Telephone Reviews

I have had this phone for less than a year and have had nothing but problems with it since I've had it. First, it takes forever to answer. Then, it doesn't even charge right. So you put the phone on the charger overnight, thinking you'll be able to use it in the morning....but no such luck because it only charges when it feels like it. The base of my phone is completely useless. At this point I can't get my phone to charge at all. This was the worst money that I've ever spent. I might as well get a cup and some string to talk on!!!!

I know that since the break-up of Ma-Bell, nobody takes any time to design phones for comfort or useabilility, but it seems to me that the designers of this phone went out of their way to make it as uncomfortable as possible. I've had it out of the box for about an hour now, and its going right back where it came from. Pass this one by!

I purchased this telephone after a series of Uniden phones that broke after any abuse. We own another AT&T phone that has worked fine for about 10 years so I thought this might be more durable. Indeed it may be more durable but that is not the problem.

My main issue with this phone is that even at the highest volume level I still cannot hear the person at the other end of the phone. Some other problems I have encountered is the programable telephone directory which saves your numbers in alphabetical order. This is fine in theory but if you call someone frequently and their last name begins with a Z, you will spend a lot of time scrolling through the directory. In addition, there does not appear to be any way to call someone back from caller ID if they are calling long distance. The caller ID displays the area code and number and there is no way to add a 1 to the number to return the call.

I think that I would have been better off buying a series of Uniden phones that I could have at least used.

Purchased 4 brother phones about 2 years ago. wiring the phones was simple enought and they seem to work fine for about a year. Now two phones works sometimes. display and intercom trouble on one and speakerphone works sometimes and not other times on second unit.
I will not purchase a brother phone again

Nice idea--4-line system, intercom, caller id, cordless, speaker phones, etc. But in practice, these phones simply broke down. Brother no longer sells these.

We spent ~$900 on a system of these with both speaker phones and cordless variety. Cordless failed after an exchange, and cust service blamed our airwaves (radio station or something, perhaps). They swapped our cordless units for more speaker phones. But one-by-one, the speaker phones failed, with symptoms being cracking, popping sound on speaker and handset, or simply not being able to hear anything at all. We now have only 4 functioning speaker phones, and I fear they will die too. Problem is, I'd have to buy a whole new system to fully cover our house.

Be careful when buying a multi-line phone system for your small office or house--make sure it has been proved reliable, or you could get burned.

This is the worst phone system I've ever bought. We bought five phones for our house. Only one still works. The rest all failed in different ways.

I agree with most of the reviewers here. When I first bought this phone, it was the only one out there in a sort of reasonable price range that had two lines and was able to have separate answering messages for the two lines (important because I have a fax machine hooked up to the machine). I also bought another 2-line Panasonic phone at the same time (without answering machine) for another area in my house. Both phones are terrible. The 2nd phone I bought cuts out all the time and people can't hear me. It constantly loses a connection to the base and also won't answer when I pick up the phone to answer. Now for this model KXTC1891...less than two years later and my battery is dying like you wouldn't believe! And it's another $20 to replace the battery! When you're on speakerphone, people can't hear/understand you. If you accidently bump the phone and the ac adapter comes unplugged, you have to reset your time/day. It doesn't have any shortterm memory to keep this information (but it will keep any saved messages you have). So now I'm looking at a new phone since I'm having problems, the quality of Panasonic phones are TERRIBLE and I really need the expandable concept in my house since I only have 1 phonejack for my entire first floor of my house. The selection out there for expandable 2-line phones is somewhat limiting especially since I'm not going to touch a Panasonic again.

I bought this phone for use in another part of the house. I have two other 2 line Panasonic phones ( older versions of this one) and have never had a problem with them. This phone worked fine for one day. The handset died an I assume the battery may have been the problem. I exchanged it for another one.

I don't use the answering machine portion of this phone, but I wanted the dual Caller ID screens, so I bought this one.

I will let you know how this replacement phone works in a few weeks.

Overall I have had good luck with Panasonic unitl now.

We bought one of these in December 2002, and it has
worked perfectly for us. It was a little cumbersome to
set up (some settings are easier or only available
if you use the handset menu), but once we learned its
quirks, we have had no troubles. Just bought a second
one for vacation house.

To save time, I've suffered almost all the problems in the previous review of this product. First three months was ok. But after that the battery died. I've changed three batteries but still can not talk more than 3 minutes on this phone ( it always gives annoying beeps telling lowing battery ). So the only usable part for me is the answering machine. But $50 for an answering machine?

We've had this phone for over 3 years. We have had several problems with it that started within that first year. Several of the dialing buttons have stopped being responsive, making it almost impossible to dial a number without dialing from another phone and then switching. A lot of times, I have a really hard time hearing people on the phone no matter what I do with the volume. Finally, if we happened to leave the phone off the hook overnight, the next time I tried to use it it was low battery.

I've had no problems with the answering machine - it is simple and easy to use, but I would avoid this phone if possible. I know another couple that bought this phone, and they've been having these same problems even after exchanging it for another one.

I used this phone for a little over a year and was very satisfied with it. Just sold it because I'm moving up to the 2.4 GHz frequency. This phone is very simple in appearance and it is very easy to use! If you hold down the Play/Stop button for the answering machine it rattles off all of the instructions for using the phone, so the manual isn't even needed! The sound quality from the handset I have found to be very good. I think there are 5 different levels of volume. The answering machine is clear, but can be a little scratchy but this could be due to the caller's phone as well. Overall, this is a very good phone and I would recommend it to everyone.

