SPA 504G Phones only blink and tone on second line, no ring

[ChelleMToo]

Our company recently aquired the SPA504G phones, and the tech support through the installers are telling me that there is no way to have the phone audibly ring if a second call comes in on one handset.

A quick search of these forums only popped up one discussion, and it was stated that this is the "normal" behavior of the phones.

However, we have 3 phones in our office, and several departments in our business have mulitple phones.  I have already set up hunt groups for the phones where that is appropriate, but very often one person will be on the phone, a second call comes in to that extension, and since it's not ringing, the person has to dance around and gesticulate wildly to attract the attention of a coworker to pick up the second call without interrupting the first.

Suggestions have been made regarding hunt groups (which I've already done for the auto-attendant) and the find me - follow me or forward on busy functions, but since we don't know which extension will be the one to ring, we can't really set up the forwarding properly.  Personally I already have my forward to ring to my cell if unanswered, so I don't want to set up my forwarding for busy as (at least in my interface) I seem to lose the find-me-follow-me functionality if I choose forward on busy instead.

I'm sure there are VASTLY different setups for these phones, but as far as the functionality of the hardware itself, is there any way to have these phones actually ring when a second call comes in?  Any setting I can update, or have the installers address?  Our parts/service guys dancing around is not the ideal way of having a second line picked up by a coworker.

Thank you for any help you can provide.  Sorry I can't provide much more information, but I am the end-user and admin, not the installer, so I'm not sure what software version or platform we might be operating on.

Michelle

[Dan Lukes]

Displaimer: Following response asumes that you are running the phoen in SIP mode. If it is in SPCP mode then the behavior is driven by apropriate controller and the following text doesn't apply.

Our company recently aquired the SPA504G phones, and the tech support through the installers are telling me that there is no way to have the phone audibly ring if a second call comes in on one handset.

True, it will play "Call Waiting Tone" instead. It's configurable tone, see "Regional" tab on WWW UI. Nobody needs to dance around, the person using the phone in question is notified that there is second call comming.

May be I missed something in your scenario - according your description I assume that the second call should be picked by someone else if the first person is busy (because of first call). Then the second call should not be delivered to first/busy phone at all - it should be delivered to idle co-workers phone. Co-worker phone will ring and it's what you are asking for. You will not be notified about the call, but it's not problem as you are not going to answer them (you are busy).

As alternative - the call may be delivered to all phones in the group at the same time. You will hear call-waiting tone, co-workers phone will ring (i'm assuming it's phone is on-hook).

It seems that the problem in question is problem of call distribution. PBX needs to be configured to either prefer idle phones over busy phones in the group or to ring all phones of group. It will solve your problem (if I understood them) in full.

since we don't know which extension will be the one to ring, we can't really set up the forwarding properly.  

Conditional call-forward feature embedded in the phone can be used in simple cases only. Complex scenarios needs to be handled by exchange instead. Ask your's PBX administrator for help.