Let me preface this by saying the following:
I’m running Asterisk 11.25.1 / FreePBX behind a Xorcom CPBX 4.6.2
… that being said, this may be a Xorcom issue, or it may be a FreePBX Issue.
The problem / flow is this:
Call comes in, answered by operator.
Operator transfers call to extension.
User answers extension, decides it’s not for them, transfers it back to the operator.
Operator tells caller “Oh, I’m sorry, let me transfer you to the correct extension.”
Operator attempts to transfer call, it won’t transfer. They instead have to PARK the call, pick it up again from park, and THEN they can transfer it again.
Mmm… easier said than done. Xorcom has a new release (version 5) which is built on a different Asterisk distro… with no migration path. Better the devil you know…
IIRC, there’s a transfer limit built into the call sequence. Seems to me it’s like five to seven transfers, but I could be thinking of something else. It’s there to keep calls from getting into infinite loops through a call sequence.
A workaround would be for the person who got the call “wrongly” to park the call and call the person who should be picking it up to retrieve it. This works even if the person you are transferring it to is the operator. That way, the operator can notify the new recipient and they can pick the call up from the parking lot. Transferring someone around, bouncing from person to person, might seem to an impatient person as giving them the “run around”.
Oh, I completely agree with you. Whoever has the call should take responsibility for it.
Unfortunately, it gets transferred back to the operator, and later the operator gets griped out for transferring the call to the wrong person. Sad, really… it’s a people issue.
The couple of times I transferred a call to the wrong person/department, the person I transferred it to walked up to me and said “That call wasn’t for me.” I looked at them and told them “You press transfer, then the extension. You can even dial by name.”
I wasn’t going to be brow-beaten by someone for making a mistake, especially when I was COVERING for the operator while she ran an errand.