IP Office - how to block accidental calls to 911?

[mboylemd]

Help - I was visited by local police. Our Avaya IP office system was set up with default setting of dialing "9" for an outside line. We are in a call center environment, and apparently, our users have dialed "911" more than 15 times this month. Any quick changes I can make to either block this or make it more difficult for them to do it accidentally? I am thinking that even dialing "9-911" or making "8" my default for outgoing calls could work. Any advice/recommendations?

Thank you in advance!
Mike

 

[Westi]

the age old thing with 911, you could move to England where they use 999, just kidding.
Don't stand in the way of dialing 911 for them at any time for any reason except if you have a good lawyer on retainer.
You can make the dialoutcode 8 without any problems and it will work, the only thing you need to chang eis the shortcode 9N that sends all calls to the ARS for checking the digits following. You change that to 8N and you are good to go.
you have to change one shortcode in the ARS then the one that sayd 11 dial 911 because it would then dial 911 if you dial 811.
Hope it helps

Joe W.

FHandw., ACS

I don't suffer from insanity
I enjoy every moment of it

 

[mboylemd]

Thank you. I will give it a shot when I get in tomorrow.

Could I accomplish the same thing simply by just removing the ARS shortcode, essentially making them dial "9-911", or is that your lawyer advice coming through?

Are these changes that I can simply merge the file and they will take effect, or will they require a reboot?

 

[TomMills]

the problem with making them dial 9-911 seems to be visitors.

Making the staff aware of it and remember it in an emergency is one thing, but making sure visitors are aware of it too seems to be the thing that stops people doing this.

http://www.twitter.com/tem1985

See what my brain does when it's not thinking about phones.

 

[kwing112000]

We run into this a lot too. It seems with the system set up with 11 or 911 short codes in the ARS it dials so fast that you really dont get a chance to hang up if you make a mistake. I havent tried this but you may be able to slow it down a little by adding ; to the end of the code. We do end up removing the 11 sometimes but we make sure to go over it with the customer and give them all the pros and cons of doing it that way.

Kevin Wing
ACS- Implement IP Office
ACA- Implement IP Office
Carousel Industries

 

[kwing112000]

I just tested adding the ; to the end of the short code and it forces the 911 call to use the dial delay and gives you time before it connects the call.

Kevin Wing
ACS- Implement IP Office
ACA- Implement IP Office
Carousel Industries

 

[kflounders]

I allow 9-911 to go out unencumbered, but play a disclaimer when people dial just 911 saying that "the call is being sent to emergency services" via VMPro and "hang up now if this isn't an emergency dummy".

 

[mforrence]

...but play a disclaimer when people dial just 911 saying that "the call is being sent to emergency services" via VMPro and "hang up now if this isn't an emergency dummy"

We do this at one site and have recently changed the ARS access from 9 to 8 at two others.

Mike

 

[TomMills]

I allow 9-911 to go out unencumbered, but play a disclaimer when people dial just 911 saying that "the call is being sent to emergency services" via VMPro and "hang up now if this isn't an emergency dummy". "

what happens if the voicemail is down?

http://www.twitter.com/tem1985

See what my brain does when it's not thinking about phones.

 

[mattKnight]

>what happens if the voicemail is down?

Precisely...

Take Care

Matt
I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.
My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

 

[tlpeter]

I always setup the vmpro service to restart and with the 3th attempt to reboot the server
And then i always recommend to use smtp to send an email when the services go down.
This way the changes are getting less that it does not work




ACS - Implement IP Office
ACA - Implement IP Telephony -- ACA - Design IP Telephony
ACA - Voice Services Management
______________
Women and cats can do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea!

 

[ArchTelecom]

Be careful with 911. Maybe invloving their managers to increase awareness might be something to consider.

 

[Westi]

playing around with 911 is like playing around with the life boats on a ship. All fine and nobody is really mad at you for doing anything, until you need it and then they will tear you a new one.
If you use 8 for dialout then there will be no 9-911 it will become 8-911 for people that know to dial 8 and then make another shortcode
911
dial emergency
911
your line group ID

that way 911 AND 8-911 will go out and you are covered. You should also have a disclaimer written up and signed by the customer (or if you are self maintaining the system) have the CEO or/and the board of directors sign it.

Joe W.

FHandw., ACS

I don't suffer from insanity
I enjoy every moment of it

 

[kflounders]

What do you do if VM is down?

Easy, it is routed to a huntgroup that is forwarded to 9-911.

 

[crumthwacket]

We also advise customers that if they do call 911 by accident to stay on the line to tell the dispatcher it's an accident - keeps the adrenaline levels lower.

 

[amriddle01]

kflounders, how does it automatically re-route to a group on an outgoing call? I know it works for Incoming but outgoing surely you would just get busy back from the shortcode as VM is down

ACS - IP Office Implement

"What the Crocodile Hat....was that?

 

[jbra]

for additional caution see :

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1572347

In shrot, we had a DDI #811 with no desination, which ARS was sending to 911.

 

[kflounders]

kflounders, how does it automatically re-route to a group on an outgoing call? I know it works for Incoming but outgoing surely you would just get busy back from the shortcode as VM is down"

I send the call out and then back into the system so the recording it gets is a Module with a failover. It sounds complicated, but the billing that the clients were getting from the PDs around here began to go up to $125 per instance. Most clients just tell me to remove it since at any given time 80% of their employees have cell phones that would be the back up to an emergency happening and the VM service being down. 9-911 is enough for most, but some of my health care and Banking customers always want to keep the plain old 911 so I oblige.