Escalation never reaches the second level

That is a process issue rather than a configuration one, and it is a common one. Some suggestions that have worked for other teams: 1. Agree that acknowledging means I am handling this right now, not I have seen this. Acknowledging is what stops the escalation, so treating it as a read receipt defeats the whole chain. 2. Use the investigating status for the middle ground. Once someone actually starts working, moving the incident to investigating records that on the timeline and makes handover clearer. 3. Verify your delays are what you think they are. Each level carries its own delay measured from when the incident opened, so five and ten mean five and ten minutes after opening, not five minutes after the previous level. 4. Add a final level that targets someone other than the on-call person, typically the team lead, with a voice call. We recommend at least three levels with a human backstop at the end so nothing can go unnoticed. After you change the habit, verify with a deliberate test: fire a disposable alert trigger, do not acknowledge, and watch the levels fire on the timeline.