Multiple contacts same number, different extension

[BECAV0602]

have several work contacts that have the same office number but different extensions. (It goes through a switchboard)

All contacts are listed individually (not merged / joined).

If Mike calls me, caller id shows Bob
If Matt calls me, caller id shows Bob
If Wendy calls me, caller id shows Bob
And of course if Bob calls me, caller id shows Bob

I have tried adding my company in as a contact with the main line in hopes that it would just show my company name calling. Is there a way to make this happen? I don't need to know who is calling necessarily but I don't want it to continue to show that my CEO is calling me. I just switched from iphone to the s5 and this may be a deal breaker for me. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[sjaduae]

have several work contacts that have the same office number but different extensions. (It goes through a switchboard)

All contacts are listed individually (not merged / joined).

If Mike calls me, caller id shows Bob
If Matt calls me, caller id shows Bob
If Wendy calls me, caller id shows Bob
And of course if Bob calls me, caller id shows Bob

I have tried adding my company in as a contact with the main line in hopes that it would just show my company name calling. Is there a way to make this happen? I don't need to know who is calling necessarily but I don't want it to continue to show that my CEO is calling me. I just switched from iphone to the s5 and this may be a deal breaker for me. Thanks in advance for any help.

I'm assuming if finds Bob as he's the 1st alphabetically, if so Start your dummy company contact with an A and see if that works or put your company as a favorite and see if it finds it there first or or just add all your company contacts under one contact you can have many numbers there

Why do you think your old IPhone managed to do this , I'm guessing it was more luck than anything else

 

[BECAV0602]

I'm assuming if finds Bob as he's the 1st alphabetically, if so Start your dummy company contact with an A and see if that works or put your company as a favorite and see if it finds it there first or or just add all your company contacts under one contact you can have many numbers there

Why do you think your old IPhone managed to do this , I'm guessing it was more luck than anything else

I tried to put an A in front of the company name in hopes it would pull it instead but it didn't. Thats why I find it so strange.

 

[JudH]

have several work contacts that have the same office number but different extensions. (It goes through a switchboard)
...
If Mike calls me, caller id shows Bob
If Matt calls me, caller id shows Bob
If Wendy calls me, caller id shows Bob
And of course if Bob calls me, caller id shows Bob

SOP I'm afraid. Unless those are DID lines (direct inward dialing-still routed thru the switchboard but they look like and act like private lines), and it sounds like they aren't, then the main switchboard number is going to be what's inserted into the callerid record. So it wouldn't be any different if they were calling a landline number instead of a cell phone--the recipient's callerid would always show the main number regardless of the extension. The extension number isn't even in the callerid record.

(FYI even the phone company's billing record doesn't normally contain the extension--large companies have to collect and process CDR records produced by the switch itself in order to bill internal non-DID calls.)

So your cell phone has no way if knowing which extension is calling and is just reporting the first match it finds.

 

[JudH]

I tried to put an A in front of the company name in hopes it would pull it instead but it didn't. Thats why I find it so strange.

It may not be using organization company if you're displaying by name. Try adding a new contact with "AA Company Name" in the last name (or whichever name field you use if you don't use last name--I put everything in one field so *I* can control formats better). And hope it's not using creation order!

Update. Rats. Testing shows it IS by creation order, I.e. the first contact assigned that number is what's matched to callerid. Adding an "A something" won't help since the new record is physically last. You could delete all contacts and re-add them starting with the company one. Or export/import. But here's an easier way. Determine which contact is the first, I.e. the one that gets displayed. In your case BOB. Edit *that* contact removing Bob and substituting company name. Save it. As long as you don't touch the number it's still the first physical record with that number. Now create a new contact with Bob's info. Tested. Works--the original is matched but now displays the new "company" name.

 

[sjaduae]

I tried to put an A in front of the company name in hopes it would pull it instead but it didn't. Thats why I find it so strange.

Then it must be by creation ie the 1st contact (ie Bob) that used the number

I had this problem before on a different phone and even after deleting the same contacts and re creating it still associated the wrong/old name somehow, very frustrating

Hopefully the S5 wont but before deleting and re creating try changing Bob to company and create a new one for Bob

 

[MrPaulJMoore]

While in almost all levels I love the S5 - but I fond this issue perplexing. How can this be this bad? ( My PalmV - what like 11 years ago did this with ease!)

The whole issue is these extensions - I work remote and our HQ everyone has an extension, then many of my clients have extensions:

1) It seems like no matter how many commas ( pause) the S5 will only wait about 2 seconds to send not enough time for the system to answer and allow the ... and there is no way to bulk edit. So you always have to punch in the extension manually.
2) The phone lists the contact under the first entry - as posted above, I do not care so much about knowing who is calling, but if I want to call someone back (or reconnect on a dropped call) - you have to go back to contacts and look the person up again.

Overall the contact manager in android / gmail is horrendous....in this day in age as I said - How can it be this bad?

 

[anon(19759)]

It all depends on the caller's phone system. Has nothing to do with the phone.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[zeerakata]

Hey, I had the same issue. I think it is due to the different regions a phone comes in. So the solution is that you can use the Google Messenger app for messaging if its not already your stock app (in that case, try another app from play store) and use another dialer instead of the stock. I used ExDialer, which is quite good. There is no solution to the stock apps. I use HTC U11 and the issue was present in the UAE region. You can try buying from another region or change your apps, it just works fine.