I finally decided that enough is enough with VONAGE and have decided to phase it out slowly. Here is my plan.
I desperately do not want to lose my phone number or have a major disruption in service. So, I am going to add 2 additional optimum voice lines for a total of 3 lines in a call hunt grouping. Call hunt, for those who don't know, allows incoming calls to jump from busy line 1 to busy line 2 then to open line 3. I now have 3 VONAGE lines. The main line, 631-326-6035, will jump to line 2 when busy. I actually do not know the phone number for line 2. My 3rd VONAGE line is at home, and I use this line to make and receive patient related phone calls after hours. This line is not part of my call hunt sequence, but after hours, calls made to 631-326-6035, my VONAGE line 1, will forward to this home line. Interestingly, this phone line has never dropped a call, though it's call volume is negligible.
I have one Optimum voice line, which I use as a private line for outgoing calls and as a fax line for outgoing faxes. Incoming faxes come in via EFAX. This line has been very reliable, though again, with a lower volume of calls, so who can really say? For some reason, this line's phone number is listed in the yellow pages--the free listing. Why do I mention that? Because, in April and May of 2006, when former patients of mine tried to look me up in the book, they found my listing and called the Optimum voice number, which rang and rang and rang. Fortunately, my patients are my greatest assets and they told me about the problem, which I corrected by forwarding Optimum Voice line 1 to VONAGE line 1. Voila, solved. Crisis averted.
So here is what I plan to do now that VONAGE has caused my hairline to recede to the apex of my skull. I am going to keep VONAGE line 1, but forward it to optimum voice line 1. Optimum voice line 1 will then call hunt to lines 2 and 3. VONAGE line 2, the number I don't know, I plan to use as a back line and outgoing fax line. VONAGE line 3, the one in my house, I will keep as is. If after several months, everything is working fine, I'll probably start to pear back the system, and screw everything up.
Now I just need to figure out which phone jacks receive their signals from which phone number. And for this, I need to go pro, at $85 per man per hour, not including parts.
Did you ever think a phone could be so complicated. Well they can be. Any suggestions from the 'sphere.
Thanks, the IU.
