Polycom 331 questions

[Caede]

I recently bought a Switchvox 305 with 30 Polycom phones. Everything has been going swimmingly well with T1 configuration, extensions and queues, but I have a few nagging issues with the phones and their interaction with the server. I have phone feature packs for all of the Polycoms, and they are all 331s, use DHCP and are on the internal network.

- The Polycom internal directory does not get populated by Switchvox. I can go to the Switchvox application (Menu->Applications->Apps), but that interface is painful on a 331. Maybe the microbrowser works better on other (better) Polycom phones, but it's basically worthless for my setup. Is there any way to get the Polycom's phone directory to load from Switchvox?

- These phones come with a pop-on key to change 'Line 2' to 'Messages', and that's exactly what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, the phone feature packs don't allow this to be configured and the Polycom web interface only allows you to set up the line 2 key as a secondary SIP account. I can manually add an internal directory entry for Voicemail (4899 in my case), and that automatically gets assigned (since it's the first speeddial) to the Line 2 key. PERFECT! ...except, there are two problems with this.

1) I have to manually do this at every phone. I can palette that, if it will work. But...
2) On the next phone reboot, the Polycom internal directory gets wiped out, nicely resetting my Line 2 key back to the default of 'nothing'.

So... any hints? I know I can push out my own config files for the Polycom phones, but the whole reason I got the phone feature packs was to be able to configure the phones from Switchvox. I'd really rather not have to set up my own provisioning server just to make Line 2 a voicemail key.

For completeness, I should mention that I did open a ticket with Digium support on 5/10 -- I have 'silver' subscriptions, which is email-only with a 24 hour non-guaranteed response. I asked about this issue and about modifying the phone's dialplans for my 4-digit extension system. I did not hear back and managed to fix my dialplan issue myself. I 'pinged' the ticket on 5/15, just asking if someone could respond. Today, 5/22, I finally called to find out -- 12 days without a single response (not even 'Sorry, we can't support that!') is pretty painful, especially since I just sold this phone system to my CEO by raving about past experiences with Digium. Has anyone else had this abysmal response? On the phone they were apologetic and tried to be helpful, but ultimately I'm still left with the above questions and it's now 12 days since I opened the ticket. I could have called them earlier, but if I'm expecting email support... shouldn't I get SOME sort of email response that the ticket has at least been acknowledged? Sorry, bit of a rant there...

[DP]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Switchvox support. I've had numerous issues with support that ultimately had to be resolved through my distributor. Switchvox support has been the worst technical support experience I've ever encountered.

Apathy, ignorance and arrogance is what I've encountered when dealing with them. Like you, I have silver subscriptions (thank God I didn't waste money on Gold!!) I've opened cases and like you, heard NOTHING back. I've always had to call to say, "Hey it's been several days on my P1 issue and I've heard zilch!" Their response? "Let's take a look and see... Oh you're silver, I can't talk with you." I say, "Sure, but after a few business days, don't you think I deserve at least some form of a response?" They say, "Not really".

I would escalate to your distributor if you can.

Good luck!

[brucexx]

Oh you're silver, I can't talk with you

Well if you do not like your licensing change it, I believe that people that sold you the system explained what Silver licensing is. Escalating to distributor is definitively a good idea that you should start with in the first place.

now lets get to the issues:
1. If you add a phone via phone feature pack and make changes via web or your own configuration files the next time you reboot your phone, the phone will download and replace the config with what you have configured on Switchvox - this is the whole point of phone feature packs (it does not work this way 100% of the time especially on 3XX series as they are flaky, if you have problems with them I would contact Polycom, they might have to be hard reset and reformated - where they new or used when you bought them ?) . There are advantages of using phone feature packs and disadvantages for a phone like Polycom 3XX. What you want to do probably is to get your own config files, ftp server and have the phone use the custom config (plenty of examples on the internet).
2. Polycom directory is also flaky - I would escalate to the distributor as I have not used 3XX series phone in a while so I do not remember the directory specifically, I have the directory working on 550 460 560 with no problems.

Thanks

[Caede]

Well if you do not like your licensing change it, I believe that people that sold you the system explained what Silver licensing is. Escalating to distributor is definitively a good idea that you should start with in the first place.

I really do agree -- I knew exactly what buying the lowest tier of subscription pricing would get me. Email only support, 24-hour response time, no guarantee. That really doesn't exuse 12 days without a single response from them. I will make more of an effort to get support through my distributor in the future.

