TCL VoicePro
Phone Company Services
That Are Not Needed
When using the VoicePro you can save money by eliminating some phone company services no longer needed.
Here's the reason why you no longer need phone company voice mail or call waiting.
Why Call-Waiting Is Not Needed
You no longer need Call-Waiting on your lines if you are using the VoicePro. Instead of keeping people waiting for you to respond, you'll want to let them get through to the VoicePro and let the system handle your additional callers.The only way to have more than one caller ring through is to have a phone line for each caller you want your phone system to handle. The proper way to handle multiple callers is to have additional phone lines with rollover.
Call-Waiting may interfere with the proper functioning of the VoicePro. For example, if someone is listening to recorded information that you provide in various menus, and another caller tries to call, the VoicePro will ignore the Call Waiting tone and that additional caller will wait forever without being connected. Or worse, they will get a phone company voice mail, which will not function the same as the VoicePro. See "Phone Company Voice Mail" below for more on this.
The proper method is to let the VoicePro answer additional callers by letting them rollover to the next line. Call Waiting will prevent this proper operation.
For a more in-depth discussion of rollover, see How To Avoid Busy Signals With Phone Line Rollover.
What Happens If You Keep Call-Waiting
If you do leave call-waiting enabled on your lines, you will hear the call waiting tone while you are talking. If you do a flash, as you normally would do to take the other caller, the VoicePro will place the present party on hold and give you dialtone on another line so you can initiate a conference call. That's not what you want to do in this case. You really want to place the first party on hold and connect to the new caller.You are bypassing the functionality of the VoicePro by keeping Call-Waiting. You will have the problems mentioned above. It is best to use rollover and let the VoicePro handle the next caller while you continue your present conversation uninterrupted.
But if you do insist on keeping Call-Waiting, remember that the VoicePro will ignore it. However, if it happens while YOU are talking then there is a way to override the "flash to conference" feature. All you do is dial "52" after the flash. This sends a "flash" on the outside CO line. That was easy!
Phone Company Voice Mail
You can set the VoicePro to answer calls immediately and let the Auto Attendant guide your caller, or you can program it to ring to the phones first. Either way, if you can't get to a phone in time, you'll want the VoicePro to handle the process of taking messages for the proper extension or department that the caller was trying to reach.When the VoicePro is programmed to answer immediately, the phone company voice mail will never take the calls and you are simply wasting your money for that service.
But what if you program the VoicePro to ring through first. Now you have a problem. If you don't answer in time, will the VoicePro take the message? Or will the caller fall into the voice mail from your phone company? Sometimes they'll get the Auto Attendant. And sometimes they'll just hear your phone company message and not be able to do anything but leave a message.
It's best to let all callers ring to the VoicePro so every caller is handled the same way. No confusion. No need to check for messages in two places. And every caller will have the flexibility of the Auto Attendant to guide their call when you are not available. If phone company voice mail answers first, the VoicePro has no chance to handle the call.
And when you let all messages be taken by the VoicePro, it can notify you with a message light, stutter dial tone, and even by calling your cell phone or home phone with live message alert. You have all those features built into the VoicePro ready to serve you. So get rid of phone company voice mail on all the lines that are connected to the VoicePro and reduce your phone bill.
