Blind transfer current call to queue - my ugly solution

General Help
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1

My setup is:
Freepbx 14.0.5.25
Asterisk 15.5.0
Chansip

I use EPM to configure my phones which are all Yealink T46S.
The Yealink firmware is configured to use Attended Transfers by default and I would like to leave it that way.

I have achieved the following but it is UGLY!!
All of this is handled at a small hospital switchboard (2 x T46S plus EXTM 40) that wants to “immediately” answer a call to ask the caller whether this is an emergency and if it is not then place them in a “screened” queue for pickup by whomever is free. (Press 1 type options are not acceptable).

Current flow in FreePBX
Caller 1 comes in and is answered.
Caller 2 comes in and all operators, busy or not, are advised that there is an incoming call.
The operator advises Caller 1 to hold while they check if this new call is an emergency. The operator presses “ANSWER” and the Caller 1 is placed on hold and Caller 2 is picked up.

After determining that the call is not and emergency, the operator presses a dss key (blf key) which is setup in the EPM as:
Type = DTMF
Label = Screened (appears on the phone screen)
Value = ##710 (this achieves the blind transfer to queue 710 which then advises all available agents that there is a screened call to be dealt with).

This all works as intended except for the UGLY bit.
When the operator hits the Screened key on the phone, the code ##710 rolls across the screen. Not only that but the phone starts the announcement “transfer”, it gets the first syllable out, dials the queue, hangs up and allows the operator to resume Caller 1.

The UGLY bit is the code display and partial announcement.
My question is:

  1. Is there a better way to handle this without butchering my installation of FreePBX?
  2. Is there a way to hide the displayed stuff on the phone?

Thank you for any help.
Regards.

2

not sure with yealink but I wanted to share a concept that I used recently for a grandstream system setup. I don’t know if this will apply here so dont hold me to anything. I could set the button (ie Screened) to a speed dial instead of DTMF and in the web gui of the phone there was a setting to “MPK with type BLF, Speed dial, etc, will perform as transfer MPK under active call” and then the option above it that allowed me to specify blind or attended transfer for that setting.

So we could still do attended transfers by default but when you hit that speed dial button while on the call it would treat it as a blind transfer. I then was able to only show that button during an active call and not on the home screen.

3

Unfortunately Yealink does not seem able to handle this. Additionally Parking rather than I Queue doesn’t supply the automatic ringall (available agents) that I think I need to achieve the desired result.
I tested your idea with Speeddial (good thinking) but Freepbx simply tells me that ##710 is an invalid number.
If I can figure out a way to suppress/change all the displayed and sound stuff, I think my “problem” would be solved.
Thanks for looking at this issue for me.

4

Instead of transferring to ##710 why don’t you do a speed dial to 710

5

Thanks for still thinking about my UGLY solution :slightly_frowning_face:The issue is that all my phones are Yealink. I must therefore decide, as a global setup, whether call transfers are Blind or Supervised as a system “standard”. If I decide Supervised is my global setting then I must explicitly state if I want to do a Blind Transfer. This is the case in this installation.
Therefore to Blind Transfer to 710, I must send ##710.
Speeddial 710 will not do a blind transfer and Speedial ##710 is rejected.

6

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