New job, new phone system, not working

May 4, 2015 9:26 AM

So I'm at my new job. The main thing I'm supposed to be doing is calling people. Thing is, my phone isn't working and the tech support person's wife just had a baby, so he's incommunicado. A little help?

I've got a Windows 7 PC with a Jabra headset, plugged in via USB. An application called Inside Sales is supposed to be forwarding my calls (which I am making through their Power Dialer) to a Polycom phone. I dial from the web app, then my real/physical phone rings, I answer it, and I hear the call the web app made ringing. The thing is, the last part of this process only works if I answer with the old school wired receiver. If I try to answer with the headset by choosing the headset button, neither I nor the person I am calling can hear me. The headset works fine for calls made through Lync/Skype-for-Business.

Any ideas?

posted by DirtyOldTown to Technology (10 answers total)

This sounds like the problem is with the headset itself - this may sound inane, but try replacing the headset with fresh batteries (unless you know for a fact it already has fresh batteries). At a former job, a lot of the "people can't hear me when I'm on headset" problems were solved by just changing the batteries.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:35 AM on May 4, 2015

We tried a different headset. Also, the headset works fine for Skype calls. It's only the calls bounced to it from the landline that don't work.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:37 AM on May 4, 2015

OK, I think I know what the problem is. I compared my setup to that of the person next to me and his headset is not plugged directly into the PC. It’s plugged into an additional device, a Jabra splitter that then has one plug going into the PC via USB and another into the back of the phone.

I gather then that I’m not getting audio on the headset for calls through the Polycom phone because the two things are not yet connected. Can anyone identify this device so that I will know what to ask for?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:03 AM on May 4, 2015

This?
posted by epo at 10:27 AM on May 4, 2015

That looks similar (although not identical) to the Jabra Link 850. So, maybe a different version?
posted by Betelgeuse at 10:28 AM on May 4, 2015

My boss says other phones without such a device in the office work fine. So I'm still at a loss.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:18 AM on May 4, 2015

What model Polycom and what's the back end PBX system?

What are the settings on the "other phones without such a device in the office [that] work fine?" Are they the same model of phone using the same model of headset?

It seems odd to me that you expect your Polycom to use a headset connected to a different device. How are they supposed to interface? Maybe you need to push the calls to your Lync number/account if you want to keep the headset connected to the computer.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:16 PM on May 4, 2015

It's also possible that your Polycom is Bluetooth enabled and others are using BT headsets that have the "dual connectivity" feature and so can be paired to two devices (phone and computer).
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:22 PM on May 4, 2015

Since the Jabra headset isn't connected to the Polycom phone I suspect that there is a setting in Power Dialer to use the attached headset rather than connecting the call to the Polycom Phone.
posted by zinon at 7:56 AM on May 6, 2015

Turns out it was pretty simple. The person who was training me to answer the phone by pushing the headset button on the Polycom phone was not familiar with my newer Jabra headset. What I was supposed to do is to answer on my computer when it rang through there.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:50 PM on May 6, 2015