question

Sure.  In my office, we have 12 phones, all Comdial DX-80.   The phones look like:

 

And the label looks like:

 

For terminology sake, when I use the term extension, I mean a physical phone in my office.  When I say Line, I mean an inbound/outbound trunk-line.  Two extensions can talk, like an intercom. 

The buttons all have lights, so if Extension 110 is busy, it will light up in red.  Same with Line 2.

Line 1, 2, 3, and 4 are setup as inbound/outbound lines.  They are attached to Linksys/Cisco ATA adapters, to Ringcentral digital lines.  

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From a functional perspective .  if someone calls my primary business number, I'd like it to ring on line #1.   All 12 "internal" phones will ring, and someone will pick-up that line.    They can then put the call on hold, and another extension  transfer the call to any extension if desired.  

If Line #1 is already in use, Line #2 should ring.  If 1 & 2 are busy, line #3 should ring.  Etc.

If Line #1 is free, it should ring for 20 seconds, then go to voicemail.  Hopefully someone will answer during that time.  But if it's not answered, there's no use trying line 2,3, or 4.  So sequential is out.  

And, if I use simultaneous, our system thinks it's getting 4 separate inbound calls.  Because it is. 

From an outbound perspective, a user will just choose a free line. I have the outbound caller-id set as my primary business number for all lines. 

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Hope that clarifies.

Sorry If I'm not fully understanding, but it sounds like you need to set up a Group with those three numbers. Under Call Handling use the "in fixed order" setting. Then  Member Availability and Hold times, and set the "maximum hold time to wait for an available call queue member to the desired lenght. Then if/when nobody answers they'll go to voicemail. 

If this doesn't do what you need, you may want to call in and explain over the phone. 

Mike 

Thanks Mike, I'm not explaining it well.  I tried calling in (and am calling in again now.   The problem is understanding that in effect, all of our phones are multi-line phones.
  The feature you mentioned is very close, but not quite.

Here's the text from Wikipedia that describes what I'm looking for:
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Multi-line hunting[ edit]

Multiline hunting (sometimes MLH, line hunting or MHG, multiline hunting group) is a feature that allows multiple telephone lines going into a business to act as a single group, called a hunt group. This type of fallback is a somewhat more complex form of call forwarding. If the line called is busy, the call goes to the next available line. Only if no lines in the group are open does the calling party get a busy signal.

Linear hunting[ edit]

In linear hunting, calls are always delivered to the lowest-numbered available line. This is also referred to as serial hunting or terminal hunting. It resembles busy/no-answer call forwarding. Calls are always delivered to the first line, unless it is busy then the second, third, and remaining lines are considered in succession.

This configuration is most often found on multi-line phones found at small businesses. For automatic call distributor systems with high call volumes, this is usually the least preferable method, because calls will arrive at destinations that are in the process of completing the previous call, and depending on the circumstances, may be the least prepared to take the call.

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Once I get through to support, I'll update.  If you have any other suggestions, I'm all ears.  

Again, thanks for your help!

Hi Mike, I was reading through your thread and sounds like you are trying to get the Ring central system to behave like a traditional PBX.  The system is not designed to work that way.  It is fundementally different than the Trunk line concept that other PBX's operate on.

I have worked with many customers on these configurations and in the end you can't get Ring Central to work the way the older systems work.

Ring central does not work on the line concept.  It is a one for one relationship with the phone.  So lines do not matter  There are many ways to route calls and transfer calls and such but sounds like if you have 12 phones in your environment you are only looking to pay for 4 lines (Hense the ATA Adapters)  I am thinking you are not interested in first of all paying for 12 users and then having to purchase true IP phones that will give you the functionality you are looking for.

Using a call queue may work for you in the way you are explaining but I am thinking programming the extensions with call flow defined is the best way to achieve what you want.  But you would have to have the 12 user system to do this properly.

You would have to purchase phones also and in your case with 12 people you would need a SPA525 G2 with a side car to meet you needs.  

On average this is a 175.00 phone + the side car at about 80.00

So no cheap investment.  Adding 10 phones to your network will add other challanges that will need to be addressed for clear calles, not drops or static ETC.  

So to do what you want is possible but not with the hardware you are using.

If you want to talk about this further, feel free to contact me directly.

Chuck
Certified Ring Central Installer
chuckfuscone@gmail.com

Chuck, I FULLY agree with you here.   Here's a post I made a few months ago exactly on point:   https://community.ringcentral.com/ringcentral/topics/adding-shared-lines-to-existing-extension   

I want Ringcentral to be successful, believe me I do.  Today, I think Ringcentral just doesn't have a good pricing model that fits my use-case.  Many phones but very few concurrent inbound-outbound calls.  I have some phones that may have 10 minutes of "intercom" use a month,  and 5 minutes of inbound-outbound minutes per month.  As you guessed, I'm not a fan of paying the full price for that type of line. 

I'm actually OK with purchasing new IP phones and trashing my legacy system.  The old PBX while it works great, is a sunk-cost.  In the "new model", a cheaper single-line IP phone would work just fine.  Standard simulring would work just fine,  RC has the functionality built in.  But again, I'd need 12 lines rather than 4.  

I'll send you my contact information offline.   Let's talk voice.