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eddie-fesperman avatar image
eddie-fesperman asked bond007dmc9787 commented

Call forwarding doesn't work as expected

Our company has a lot of people who are now splitting their time working in the office and remotely. In my mind, one of the basic reasons for a system like RingCentral is that users can receive their calls on any device, no matter where they are. Last week, I found out that call forwarding does not work as expected.


Consider the following scenario. Jane works in the office sometimes and other times she works from home. Susan is going to be out of the office and Jane is her backup. Jane happens to be working from home that day and Susan configures her account to forward her calls to Jane.


The expected behavior would be that Jane would be able to receive those calls regardless of which device she is using (desk phone or Mobile app). However, it does not work. The forwarded calls ONLY ring to Jane's desk. There is no way to forward another user's calls to another user's mobile app.


I spent some time on the phone with Ring Central support trying to configure this and they started trying to walk me through a convoluted process of setting up a call queue. All for a temporary forwarding scenario that was to be in place for a single day.


The other option they proposed was to temporarily assign Susan's number to Jane. That also seemed like a lot of work for a temporary forward.


Call forwarding should forward to any device, based on the call recipients call handling configuration. Full stop. In other words, if User A forwards to User B, User B should receive those calls no matter what device they are using.


I'm completely baffled as to why it doesn't work this way.

call forwarding
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bond007dmc9787 avatar image
bond007dmc9787 answered
You are right - the forward will not go to a user's mobile app like it will a desktop app or phone - this is a pain. The simplest way to go about this that I know of is to make a Custom Rule. It isn't too hard and let's you define the time frame for the forward, if you wish, so if you know how long you need it for, you can automate it. The rule will be saved in case you need to reuse another time.

You'll probably need a little help the first time to understand the particulars, unless you aren't concerned about an unanswered call by the person you are forwarding too. This would probably require a few extra steps for the voice mail and user identification announcements. Otherwise, it is just about 3 steps to set up. My screenshot should help you to determine where to find the Custom Rule section from the user you wish to forward to someone else. It also has a link for more information/instruction concerning custom rules.

Incidentally, Custom Rules intercept and take priority over everything else you have set up - according to the targeted change/user, etc., so make sure you don't forget about or automate, or you may wonder why something that used to work doesn't anymore.


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eddie-fesperman avatar image
eddie-fesperman answered bond007dmc9787 commented
This seems a lot more straightforward than the "call queue" solution proposed by the support rep that I spoke with.  It looks like what I could do is set up the custom rule to do an unconditional forward to the desired number.  I'll test this out and see if it behaves as expected.

Thanks for the help!
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bond007dmc9787 avatar image bond007dmc9787 commented ·
You could use unconditional and maybe it will work for your purposes, but it was explained to me that that option is really for a forward to a cell phone or other phone outside the RC platform - something to do with caller ID and maybe the dialer - can't remember. I think I may have tried that option when I was experimenting, and it didn't work as expected for me - however the regular forward did.

If  unconditional doesn't work for you and you want to use the regular Forward option (which WILL work if set up correctly) you would just need to choose which Screening, Greeting, & Hold, Call Handling, and Messages options you want or not. I have added more screenshots for you to see how I set up mine so it may make better sense.

The Messages section only matters if the person answering the forwarded calls does not answer, and call is transferred to voicemail. In that case, you need to tell it where to go, as it defaults to the forwarded user's extension. I happen to have mine to allow the caller to leave the vm at the extension that is temporarily receiving  calls, as I don't want it going to the intended user, who in my case was terminated. There is one more elusive setting related to original user identification (name announced to caller) that I can help with if need be.






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