Need capability for more numbers under an extension for call routing
My team just ran into a bottleneck that means Grasshopper can only be used by my business (up to 7 employees). After that there are severe limitations and we are forced to find another phone provider. Here's why... Background: For years, we have had problems with calls via Grasshopper not answering when we press "1". After numerous calls with tech support over numerous years, we have literally missed thousands of calls over the past 7 years due to this problem. After numerous calls to tech support over the years, I learned that with cell phones constantly changing, this problem can not be resolved or managed by Grasshopper. So to solve this we purchased standard VOIP phones for our employees to use in the office (set up through a different provider). With the VOIP desk phones, the "1" is always registered, so we can answer calls. Simple solution....but... Today, many businesses operate with workers both in the office some days and at home other days (or parts of days). So the employees need to use their cell phones when at home (unless they lug their VOIP phone home every day). Thus, each employee has two phone numbers. When setting up call routing for Department Extensions, you are limited to 15 numbers under each Department Extension for call routing. So for us, 7 employees take up 14 of the 15 slots. We can't grow with Grasshopper beyond 7 employees. 7 employees on a Department Extension is not much when you have people on vacation, out sick, etc. It's not as if we are actually routing a call through all the numbers. In fact at least half of the phone numbers are always turned OFF while employees use either their VOIP number or their cellular number. We also regularly change the sequence of the numbers in the Department Extension list to rotate who gets the most calls. So lots of functionality under the Department Extensions, but limited capability. Ideally there should be no limit on the number of phones tied to a Department Extension. That way we could set custom time windows for the phone number. Example: Monday use VOIP desk phone from 8am - 1pm with Cell phone set for 2pm-5pm when employee is working from home. Even, better would be to have 4 number slots per employee so we could set A Week and B Week rotations with different work schedules. For us a minimum of 40 numbers to a Department Extension would enable us to fully manage a complex work schedule for up to 10 employees. This should be a simple fix to increase the number of phone numbers allowed under a Department Extension. Note: Grasshopper tech support mentioned a work around to route to personal extensions after the Department Extension numbers run out. But, we would not be able to turn those on or off or alter the sequence of the call routing without calling Grasshopper every day. Not a viable or workable option. I sincerely hope this type of change can be updated to the system by the end of 2025 so we can stay a Grasshopper client. Otherwise, we get forced out of using Grasshopper because we are growing past 7 employees.
