Why are some transferred calls left waiting indefinitely?

Question

When one of my agents transferred a call to a group, the customer was on hold for several minutes and did not go to voicemail. Why did this happen?

Answer

Two factors cause this:

Maximum queue wait time is ignored when you transfer a call.

If you transfer a call to a group and any agent has the Away status instead of Offline, the caller does not go to voicemail until all agents decline the call. The Away status blocks voicemail until everyone declines.

Note: If you enable omnichannel routing and an agent misses the call, the system offers the call to agents in a round-robin pattern until the maximum queue wait time expires. Omnichannel routing is the default for all Zendesk Suite accounts created on or after December 5, 2024. For more information, see Using omnichannel routing to route calls.

For more information about call transfers, see Transferring calls.