test is the name I put in the Subject field). BTW, I've tried giving it the exact same name as the existing conference call, hoping it would see that I want them to be the same, but that didn't work. If I hit the + down at the bottom, well that just allows me to create a third separate conference call.

 

[apostolis_3CX]

@mgerity

In order to add more participants to active conference using the windows client just press the button right next to conference subject as shown in image.

 

[dan_tx]

I think the webclient (vs the windows client) is the future as far as development is going and I don't even see an option to start a 2nd conference, it just adds people from the dial box or the conference screen as you would expect.

 

[mgerity]

@mgerity

In order to add more participants to active conference using the windows client just press the button right next to conference subject as shown in image.

Eureka!!!!! Holy smokes that's simple, and perfectly solves my problem! Thank you so much apostolis!

Now, with that revelation, I might voice my concern as to why that was so hard for me to find on my own. Notwithstanding the fact that my phone tech's didn't know this (they should have), this really should have been much easier to discover on my own.

So, my first complaint is that the online user guide, as far as I can find, makes ZERO mention of this button. My second complaint is that the + sign superimposed on the little person head and shoulders icon is SOOOO tiny that I couldn't see that it was a plus sign. Now that I've been told what this button does, I'm still looking at it on my screen (a WQHD monitor at 2560x1440 res), and it looks like a dot, not a plus sign. I have to zoom to nearly 2x before the fact that that is a plus sign becomes apparent. Had I been able to see a plus sign on that icon, I would have been instantly aware that this might be something to click on, instead of the rather giant (in comparison) + sign a few inches below there.

Can we get that icon changed so that the + is far, far more prominent and visible, and maybe get an explicit mention of this feature in the user guide?

 

[mgerity]

I think the webclient (vs the windows client) is the future as far as development is going and I don't even see an option to start a 2nd conference, it just adds people from the dial box or the conference screen as you would expect.

View attachment 10235

Thank you, dan_tx. I had messed around with the webclient as well, but I never got to the Active Conference screen in your screen shot. When I started a call from the webclient, my screen remained on the People page, with the only indication of the current call being the little black and red box up in the upper right corner of the screen (also shown in the corner of your screen shot). When you attempt to keep adding people sequentially from that box, for some reason it puts you on hold once you add the 4th person (you + 3 others), so the other three are all on the call, and you're stuck on hold, and I couldn't figure out how to get off hold. No idea why it puts me on hold, but it does, and that's a strange issue I couldn't solve and really shouldn't have to solve.

After messing around with the webclient today, I've now found the Active Conference page in your screen shot, and yes, from that page, there is a very clear "Add participants" box I could use. The problem is that getting to this Active Conference page is something far less than intuitive, because you have to click on the "Schedule Conference" link in the webclient to get there. Call me crazy, but clicking something that says "schedule" in order to see a "current" call was not something that crossed my mind to do. Why not title that link simply "Conference Calls" so that it is crystal clear that there is more functionality there than only scheduling them?

So, just as with the "Add more people" button in the Windows client, the problem boils down to some serious clarity issues with the interface. The + sign on the icon to add more people in the Windows client needs to be way, way larger so that it is actually visible as the + sign that it is on high resolution monitors, and I'd say the webclient should not only say "Schedule conference" on the tab that actually lets you go to your current conferences. It should simply say "Conference Calls" or something like that.

Again, thank you for your reply. I have now been painfully dragged to a place of knowledge that should have been a much easier trip.