Why the Campaign Caller ID overrides your phone's CallerID

You set the Outbound CallerID on a phone entry, made a test call, and the called party still saw a different number. This is one of the most common head-scratchers in VICIdial, and the reason is simple once you see it: when an agent is logged into a campaign, the campaign's Caller ID configuration controls what gets displayed, not the phone's field.

The caller ID, often written as CID (caller ID), is the number the receiving phone shows. VICIdial gives you more than one place to set it, and the order of precedence is what trips people up.

The campaign sits above the phone

A Campaign is the dialing context an agent joins to start taking or making calls. It carries its own Caller ID setting. The moment an agent logs into that campaign, the campaign value takes over for every outbound call they make. The phone's own Outbound CallerID is set aside while the agent is in the campaign.

This is by design. A call center usually wants one consistent number presented for a whole campaign, not a different number per agent desk. Tying the displayed number to the campaign keeps that consistent no matter which phone an agent sits at. It also means you can run two campaigns from the same room, each showing its own number, without touching a single phone record. When you move an agent between campaigns, the displayed number simply follows the campaign they join.

Which CallerID wins

The decision the dialer makes on each outbound call looks like this.

flowchart TD
  A[Agent places an outbound call] --> B{Logged into a campaign}
  B -- Yes --> C[Campaign Caller ID wins]
  B -- No --> D{Phone Outbound CallerID set}
  D -- Yes --> E[Phone CallerID is used]
  D -- No --> F[Trunk default is used]
  C --> G[Called party sees campaign number]
  E --> G
  F --> G

Notice the top branch. Because almost all agent work happens inside a campaign, the phone field rarely gets a chance to apply. That is why editing it feels like shouting into the wind: the campaign is answering first.

Where to actually change the displayed number

If you want a different number shown on a campaign's calls, change it in the campaign settings, not on the phone. Look for the campaign's Caller ID configuration in the campaign detail screen. That is the value the called party will see for every agent on that campaign. After you save it, place one test call from an agent who is logged into that campaign to confirm the new number shows up. Skip the phone record entirely for this; it is not the lever that controls campaign calls.

• Changing the phone field affects only direct, non-campaign calls such as plain Manual dialing (click to dial) before joining a campaign.
• Changing the campaign Caller ID affects the displayed number for the whole campaign.
• Your DID (direct inward dialing) inventory and what your carrier is allowed to present can still cap or rewrite the final number.

A quick sanity check

When a CallerID change does not show up, ask one question first: was the agent logged into a campaign when the test call went out? If yes, the campaign value is in charge, and the phone edit was never going to matter. The system itself runs on Asterisk, so the trunk and any custom Dialplan rules are the last layer that can change the number on its way out.

For the phone-side field itself, see how to set a phone's Outbound CallerID, which is the companion to this one. The full field reference lives in the VICIdial phones guide.

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