The Phone Incident

[Dips]

We got some new phones with nifty features such as selecting ring tones. Since I work in the same room as my boss, I figured I would change the ring tone to be different than his and choose another one for direct calls to my line, since I answer those with a different greeting.

The phone company rep who had taught us the basics had given everyone a nice printed cheat sheet with common functions on it. I looked at the sheet. Ring tones was listed right there, under "Other features." Cool! I picked up the handset and punched the keys listed on the first line. I tried following the directions to listen to the various ring tones, but nothing happened. Puzzled, I placed the handset back.

And I hear music coming out of my phone's speaker! Oh, crap. What did I do? I picked up the phone handset. The music stops. I put the handset back. The music starts up again. Then I get a message telling me that my call is important to someone. Obviously, one of my coworkers is waiting on hold and I've somehow managed to connect to their call. I take the phone on and off the hook a few times to try and shake this call away from me. Nothing. Every time I pick up the music goes away and every time I put back the handset, it starts up again. I finally leave the handset off.

I run all over the office to ask if anyone is waiting on hold and lost their call. Everyone seemed very confused by this and looked at me funny. Oh, well. Maybe whoever was on the other end has taken the call off hold and hung up by now.

I go back to my office where the phone is still off the hook and put it back. GAH! MUSIC! I unplug the phone. Music goes away. Plug it back in. Music comes back. AHHHHH!

Mark hears me becoming agitated and asks if he can help. I explain I'm holding for some company and don't know who it is. He asks me if I've picked up and hung up. YES! Have I tried disconnecting the phone? Yes!

Of course, Mark tries both and the same thing happens to him.

So I ask Eugene when he's not busy. He used to work for a phone company many years ago. He asks the same questions as Mark. Then after I answer them. HE tries the same thing with the same result.

Sigh. At this point I've begun to suspect that the hold music was actually ours and not some outside company as no outside lines seemed to be active. I'm sure most of you figured that out already. What can I say? I was frazzled.

But why the hell was I on hold with our company listening to our hold music?

So I decided to carefully reconstruct what I had done. I grabbed the cheat sheet. Went to the first line of instructions under "Other features:" and saw that the Ring Tone instructions started on the SECOND line of "Other features."

The first line was for a feature called "Music:" I punched the sequence in again toggle it back and the music went away.

Apparently the ability to make your phone play hold music through the speaker when you are not on the phone is a FEATURE on our new phones. Not only that, whoever made the cheat sheet thought that this FEATURE would be in enough demand to not only put it on the cheat sheet, but also thought it need to be listed FIRST among the "Other features:" on the sheet.

All in all I had to laugh about the whole thing. It was pretty funny after I calmed down.

[Bliss]

On Panasonic PBXs you can archieve the same by pressing 1 while the phone is on hook.

it's usefull both if you have a radio as hold (we originally did, as I noticed when calling other companies that soft radio holds soothed me while I waited, while corporate holds, specially short loops enervated me, and suggested the change, it helped our caller mood some). And you want to enjoy the music.

It's also useful for personel to verify the hold loop is working correctly, specially if the source is external to PBX not internal, and a flaky source like a portable CD.

[Dips]

it's usefull both if you have a radio as hold <snip>

Good to know. I never thought of those uses for it. It will make it much easier to monitor if we switch back to a CD or radio station.

Of course, my mind was thinking it had some good potential use around April 1.

[Boozy]

Who wouldn't want to listen to the soothing tones of hold music, frequently interrupted by affirmations of your importance, throughout the entire day? What an awesome feature! Does this company provide home services as well?

/sarcasm

Of course, Mark tries both and the same thing happens to him.

I hate it when people do that.

I also hate that I do that to other people.

[PepperElf]

... the in me says.. .switch it to satellite radio hold and play something like howard stern.

[Bandit]

Good to know. I never thought of those uses for it. It will make it much easier to monitor if we switch back to a CD or radio station.

Of course, my mind was thinking it had some good potential use around April 1.

If you do the radio/CD thing, make sure your license fees are paid up. Not kidding. Your company might find a rep from ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC showing up at the door demanding a lot of money.

I know from first-hand experience.

More fun can be found HERE

B

[Thrifty]

Hehe I'm so glad that I'm not the only one this happened to. Last week at work a client (I work at a drug rehab) was on the phone and must have pressed something to do the same thing your phone did. So here you have me and the client looking at the phone trying to figure out where the music is coming from, did she call some place else and is now on hold, will the other company pick up?

Like you we soon realized it was our companies hold music, and finally figured out that there is a part on the phone where you can listen to the hold music on the speaker. Sadly we have one of those "your call is important to us" holds, but it would be neat to do that with the radio.

[Gerrinson]

I hate it when people do that.

I also hate that I do that to other people.

Just because someone says they followed a troubleshooting step, doesn't mean they actually did it. And sometimes if it doesn't work for you, it might work for someone else just because the machines like to make you look stupid.

[technical.angel]

Amen to that!

[Dips]

I hate it when people do that.

I also hate that I do that to other people.

I work in tech support. I didn't take it personally. I just wanted the evil music to stop already.

If you do the radio/CD thing, make sure your license fees are paid up.

Very, very good to know. Thank you.

Just because someone says they followed a troubleshooting step, doesn't mean they actually did it. And sometimes if it doesn't work for you, it might work for someone else just because the machines like to make you look stupid.

And that is another reason I didn't mind that Mark and Eugene repeated doing what I had. Even if it didn't work and make the evil music stop, I felt a little twinge of pleasure watching the machine make them look stupid too.