Having said that and 'bashed' Digium support... I opened another ticket about the directory being wiped out on reboots, and they actually did respond. Not only that, the response solves my line-2 / messages issue from the original ticket.

If you log into the Switchvox web portal as a particular extension and go to that extension's Phonebook (Features -> Phonebooks), you can add an extended entry for the Voicemail Access extension. If this is the first entry in the phonebook, it will get assigned to the line 2 key on the 331 on next reboot.

[brucexx]

So what was the resolution ? i assume that you just configured the phonebook am I right ? - were you aware of the phonebook configuration before ? I was under the impression the you used the phonebook and it did not work properly. The phonebook works only if you are using phone configuration. I am glad that the issue has been resolved.

[brucexx]

That really doesn't exuse 12 days without a single response from them.

I totally agree with you if your contract has 24 hrs response time I would contact support via phone and tell them that nobody responded to your email within the time frame specified in your contract. If they are giving you hard time I would ask to speak with supervisor - not about the problem but about response time.

Otherwise we are generalizing about the whole support team - there might be a situation that some cases are delayed(forgotten) people might think they replied to you but they did not.. etc. I am supporting many system (I do not work at Digium) and from experience I know that this happens from time to time. As a rule if somebody does not return my emails or I do not hear back from them I call them and try to straighten things out. Waiting 12 days seem a little bit long

[hiltonmw]

The Polycom internal directory does not get populated by Switchvox. I can go to the Switchvox application (Menu->Applications->Apps), but that interface is painful on a 331. Maybe the microbrowser works better on other (better) Polycom phones, but it's basically worthless for my setup. Is there any way to get the Polycom's phone directory to load from Switchvox?

We've been reselling and utilizing Switchvox and Polycoms for four+ years and yes, the IP 331's directory application is, well, unfortunately very difficult to use. The 650/670's is better, but still not great. This doesn't really answer your question, but the built-in directory application on the Digium phones is STELLAR and well worth the price (plus no feature pack cost!).

So, with all that said, most of the customer's that we've sold the Polycom IP series phones to, we recommend and heavily push use of the Web User Portal because the Switchboard's built-in directory is really easy to use. Plus, the added benefits of getting user's comfy with the Web User Panel and the Switchboard does come in handy.

These phones come with a pop-on key to change 'Line 2' to 'Messages', and that's exactly what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, the phone feature packs don't allow this to be configured and the Polycom web interface only allows you to set up the line 2 key as a secondary SIP account. I can manually add an internal directory entry for Voicemail (4899 in my case), and that automatically gets assigned (since it's the first speeddial) to the Line 2 key. PERFECT! ...except, there are two problems with this.

The way that I would accomplish this for Polycom's is as follows.

Option 1: From the admin / manage extensions tab - you can "Log in as User" for each extension and add a "Phonebook Entry" for your voicemail extension for each user. If the user creates their own phonebook entries, the could in theory bump the voicemail 'buttons' spot - but Lin e2 will always take Phonebook Entry one's.

Lastly, having been a partner of Digium's for 4+ years, their tech support has slipped a bit recently. They used to be stellar and they still are pretty good for most tasks, but I would agree with your assessment that their overall "attitude and aptitude" these days leaves quite a bit to be desired. That being said, Digium places a very high premium onto their resellers/partners to take care of the "minutia" and with Silver support - the partner is supposed to run with most of the diagnostic and day-to-day issues. We've been told multiple times by higher ups at Digium that customer support is a high priority for them and that they are working very hard to correct the issues at hand.

Knowing the company quite well, I believe this. That being said, since they've just released both (a) major revisions to their software (in the form of 5.x and then 5.5.x software releases) AND new hardware/phones, I think it will be a while until the "dust settles". The new Digium phones are really great and the upgrades to the back end of the system are great too. I think once all of their newbies get up to speed and they shake some of their implementation blues out, we'll see Digium's support line reign supreme again.

[brucexx]

@hiltonmw

I agree the new Digium phones are great and worth the money. The functionality is just great compared to any other phones working with this system. I have been using a Polycom VVX500 and D50 for the time they were release and as much as I love the looks of VVX500 the D50 is simply better. Just the ability to update the phonebook and not have to reboot the phone is a great improvement over any Polycom phone + many other option... and they will be getting even better with future firmware updates. The new phones are still new and the firmware is new as well so I expect more when the product matures. We do not experience any problems with them due to the new firmware but I would assume that they will get simply better with time...