Greg strikes back today....
I had the phones set up to where, during the day, a call to Sales would queue up for the next available salesperson. At night the calls would roll to an operator queue (because other departments were available after Sales went home, or maybe a Salesperson stayed late and wanted to be made available... whatever,) defied in the system as a "night group." If the operator doesn't answer, the call drops to a general mailbox.
This is done by creating a time profile for the Sales queue to follow and then telling the system that if the time profile is ever "false" to forward the call to the "night group." "Night group" being the default term used to define a group that operates outside of a pre-defined time profile. Quite simple actually.
Now here's the clincher: Because there's a queue, a call can never be kicked to voicemail. Think about it logically.... Typically, without a queue, the call times out and goes to a mail box, right? When you set a queue up, the caller goes to a queue where the call is held INSTEAD of a voicemail box. So even if you have an actual "box" for Sales, callers can't hit it if they're stuck in a queue.
Rick presses F1 and reads the help file.
"If you wish for a call to go to a voicemail box outside of the group's time profile, simply do not define a night group for the call to go to."
Because there's a queue defined for the group, this doesn't work. But in a simple "Press F1 for Help" typical Windows help file, these small details do not apply.
Greg calls me... not for help... but to ARGUE with me.
Greg: "I did what the help file told me and calls still don't go to voicemail at night."
Me: "Who's voicemail are they going to go to?"
Greg: "Sales. When Sales is in Night Service, I want it to just drop to a voicemail box. It's not working."
Me: "It's not going to. You have to define a group for the caller to go to during your Night hours because the Sales group has a queue. The queue is in favor of voicemail. I'm afraid there's no box you can check that gives you a queue during the day and a voicemail box at night."
Greg: "The help file says all I have to do is not define a group for Night calls to go to. I did that and it's not working."
Me: "Right... IF there was no queue. Because there's a queue, you have to define a destination for the night-time callers."
Greg: "The help file doesn't say that."
Me: "Greg, the help file doesn't say a lot of things. If it told you everything, I'd be out of a job. Trust me on this one."
Greg: "But if the caller doesn't ring any phones why can't they just go to voicemail?"
Me: "Greg... It's because they're being queued. We have to send the caller to a night group that can take the message. Even if the message is then immediately forwarded back to Sale's mailbox, THAT is what has to be done. It's not hard. I'll walk you through it and it'll appear seamless to the caller and whomever is receiving the messages."
Greg: "So you're telling me the help file is wrong?"
Me: "No. The help file is not wrong."
Greg: "Then why doesn't this work the way the help file says it should."
Me: "Greg, you're focusing on semantics now. Instead of accomplishing our goal, we're focusing on how NOT to get there."
Greg: "Well I think it's pretty dumb that this system can't send a caller to voicemail instead of sticking them in a queue if all of the salespeople are logged off and gone home."
I lost it. That was it. Last straw here......
Me: "Ok Greg. The help file is right and I'm wrong. So I'm going to hang up and let you stare at the screen for a while and maybe you'll figure it out and maybe you won't. Maybe you'll call me back or maybe a couple days will go by and one of your supervisors will call me and I'll have to save the day. You've got until 5PM. Don't call my cell phone."
I hung up and then made every effort to get the last ten minutes of my life back. After three hours, 4:50PM exactly, my phone rang again and it was Greg.
Greg: "Ok. So why don't you show me how this is supposed to work."
Me: "Make a group for the calls to go to at night. Doesn't have to have any agents. Just need to have a group. Call it "SalesNight"
Greg: "But I don't want to have another mailbox to check!"
Me: "Shut up, Greg. Let me finish. Now tell the voicemail to forward all callers in th SalesNihgt group to the mailbox of the Sales group."
Greg: "Ok. But don't hang up. I need to test it."
Me: "Ok. You go ahead and test it." *click* I hung up.
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