V15.5 - Callers only hear silence when transferred to ring group

[macgyverated]

Hi all,

I recently updated us from on-premise V9 to on-premise V15.5 due to company growth and hardware change.

I have everything set up a functioning as needed, but I'm having an issue that affects customers calling us.

Our receptionist (ext 101) will normally answer all incoming calls and then transfer (via a custom custom speed dial BLF) to whichever ring group is needed (803-customer service or 802-inside sales). When she does so, callers hear only silence as the phones in whatever ring group they were transferred to are ringing. They hear nothing at all until such time that the call is picked up by an extension in the group, or the call goes to voicemail. The silence has caused some callers to assume they were hung up on or the call was dropped, so they hang up and call back, only to have the same thing happen again.

However, if she does not answer an incoming call, and 3CX auto-routes that to a ring group after so many seconds, callers continue to hear ringing until the call is picked up or goes to voicemail.

Calls placed in any of our four park orbits will hear the .wav file in slot 0 of our music on hold list.

I've searched and googled till I'm cross-eyed. Is there something I'm missing? Or a work-around?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[leejor]

Does this only occur on call coming in on outside trunks, or can you also replicate calling from an extension. Does the caller hear ringback tone, initially, before the receptionist answers?

 

[Allen_Miller]

I knew this sounded familiar. I replied to your post on SpiceW.

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Hello @macgyverated

Please note that once the call is answered and transferred to a Ring Group the callers should hear music on hold and not ringing. So make sure that under Settings / Music on hold you a musci prompt selected that is in the right format and try again. As a test you can use a 3CX prompt.

 

[macgyverated]

Hi again, all. Hope everyone had a great New Year!

The silence happens whether the call is from an external number, or is initiated from another extension. It also happens if any extension, not just the receptionist, tries to transfer a call to any ring group. But again, this only happens if the user transfers the call to a ring group. If 3CX transfers it based on timeout or other rules, the callers continue to hear ringing.
As I mentioned before, I do have a .wav file in slot 0 of the MOH list, and that file is heard if a call is placed in a park orbit, or if an extension places a call on a local hold, so it should be in the right format. I did copy it over straight from version 9, where it always worked. It does not play when a ring group has been transferred to and the phones in that group are ringing.

I tried a test where is set up DID to directly call the 803 ring group, and I hear ringing when calling in from my cell phone, or if I call that DID from my own extension.
I have attached screenshots of my MOH settings.

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

How was the system updated from V9 to V15.5? What the upgrade path used? Can you also try the prompt converted to see if that makes a difference? https://www.3cx.com/docs/converting-wav-file/

 

[macgyverated]

The software wasn't updated through iterative in-place updates. Since I was also switching to newer hardware, I just decided to do a clean install of 15.5 on the new hardware and just reestablish our 40-ish extensions from scratch manually. It gave me plenty of practice with the new interface and was a good opportunity to learn my way around and get exposure to changes and new features.

I did actually copy the .wav file that had been in use in v9 to a network share, and then pulled it in to v15.5 for use. No changes. And again, that exact file does get played and can be heard by callers when their calls are placed in a park orbit or on a local extension hold, so I know the system can play that file in general. It's just not playing it when calls are manually transferred to a ring group. And honestly, I don't care if they hear that music file, any other music file, or ringing, just so long as callers hear something and don't assume they have been disconnected.
Would it make any sense that 3CX can decode and play the file in some cases but not others? Is there some code glitch?

If it matters, the mechanism by which calls are sent to a ring group is through the use of BLFs set up in the sidecar of the 3CX softphone clients. If someone is on a call, the user can just click the appropriate softphone button assigned to whichever ring group they want to connect the call to, and the call is transferred and the phones in the group start ringing. That part all works without a hitch. There's just dead silence during the ring group ringing time.

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation as it helped us narrow down the issue and we were able to replicate it. It seems that when transferring the call by hitting the speed dial key the client uses a Refer to transfer the call that does not contain an SDP so the caller does not hear music on hold.
If you transfer the caller however using the transfer button or by right clicking the call in the switchboard and then click transfer then the caller will hear music on hold. You can use either method to transfer the calls for now while we investigate this further. Thank you for reporting.