Can't Answer Call Issue!! (3300, Residential App)

[thinkrick]

This is a lingering issue we've had for months now and my dealer/installer has never seen the issue and Mitel support also has no immediate clue.  This is a residence btw, I'm the home owner and have gotten to know the basics of the system and how to program most phone functions.

Here's what happening:

1. Call comes in to an extension (which rings all phones).
2. When attempting to pickup the call, the phone appears to freeze (no buttons respond, can't hear caller) and call keeps ringing all other phones.
3. Also cannot pickup the call (that's still ringing) on any other phone, same issue.
4. The caller eventually goes to the extensions voicemail.
5. The phones keep ringing for about 2 minutes, then times out.
6. This happens EVERY time from certain callers.  Luckily less than 5% of callers have this problem.

When it's happening:

-It ONLY happens from certain businesses call, including my guard gate (which is the most annoying).
-All the businesses seem to be using the same business phone service: Embarq Business.  Calls from Embarq Residential work fine.

What we've tried to de-bug:

-We've tried disabling the auto-attendent, direct call to an extension.  Call picks up successfully.
-We've tried having the caller go through auto-attendent, and direct call to a single extension (with no multi-ring), bug occurs.
-We've changed tons of misc settings in COS Options (Mitel Support guided), none fixed it.
-We've tried different phone services (Embarq Residential, Vonage VOIP), our secondary Embarq line didn't have the problem, but our primary did.  Both Vonage lines had the problem.

Some Basic Info:

-Residential Install 3300 Switch with 20+ 5340's (High-End Custom Home)
-2 Residential Phone Lines, Hunt Group.
-2 Phones Used as Extensions (Key System), rest are Multicall Phones.
-Calls go to auto-attendent immediately, then caller dials extension.

Anyone heard of this??  Unfortunately I'm not an expert when it comes to Mitel Systems and my dealer has done a lot to try and help so far.  I figured it couldn't hurt to take it upon myself and reach out to this forum to find any answers possible.

Thanks for your time!

Rick

[Chakara]

  I'm guessing this is a CX or CXi controller?  Have you tried using different LS ports?  What type of switch do you have - could it be a network related issue?  Can you get a sniffer trace when it works and when it shows the bug?  Be interesting to compare....

  This is a good one......

-Chak

[thinkrick]

  I'm guessing this is a CX or CXi controller?  Have you tried using different LS ports?  What type of switch do you have - could it be a network related issue?  Can you get a sniffer trace when it works and when it shows the bug?  Be interesting to compare....

  This is a good one......

-Chak

Hi Chak,

Thanks for the reply!

I don't know offhand if it's CX or CXi controller, I'll try to find out though.  2 of the ports where the lines feed into the switch are live.  We've tried exchanging the lines on both ports and it appears it's not a problem with the port.  I have multiple switches in the home network, but the phone network is fairly separate (only 1 cord bridges them).  All the components are in the same IP range though.  Doesn't feel like an issue with the network, mainly because the system is very consistent with how it acts.  Calls from the problem sources happen every time.  Calls not from those sources don't ever cause the issue.

I don't know what a sniffer trace is or how to perform it.  With proper instruction, I should be capable of doing it though.

Appreciate your reply and help to this so far Chak!

[ralph]

Rick,
Do the multicall lines ring on all phones or just several?  I'd be interested in how many phone it is actually ringing at the same time.
Since you said it happens ALL the time with certain businesses and your guard shack I would think that perhaps (Just a vague guess here) that it may be caller ID related since your calls are always delivered to you by the same carrier.

If I were on site troubleshooting I would try the following (Just so I knew the answer)
(1) reverse tip and ring on the trunks.  - retest
(2) turn off caller ID.  - retest
(3) point the call to a multi call key that only appears on 1 phone.  You'll have to have two lines of the same phone.  - retest.
(4) point the call to a single line key on only 1 phone.  This means the line only appears only once anywhere. - retest
(5) ring the call to an analog port.  I would expect it to work fine here, it it doesn't, replace the analog trunk module.

I've seen some strange issues before when calls ring to a multicall line group (or key system group) that is maxed out on the number of appearances.

Ralph
www.AllBusinessPhones.com

[thinkrick]

Rick,
Do the multicall lines ring on all phones or just several?  I'd be interested in how many phone it is actually ringing at the same time.
Since you said it happens ALL the time with certain businesses and your guard shack I would think that perhaps (Just a vague guess here) that it may be caller ID related since your calls are always delivered to you by the same carrier.

