Call forwarding on Poly phones / Call Queues

[VktoriusWarrior]

I am a new Zoom phone admin and we seem to be having some troubles with call forwarding. We are mostly using Poly vvx250 phones, but we have 2 receptionists that use vvx450s (pretty much the same thing).

The receptionists are used to accessing features from a physical phone and seem to be hesitant to use the zoom portal settings.
From a simple extension desk phone, I can use a soft key button to forward calls to another extension and any calls are forwarded fine regardless if it's an internal or external incoming phone call.

But if we try to replicate the same process on either of the receptionists phone, the phone calls are not getting forwarded. There is no notification on either phone of a call and neither phone will ring.
The only difference I can think of, is both of these reception phones are members of their own call queues.
I can't find any call queue settings that should affect the phone's forwarding process but I can't think of anything else that is different.
One work around is getting the receptionists to temporarily add another extension to the call queue; but I'm just not sure if they are up to that. It would be easier for them if the functionality on the physical phone worked properly.
Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[FORE-Craig]

Hi @VktoriusWarrior 

With Zoom Phone you need to think more from the perspective of the User as opposed to an extension's physical location. Could you tell me under what circumstances the receptionists would forward their phones, and to whom are the extensions assigned that would be covering by virtue of the Call Forwarding?  It might just be a question of these users signing in and out of the Call Queues!

Thanks!

[VktoriusWarrior]

Thank you for the response!
This users in this building really like to help one another with phone duties. So let's say it's the receptionists lunch hour. Instead of someone else physically sitting at the reception desk to answer the phone, they like to forward the phone calls to another users phone/desk so that there will always be a human answering calls.

Like I said, we might have to go with  the 'adding/removing users to the call queue route', but it seems silly when the functionality is right there...but just not working.

[FORE-Craig]

Thank you! I understand better now. 

I'm not sure why the Call Forwarding would work with some of your phones and not others. Is the incoming phone number assigned to the Receptionist directly as opposed to an Auto Receptionist or Call Queue?

Signing in and out of the Call Queue for the two people involved would be the simplest and least disruptive option (they could do it in the Zoom app on their computers or mobile phones if it is not an option on the Poly phones).

Alternatively, you could look at Shared Line Appearance (Delegation) as an option, and have the Receptionist turn on DND when at lunch. 

I hope that helps!

[enielsen · Accepted solution]

With Zoom, you can only forward calls that are going directly to the user's extension by dialing that actual extension. If that extension is part of a call queue, shared line appearance, etc. - calls to those numbers can not be forwarded by the desk phone's built in forwarding as they are handled differently by Zoom.

Basically, I think zoom wants you to be using the Zoom app on your laptop and mobile phone to get the calls rather than use call forwarding.

[VktoriusWarrior]

Thank you both. Ok, that helps. Good to know.