One point of the city’s new phone system is to streamline calls so that instead of dialing 738-2000 and then an extension to reach a department, you can dial the department directly.

But that hasn’t always happened since the city transitioned to the new system late last week. Some calls aren’t reaching the departments for which they were intended. Courtney Marciano, press secretary to the mayor, knows firsthand. On Tuesday, she retrieved four voicemails left on her phone from callers believing they had reached other departments. Marciano didn’t leave the callers dangling. She returned the calls and connected people to the information they were looking for, including one call about veterans’ affairs, which the city doesn’t even handle.

Callers were frustrated, especially when calling one department and finding themselves connected to another. Some called the Beacon to complain.

Carlos Zambrano, director of management information services for the city, had an explanation Wednesday. He said incoming calls were being routed to the tax collector – a human error – that has been corrected.

But there may be more to straightening out the confusion than simply switching a switch or a change in programming.

Zambrano noted that frequent callers might be using the former extension numbers, assuming they will get through when, in fact, there is a set of new department numbers.

So, why change the phone system if it seemed to be working fine and people were accustomed to it?

Zambrano said the system was close to 30 years old and the city would have had difficulty obtaining a service contract. With the old system, he said, the city was buying parts off eBay since they were no longer being manufactured. He estimated a total of 300 city phones have been replaced under the contract signed with Cox Communications. He said the city has about 300 incoming lines.

In an effort to reduce confusion and provide people with department contacts, the city published a directory of numbers in today’s Beacon. The directory is also available at the city’s website.

Zambrano thinks there might be “a few more bumps” before the system smoothes out. He said city employees need a little training to effectively transfer calls.

“People have to get used to doing it a different way,” he said.

For those who don’t frequently call the city, Zambrano recommended they call the main number (738-2000) and follow the prompts for the department they’re seeking to reach. The prompts have been prioritized in the sequence of the most commonly called departments at this time of year starting with the tax collector.