Do customers call your Rinkel number and suddenly reach your personal voicemail? Annoying, we know, but the good news is it's usually a quick fix.
Why does this happen?
When someone calls your Rinkel number, we forward the call in the background to the mobile (or mobiles) set up in your call forwarding. From that point on, it's down to your mobile provider, and there's nothing more we can do about it. If your provider sends the call to your personal voicemail (because you've got no signal, your phone's on "do not disturb", or you reject the call, for example), your personal voicemail catches the call before our business voicemail gets a look in. To our system, that looks like an answered call, so the other numbers in your call forwarding stop ringing.
Our top tip: switch off your mobile voicemail
This sorts the problem in one go. How you turn off your mobile voicemail depends on your provider, so give them a call or drop them an email and they'll usually have it done within a few minutes.
Rather keep your personal voicemail? Then run through the checklist below.
Checklist if you want to keep your mobile voicemail on
Make sure you're reachable. No signal, aeroplane mode on or "do not disturb" on → your provider sends the call straight to your personal voicemail. There's nothing we can do about that.
Don't reject Rinkel calls. If you actively decline an incoming call, your provider forwards it to your personal voicemail right away. Let it ring, or turn the volume down if you'd rather not pick up.
Turn on Call waiting. On a call when a second one comes in? Without Call waiting, your phone rejects it automatically, and your personal voicemail catches it.
iPhone: Settings → Phone → turn on Call Waiting.
Android: Phone app → menu (three dots) → Settings → Supplementary services → turn on Call waiting.
Shorten the ring time as a last resort. Your mobile voicemail usually picks up after around 23 seconds. That's why the time in Rinkel is set to 20 seconds by default. If you'd like to shorten it, get in touch with Support.
One more thing to watch with forwarding to several mobiles
Got several mobile numbers in your call forwarding, and one of them is unreachable or has voicemail switched on? That voicemail can "swallow" the call, and since our system sees it as an answered call, the other numbers stop ringing. Take any temporarily unreachable colleagues out of the forwarding, or ask them to set their status to "unavailable".
Tried everything and your customers still hear your personal voicemail? Let us know via chat or email, or give us a call.