Send incoming call to voicemail

[zavoodi]

I'm starting to worry that it's not possible to direct an incoming call to voicemail. When I have an incoming call, I'm presented with a red button and a green button. Clicking the red button immediately causes a busy signal to the incoming caller. Green obviously answers. 

One question: why in the world would anyone want to send a busy signal to an inbound caller? Wouldn't it make more sense to send them immediately to voicemail?

[zavoodi]

I'm going to answer the question myself, and state up front that I'm appalled that Skype (a.k.a. Microsoft) has decided to marginalize Mac users.

Transcript from support follows:

Roan Cheryl M. says,

Hello! Welcome to Skype Live Support! My name is Roan Cheryl. How may I help you?

11:58:15 zavoodi says,

Hi Roan. I just signed up for premium as a Mac user, and got an online number.

11:58:44 zavoodi says,

Inbound calls to that number come in fine. But when they do, I'm presented with only two options. To answer (green button) or not (red button).

11:59:06 zavoodi says,

Pushing the red button sends a busy signal to the incoming caller. It should send to voicemail, no?

12:01:00 Roan Cheryl M. says,

Are you asking if declined calls will be sent to voicemail?

12:02:19 zavoodi says,

Yes

12:04:01 Roan Cheryl M. says,

I see. Let me pull up your account to check.

12:04:11 Roan Cheryl M. says,

May I please have your name and Skype Name?

12:04:18 zavoodi says,

Yes. [redacted], account is [redacted].

12:04:51 Roan Cheryl M. says,

Thank you, Chris.

12:05:11 Roan Cheryl M. says,

Kindly give me a moment to review your account.

12:05:15 zavoodi says,

ok. thanks

12:09:16 Roan Cheryl M. says,

I am still reviewing your account. One moment please.

12:10:04 zavoodi says,

ok

12:13:11 Roan Cheryl M. says,

Thank you for your patience.

12:13:51 Roan Cheryl M. says,

Please be informed that the option to have declined calls transferred to voicemail is not available for Skype for Mac.

12:14:32 zavoodi says,

What? That's nuts. Why would anyone want to send a busy signal to a caller. That's like going back in time to the days before voicemail!

12:14:55 zavoodi says,

When will Mac users be brought into the modern era?

12:17:26 Roan Cheryl M. says,

We are continually making improvements to Skype. However, I will be unable to provide an specific time frame on when this feature will be available to Mac users.

zavoodi says,

What's the process for getting my money back then? Seems pointless to offer customers a 1980's experience.

[dmcheng]

Yes it's pretty ridiculous that they removed this feature that was available in older versions.  Have you tried the 5.4 beta version yet?  I don't know if that will offer us any relief.

[Pinapple]

I'm on the 5.4 beta and it still forces the call to terminate instead of providing the caller with the option to leave a voicemail. When I do let it ring through, the voicemails never come in either. Pretty sad stuff.

[dmcheng]

I just installed 5.5 and now when you decline a call, it throws a busy signal at the caller.  Useless!

[dmcheng]

Just installed Ver 5.6.0.143, still throws a busy signal when declined.

[Foyan]

Hi,

As soon as declined, a call is no more "unanswered" I'm afraid.

Hth

[offdutyninja]

Not only do I have THIS issue but if I do not have skype running on my mac it will go to what sounds like the owners option menu vs my prerecorded voicemail. Tried opening it on a device to see if that allowed me to utilize this critical feature only to discover it does not. Can anyone help me discover why this is happening to me? I can't see that anyone else has had this same issue so I am hoping it is user error.

[LarryD]

I agree that this behavior is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! If this feature is available on Windows, then this just amounts to laziness or indifference on the Mac side of things (and this is coming from a Mac / Windows cross-platform developer).

[Sigi]

WTF! I have been using skype for a while on my PC and I'm used to hitting the red button when I am on another call. I install it on OSX and busy signal!!! WTF happened to quality control? I understand not all features would carry from windows to osx, but a basic route to voice mail.  WOW that is sad!