How to reassign a user-only callback to another agent

A USERONLY callback is a Scheduled callback reserved for one agent — only the person who set it can call it back. That is great until that person goes on leave, changes teams, or leaves the company. Then their callbacks are stuck with nobody able to reach them. The fix is to reassign the callback to another agent, and that is a manager job done from admin.php.

Reassigning means changing the user ID stored on the callback record. The catch: this only works on USERONLY callbacks. An ANYONE callback is not owned by anyone in particular, so there is no user ID to change. You also need lead-modify permission on your own VICIdial user account.

Finding the callback to reassign

The quickest way to find a departing agent's callbacks is the by-user view. Open that agent's user modification screen and look for the CallBack Holds link at the bottom. That gives you every callback they set, so you can see exactly what needs to move.

sequenceDiagram
  participant M as Manager
  participant A as Admin Screen
  participant DB as Lead Record
  M->>A: Open agent user screen
  A->>M: Show CallBack Holds link
  M->>A: Click link, pick callback
  A->>M: Open lead modification page
  M->>A: Set new owning user ID
  A->>DB: Save reassigned callback

The reassignment steps

• 1. In admin.php, open the user modification screen for the agent who currently owns the callbacks.
• 2. Scroll down and click "Click here to see all CallBack Holds for this user."
• 3. In the listing, confirm the callback type column reads USERONLY for the row you want. Click that lead ID.
• 4. On the lead modification page, change the user ID associated with the callback to the new agent's user ID. Save the lead.
• 5. Repeat for any other callbacks owned by the old agent.

When reassigning is the wrong move

Sometimes you do not have a specific agent to hand the callback to — you just want it called by whoever is free. In that case do not reassign the user ID. Convert the callback to ANYONE instead, which drops it into the campaign Hopper for the next available Agent when it goes live. That route is covered separately. Before you decide, the difference between the two types is laid out in anyone vs useronly callbacks, and the scheduled callbacks overview explains how each kind reaches an agent.

Whichever you choose, the new owner will see the callback on their own Scheduled Callbacks link on the agent screen once it triggers — there is nothing the agent has to do to claim it.

It helps to do this before the old agent's account is deleted rather than after. While their user account still exists you can open it, list their callbacks in one place, and work through them row by row. Once the account is gone you have to hunt for the callbacks by campaign or by list instead, which is slower and easier to miss. So if you know an agent is leaving, clear their callback queue as part of the off-boarding checklist, not weeks later when a customer asks why nobody called them back.

Keep callbacks from going orphaned

Reassigning a handful of callbacks by hand is fine; doing it for a whole departed team is tedious. A managed VICIdial setup gives you the full admin interface to do it cleanly, provisioned in under 40 seconds with no install to babysit. Check VICIfast pricing to spin one up.