I cannot get the AA to pick up. I defaulted the system but not the VM. I put the 4 VM extensions into 770. I rotary enabled the VM extensions. Dialing 770 gives me the VM system. I put the member extensions into 30. I made 770 the cover for 30. In the MM I found that no lines had been added for cover so I added 801 and 802, the only two lines they have. They have POTS lines, no PRI. But the AA will not pick up instead the robot answers and says transferring to the operator. The clue here has to be that no line ownership was defined previously in the MM. They just want the AA to pic up on the first ring.

Assign the lines (or the pool that the lines are in) to the Calling Group 770

Set any phones that ring Immediately to Delayed

Tom - so 770 has both the VM port extensions and the lines?

Yup, under Group Calling is Members, where you assign the voice mail port extension numbers, and Line/Pool where you assign lines to be answered by the group members.

AHhh OK. Since I have this in key mode, do I need to delete the auto added lines from the 4 VM port extensions? I found in another post of yours I should set the VM ports for no ring. Does that apply here? Just to repeat, an outside call is picked up on the 4th ring and then transferred to the operator extension. But the AA won't pick up. Do I need to make mailbox 200 an AA?

Since this is not a PRI, it is not number-based routing, but line-based routing. Leave the lines assigned to the VM ports, but make them NO ring. Assign the lines to the VM calling group, and they will be automatically answered by Auto Attendant No. 1. Only if you need AA 2, 3, or 4 do you need to assign lines to the AA inside of the Merlin Messaging. And since the calls are not routed by number, no, 200 does not need to point to the AA, it can be a regular old mailbox.

Thanks, Tom. I think I get it.

you guys are close but lost me with ext 200. if they want aa to answer immediately then assign lines to call grp 770 and create aa mbox 770 and assign that mbox to AA#1

if they want delay AA put lines in to call grp 771 overflow to 770 time base = 16(about 4 rings) number base = 99 then create AA mbox for 771 and assign to AA#1

everything else sounds right

That's the way I did it when I set up a PRI ie number based. But Tom's method does work when you are dealing with analog trunk lines. You add all lines to be covered by all AAs into 770. Then you configure each AA on the MM and define which lines each will pick up on.

cool, my bad didnt realize you were dealing with multiple AAs