atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Toshiba Telephones & Systems Pros / Cons / Limitations of Multiple Call Groups vs Phantoms?

We have a new tech that is trying to convince the boss to change how the rest of the techs program systems. He uses multiple call groups for everything..... incoming call ringing, doorbells... I think multiple call groups are great but I only seem to use them for calls that transfer out of voicemail to ring multiple phones or DID's that ring specific phones only. In our office for most of our smaller installs in Day 1 we use Trunk --> DIT to a phantom that delays to VM and it works great.

Does anybody have any input regarding the Pros, Cons or Limitations of Multiple Call Groups vs Phantoms?

Here's the Pros & Cons I came up with:

MCG Pros:
1. Easy to add/remove phones or adjust delayed ringing
2. Flexible timers

MCG Cons:
1. Line Button flashes red but the call comes in on the intercom (confuses some customers and looks sloppy)

Phantom Pros:
1. Designate specific buttons to distinguish special calls (Doorbell)
2. For regular incoming calls it's easier to tell what specific line is ringing because it flashes green.

Phantom Cons:
1. Less flexible timers... either use SCF or manually set phantom station call forward

I used to be a huge MCG fan, because I knew the possibilities regarding their supposed operation. They were going to be inherently flexible and easy to use, but I have personally never had anything but major problems with their functionality and intermittent success'.

The one thing I dislike about PhDN's are the manual programming of CF or delay timers. With MCG's the best part was being able to add to, move or change a flexible timer on a "per group" basis... when it worked! That saved a trip on-site or trying to talk someone through it over the phone.


My suggestion - PhDN, GCO and or Pool keys, as MCG are not functioning as they should be by this point in time.

I am still a big fan of MCG. It seems so much more orginazed, especially when you need to find which phone ring ang which don't. MCG has a table the lists the only ext that ring.

The downfall is that it rings the intercom key and I do get a few customers, especially those that used Toshiba in the past, wanting the line key to blink. I tell them to watch the display, but I will use Phantoms for those that still complain.

I have had a problems with MCG going to voicemail. It seems to work better now. At least one time one person in the MCG had their phone on DND caused problems. I have not heard of any calls in recently where the MCG failed to work. I do setup 90% with SCF unless they want a timer different then the SCF timer.

If you need a flexible timer with PhDNs, you need to use someones phone and manual CF to voicemail, but then their display will always show the CF, which confuses customers also. I have also ran into a case where a customer was able to remove CF, even system CF by using the #621 code. For that one I removed ownership of PhDN.

Overall, I still use MCG all the time, and PhDN rarely. For those customers new to Toshiba, they just accept the Intercom ringing green. I point them to the display to show what is ringing. For those without line apperances, they can't tell the different.

newtecky, I 100% agree with your reasoning for using the MCG.

BUT

I talked about this in detail because I've had many problems on 100's and 670's with-in the last 3-5 months, specifically with MCG's. So many so, that I have decided to abandon using them unless it's a very simple and small user set application.

I understand their intended purpose and great flexibility, as I have been a very big fan for years. Something within the last year of releases that has them acting wonky.

We still have many customers on older 3.X and early 5.X releases that haven't had any problems for years. The ones that I have noticed the most are larger capacity 670's and expanded/maxed out 100's. Oddly enough I've never had a problem with MCG's in 28/40's ever.

I want to inform techs/users of possible irregularities, more than ban the MCG use. If you do start to have problems, just delete the group and go the PhDN/GCO route... as I've done enough MCG troubleshooting for every tech East of the Mississippi in the last few months!

I have literally had a customer working 100%, tested multiple times with every possible variable introduced only to have it stop functioning 3 days later. Rinse, wash, repeat... and after 4 trips in 3 weeks to the same customer for the same problem, we went the PhDN route and haven't been back.

(sorry for the long rambling post)