How do I use custom greetings and multiple mailboxes?

[Msekelsky]

I currently have custom greetings setup for a number of people. The kids are getting old enough now where I want to start establishing seperate mailboxes. As best I can tell, I've not done a lot of testing, this doesn't seem to work well.

I set it up so that I could call on my cell and get a custom greeting. I do get that greeting, but right after it plays I get the normal greeting (one for all other callers) right behind it. What I'd like is something like (for a custom greeting) "Hi Mom, looks like I'm not home. Press 2 to leave a message for me and I'll give you a shout back."

[Rick Tinker]

Mark,

First of all, make sure in the options that for external call handling you have it set to use the external_multiple or external_multiple_OOA script. This IVR script is designed for allowing mailbox selection.

What the greeting that you also configure on this screen does is provide the general outgoing message that is played when somebody calls. If they choose a mailbox, then the greeting for that mailbox is also played. What is probably happening is that if you do not select a mailbox, you have it going to the default mailbox, and that mailbox still has your old greeting on it.

Thus, do NOT have a greeting on the default mailbox and it will stop playing the 2nd greeting.

The greeting on the personal mailboxes is typically something short that just lets the caller know that they got the right mailbox - e.g. "This is Rick's mailbox, please leave your message now." Since the default mailbox is what you get if you do not select any, it is not necessary to further identify that it is the default mailbox.

[Msekelsky]

Hmm.... I did use the external_multi and I do not have a message for the default mailbox (I am not "live" with anything other than one box right now). Let's see if I can better explain what is happening 'cause it also sounds like maybe something is not right.

Currently I have one mailbox named "Family." When a caller calls s/he either gets my generic "We're not home right now" or s/he gets a custom greeting. In either event, if a message is left, it goes into the Family mailbox (the only one configured).

Now I create a second mailbox, let's call it "test." I go to "View|Options|External Call Handling" and select "external_multiple_ooa.txt." For grins I accept the standard default greeting, No one is available to take your call right now. Please enter a mailbox number. For a mailbox directory press the star key. I setup HSP so that when I call with my cell phone I get a custom greeting.

I call my house, HSP picks up and plays the custom greeting. I then get the generic greeting No one is available to take your call right now......

So based upon this it seems that a caller must select a mailbox and there is no way to have a caller get a custom greeting and then be dumped automatically into a default mailbox?

[dale]

Rick:

I have the same senario as MSekelsky.

Custom Greeting: "Hi Bob, press 1 to leave Mary a message."

Generic Greeting: "No one is available, press 1 to leave Mary a message or 2 to leave John a message."

Mailbox Greeting: "This is Mary's mailbox, Press pound to save your message."

When this caller calls that is configured for a this custom greeting they hear:

"Hi Bob, press 1 to leave Mary a message. No one is available, press 1 to leave Mary a message or 2 to leave John a message."

Then after pressing 1 or not since 1 is the default they hear:

"This is Mary's mailbox, Press pound to save your message."

I mentioned this to Rich a long time ago when before HSP was stabilized and he indicated this is not the way it should operate; the generic message should not follow the custom one. I completely forgot about it until I saw this message and never did put in a help desk ticket on it.
-Dale-

[Rick Tinker]

OK - I'll remind Rich about the custom greeting bug.

As for routing to a default mailbox, that works fine. Just make sure you have designated one of your mailboxes as the default mailbox, and when the caller fails to choose a mailbox, that is the one they will be sent to.

[Msekelsky]

Rick- That doesn't work either. I setup two mailboxes. One is named "Mark or Barb" and is selected as the default. The other is called "Soccer scores." A caller will get the message to enter the mailbox number or press the * key for a directory. if you do not enter a mailbox number or the * key HSP hangs up (after a short delay). If you enter the * key for the directory and then do not enter a mailbox you will also get hung up on.

If I understand your posts correctly a caller who does *nothing* should get dumped into the default mailbox?

[Rick Tinker]

Mark,

This works fine here, so I am not sure what is happening on your system. Make sure that the mailbox and the Caller-ID entry do not have any of the options set to hang-up after playing the outgoing greeting, make sure that if you use a recorded greeting that it was recorded in 8KHz format (so it can play over the phone), and perhaps for good measure restart HS/HSP after setting the default mailbox in case it is not getting set properly.

If all of that fails, then generate another helpdesk ticket - don't know why you are getting the lion's share of HSP issues, but we'll get through them all eventually.


