Possibly this is a stupid realization for any of the experts in the telephony industry - but I think the very small business is exactly what it's trying to market to!
I have just gone round and round between Tech Support / Pre-Sales support regarding the 2, yes 2 phones and attendent console we purchased. SPA525g2's - claim to have an entire host of features, including shared call apearance and the like - what it doesn't say anywhere is this is ALL contingent on it being connected to a PBX of some sort!
Tech support obviously explains that it needs a PBX... Pre-Sales swears that the phone should do all these things if simply connected through a router. Unbelievable. I would have purchased one of the packaged systems (including phones if this were the case.) Not to mention there are other brands including PBX's that may have been a better option. INCREDIBLY misleading!!
Fair to say that in the telephony industry, everybody's laughting saying "of course" - but my small business isn't in telephony! I did some research, people loved the phones, we bought them.
So, lo I have purchased 2 phones, att console, and Edgemarc border/session controller - only to find out I needed another peice of hardware for my assistant to see my line. Is this so much to ask when we couldn't spend the 5k on a phone system?
Now, the SPA9k apparently would do these things, however the couple hundred dollar box is of course out of life. So, here we go with the UC320 - which the cisco service partner claims is silly - and wants us to buy a UC520. For 2 phones!!!! 2.
I can't even beleive my experience with Cisco so far. I have a very rapidly growning company in the entertainment industry - and was raving to firends at other management and agency companies how great our new phones were going to be! Now I have to go back and tell them it's all the same racket their dealing with too.
It was made very clear to me that Cisco really could care less about solving this problem over 2 phones. Although, Johnathan in small business tech support is amazing, patient, and completely understood the frustration... just had no access to any solutions.
Thanks Cisco for all your care and help! :-/
J
