Cannot forward to External Contacts

[cocardbusiness]

I have an Auto Receptionist setup as a basic Call Tree: Opt 1 sales, opt 2 support etc. During after business hours we want the support calls to go to an external 800 number, i.e. +18005551234. When dialing the extension afterhours to have the caller be forwarded to the External Contact, instead Zoom says "The caller you're trying to reach is unavailable, good bye" and hangs up the phone.

We cannot figure out why this is happening. Any advise would be much appreciated.

[Eliot]

hi cocardbusiness,

you need to set up the 800 number in external contacts using e.164 format. 

some 800 numbers are limited to certain geographical areas.  you may be able to check this by dialing the 800 number from one of your zoom phones.

when you set this up, did you acknowledge the billing for forwarded calls?

thanks,  eliot

[cocardbusiness · Accepted solution]

Hello, thank you for your reply. Yes we did and it looks like we found what the problem was. We actually had to purchase and assign another phone number to the additional AR that we had created - which is very different than any other phone systems/AR we’ve worked with. Our call tree/IVR system system is fairly simple but it does have more then 1 AR setup within the call flow, so in order for the 2nd AR to forward calls to External Contacts, it too had to have a phone number license. Hope this will help others also as there’s no clear KB or article from Zoom anywhere that addresses this.