*Oh my Gosh* - I could not understand why you were having this so I did a quick test (I have two lines) and sure enough it IS happening with me too!!! Scratch the above - I can reproduce the issue so we can fix it - sorry about that - I don't know what (Rich) did to break this, but we will get an update to HSP soon.

[Msekelsky]

Well, a fair amount of my problems end up being on my end, so I'm glad to have one that's not me. Let's make sure I understand how it should work:

When somebody calls and I have a custom greeting
The caller should hear his her greeting. S/he will NOT hear the default greeting. S/he would still need to press a number to leave thier message in the correct mailbox. Correct? (assuming correct a nice future feature would be the ability to direct a caller in the address book to a specific mailbox with no user intervention).

Caller with no custom greeting calls
Caller would hear the default greeting. S/he needs to press the number associated with the mailbox wanted. Correct?

Caller does NOT select a mailbox
Today, s/he is hung up on. I assume this is part of the bug and the caller should be dumped to the default mailbox to leave a message?

[Rick Tinker]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>_When somebody calls and I have a custom greeting_
The caller should hear his her greeting. S/he will NOT hear the default greeting. S/he would still need to press a number to leave thier message in the correct mailbox. Correct? (assuming correct a nice future feature would be the ability to direct a caller in the address book to a specific mailbox with no user intervention). <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Correct, and the feature has already been asked for and I believe is on our todo list.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>_Caller with no custom greeting calls _
Caller would hear the default greeting. S/he needs to press the number associated with the mailbox wanted. Correct? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Correct.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>_Caller does NOT select a mailbox_
Today, s/he is hung up on. I assume this is part of the bug and the caller should be dumped to the default mailbox to leave a message? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Correct.

[Rick Tinker]

Mark,

Found out what is happening....

It is not technically a bug, but I think something changed when Rich re-wrote the Way2Call interface that affected how the inactivity timer works.

I had the inactivity timer on my system set to 30 seconds for HomeSeer Phone, and that meant that it expired during the playback of the outgoing greeting. Thus, as soon as that was done playing, HomeSeer Phone hung-up the call.

Set your inactivity timer to something larger such as 120 seconds and the problem should go away. The inactivity timer is just extra protection in case the phone company does not send a signal on a remote hang-up or if the silence detection does not detect silence on the line.


Rich did find that the external_multiple IVR script, and my guess is external_multiple_OOA as well, were 'assuming' mailbox 2 as the default instead of searching for which mailbox you had explicitely set as the default. Thus, we will be putting out an update to HSP soon that has a couple of other HSP issues fixed and will also deliver a new version of those IVR scripts with that situation resolved.

Note to others: If you customized your IVR scripts, please remember to save it under a new name and to tell HSP to use your IVR script as the installation of this update will overwrite the default IVR scripts.

[Msekelsky]

I set my inactivity timer to 120, but the caller still gets disconnected if s/he does not select a mailbox. It makes sense that this would happen as there is never a "dong" to leave a message. To make sure I set the right parameter it was Number of seconds of silence... under the advanced button.

[Rick Tinker]

It is likely the 2nd thing I mentioned... the default mailbox.

Run the updater as Rich posted the updated version.

[Msekelsky]

Downloaded the new beta today and gave it a spin. If a caller does NOT select a mailbox s/he gets dumped (after about 6 seconds) into the default. If I have a custome greeting it still plays that greeting and the default greeting, but I don't think that was to be addressed in this build anyway.

[dschoppe]

Hi Rick,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but regarding MSekelsky's question, aren't the "number of seconds of silence" and the "inactivity timer" two completely different settings in HSP? The former should be set short (e.g., 6-10 sec?) to terminate the call in cases where the hang-up tones aren't detected. In my case, I rely on silence detection to hangup my doorbell phone which provides no way for the visitor to "hang-up" the phone when done speaking. I'm not sure what benefit the inactivity timer really provides, if you also record messages and set a max record message time. I suppose if HSP is setup only to announce, and if both hang-up detection AND silence detection failed, then the inactivity timer would provide the safety net to terminate the call. Correct?

Regards,
Don

[Rick Tinker]

Yes, the inactivity timer is a "catch all" in the event that the CPC signal is not received from the phone company network and you do not have silence detection turned on.

Part of the problem previously was that the inactivity timer was reset at the beginning of the outgoing message playback instead of right after it was played, so the time expired pretty quickly. A setting of 120 seconds should be good since it is only a "catch all" timer.