If I were on site troubleshooting I would try the following (Just so I knew the answer)
(1) reverse tip and ring on the trunks.  - retest
(2) turn off caller ID.  - retest
(3) point the call to a multi call key that only appears on 1 phone.  You'll have to have two lines of the same phone.  - retest.
(4) point the call to a single line key on only 1 phone.  This means the line only appears only once anywhere. - retest
(5) ring the call to an analog port.  I would expect it to work fine here, it it doesn't, replace the analog trunk module.

I've seen some strange issues before when calls ring to a multicall line group (or key system group) that is maxed out on the number of appearances.

Ralph

Hey Ralph!

I think you might be right about it being caller ID related!

There ONLY time it works is on our secondary analog line where we don't have the caller ID feature enabled with our phone company (Embarq Residential).  The primary analog line has caller ID, and the bug occurs.  The 2 vonage lines have caller ID, bug occurs.  I would have never guessed it's related to that.  I don't think I could live without caller ID however, but I would think you're on to something since that's the only variable that's different.

We've tested where the caller bypasses the auto-attendent and that worked (I don't remember if we rang all phones or not).  I believe we've limited the number of multicall lines to about half, and that didn't work.  It's been a few weeks since we've done that test though, so I don't remember clearly what did and didn't work.

We have 19 phones (all 5340) that ring 2 different extension appearances when a call comes in.  Caller hits auto-attendent right away (within 1-2 rings), they then dial 3 for one extension, or dial 0 for another extension.  Regardless of what extension is pressed, all phones ring, and we have an appearance on the LCD that shows what extension the call is for.

That's the info I know so far... I'll see if I can do a few more tests that you suggest.  Your help is extremely grateful!!!!

[thinkrick]

Got some more details about this issue... still no resolve, but I did another test and here's some additional info to add to my intiial post:

1. When a successful call comes in, normally I see the caller ID at the top LCD of the phone (5340) and the lower right of the LCD replacing the extension #.  I notice for a second after phone rings, the lower right has the voicemail port # first, then it switches over quickly to the actual phone # of the caller.  In addition, the caller's phone # pops up on my desktop computer (mitel desktop).

2. When the freeze call occurs (again, only happening from a few companies with certain phone service), the caller ID shows at the top of the LCD correctly , BUT... the lower right of the LCD shows the voicemail port # instead (which is like 2501 for us) and never switches to the actual phone # of the caller.  In addition, my desktop also shows that voicemail port # in the caller ID rather than the phone #.

Still no clue how to fix it, but I thought this might help the guru's who are following this thread.  Thanks again for any feedback to this issue.

[ralph]

Can you PM me with a printout of each of the following classes of service?
Phone
Trunks
Voicemail  (also be sure all vm ports have same COS)

Ralph

[Chakara]

  There is a COS option that displays the caller ID info on the ringing line button - or call appearance.  Also it is a newer option so more likely to be a bit buggy.  As that is the time when the crash appears to occur you might disable that option.  It's called "Display Caller ID on Multicall/keylines" and disable it to see if it helps.

I would do so on the trunks as well as the sets COS.

-Chak

[thinkrick]

Can you PM me with a printout of each of the following classes of service?
Phone
Trunks
Voicemail  (also be sure all vm ports have same COS)

Ralph

Hi Ralph,  thanks for the reply!!

I've sent you a PM.

[thinkrick]

  There is a COS option that displays the caller ID info on the ringing line button - or call appearance.  Also it is a newer option so more likely to be a bit buggy.  As that is the time when the crash appears to occur you might disable that option.  It's called "Display Caller ID on Multicall/keylines" and disable it to see if it helps.

I would do so on the trunks as well as the sets COS.

-Chak

Hi Chak,

I tried that and it looks like it prevents caller ID from showing on all phones except for the extension.  I could test this and see if that at least would resolve the issue and better help us debug.  It's not easy to test since I have to get my guard shack to call my phone system to test (it's awkward everytime bothering them and explaining why I want them to call a strange phone #).  Problem is, this wouldn't be a end all solution since disabling caller ID on nearly every phone would be far worse than the actual bug.  I'd much rather have Caller ID on all phones and deal with the bug (which happens to only a few callers). lol

I will test it though tomorrow and have the guard shack call me with that option disabled.

Thanks, Rick

[Chakara]

  That is different than I thought it would behave.  I though - obviously incorrectly - that it would prevent the caller ID from showing up on the button line appearance, however it would still show up near the top of the display.

  Hm - continuing to dig....