This phone is very loud. The ringer is loud and the dialing is loud. There is no way to adjust the volume of the phone either. You can turn the ringer off, but aside from that you cannot make it less loud than it already is. Another problem I've noticed is that people have difficulty hearing me on the other end. I think this is due to the fact that this phone is completely straight, and therefore the mouthpiece of the phone is not near your mouth.

I just bought this phone yesterday from Future shop for $40.00. I let it charge for over 12 hours and there is still no dial tone no nothing. Take my advice and almost everyone elses. Don't buy it.

In my opinion this is a very poor quality phone. I returned the first one I purchased because the speaker in the phone sounded cracked. The second one sounds the same way. It was cheap, though. I only paid $19.99 at Walmart.

Ths phone is terrible. It's impossible to hear--either too loud with dreadful echoes or painfully soft. Not worth the bargain price for which I bought it.

Phone works fine, but signal dropouts begin when any more than 10 feet from the base. My old 47mhz cordless works better from the same location.

I purchased this same telephone for 29.99 at smartbargains.com. You want 55 dollars. Nobody should have to pay that much.

This is supposed to display the caller information, and store up to 100 calls in memory. The display of the current call works, but after getting several calls in memory the characters change to display complete gibberish when looking back at the history. If you have a use for the call history, don't buy it because it doesn't work.

What a disappointment! After 5 years using a Pacific Bell caller ID box (CIDCO Model DB99), I had no idea that a caller ID box would come with no back lighting. We have to use a flashlight to see the display on our wall! (A lamp washes out the display.) The display is adjustable but, out of 5 settings, 1 is so light you can hardly see it and 4 and 5 have filled in black boxes around the numbers making them mostly unreadable. Only setting 3 is acceptable.
I ordered this from Advanced American Telecom (although the operator said it was "Telephone"). This number was given to me after I called SBC to get a replacement for our current box (fading display).
It was $19.95 and no Shipping over the phone (the operator told me that shipping was usually $8.00 but was a promotion ending in April), but I found it was $14.95 and $6.95 S&H on their website, www.telephones.att.com. Also, you do not receive a packing slip, the label on the outside of the box is required for your warranty (labeled so) and I can't get it off -- I have peeled and peeled it but looks like I am going to have to cut it off and keep it with the cardboard still stuck to it.

Make sure your model says it has adjustable backlighting or something to that effect. Now we have to order another caller ID box and hope for the best.

Our cordless phone has caller ID but you have to pick up the phone to see it.

I like the features of this unit and would like it even better if it had all of features some other reviewers listed, like call sorting and adjustable LCD. Mine has neither of these features. But my real complaint is that when my DSL modem is plugged into the wall, my Caller Display 436 will not work. It works fine as long as the DSL is not plugged in. My phones with caller ID display work at all times. I like the fact that this unit came with a power supply rather than batteries. It would be nice to have a back up battery in case of power failute and a larger display would also be nice. Is anyone aware of other units which have no problem with the DSL line?

Less than a year ago we purchased a pair of the Casio MA240's, also at a deep discount price that could not be published. These phones are just plain Junk! Costly yes, but still Junk. So "Put the credit card down and step away from the computer" Problems are many and they start early in the phones life. Problems such as > Volume gets lower and lower as time goes by. The number pad buttons either stick, or dont make any tones at all. Batteries lose all memory in a short period of time, and on top of that , it can be a little complicated to figure out many of the extra features. The best advice I can give you at this time is good luck finding a phone that will last more than a year as we have bought phones that range in price from 19.99 to 300.00 ( for pair) and they all seem to decay and stop functioning within a years time. We purchased our phones new, not reconditioned, and we surely never expected them to go bad, this quick.

Now I know why the product was on sale, cheaper than the cost of a handset for the system. Range seemed OK although never really tested the full range of the unit. Speaker volume was decreased as previously noted. Battery life can be incredibly short. Truly annoying problem was that our other cordless phones seemed to malfunction periodically (never a problem previously), it would somehow misdial numbers constantly and we would have to revert to the other phones to complete the calls. Bought several of the systems and they are all going back. Should have checked out the reviews previously.

This Product when using the MH-200 will give you multiple phones with no extra wiring needed. This is the best thing for you who dont want to rewire your home.

Do not buy this phone at all. The only reason to have a phone is to pick up call, or to make calls. Many times this phone cannot find a "suitable" channel to use for calls, so the owner is left unable to either make calls or pick up calls. A waste of money and a stain on the otherwise good AT&T name.

I bought this phone because I wanted a voice-mail indicator, because it was attractive, and because so many other phones' ringers are shrill, piercing or just unpleasant, and this phone offered a choice of four different ringing sounds for all calls.

I was pleased with this phone's ringers.

Unfortunately, when answering a call, the phone omits the first three to five seconds of what I say while the handset scans around for the base unit! My callers hear dead silence while I stand there waiting for my handset to activate.

The voice quality is somewhat poorer than the Vtech 900-MHz analog phone that I owned previously. And in my tiny efficiency apartment, the AT&T phone's signal fades if I step behind a wall (closet or vestibule).

The voice mail indicator light is too dim to be seen in anything but a low-light setting.

Finally, the phone's menu options are a bit limited -- the volume control is not very flexible, the Caller ID memory buffer cannot be cleared.

Overall the phone is functional, but a big disappointment considering the AT&T brand name. The long delay in answering a call is intolerable -- after just a month or two, I'm back at Amazon looking for another phone.

Do yourself a favor & pick one of these up before they are discontinued, this is an excellent phone, easy to use in every way. The only reason I need a new one is because I dropped my last one too many times.

Worst phone I ever bought. Wish I had read the reviews. Constantly losing its security code so you can't dial out on it.

Throwing this phone against a concrete wall brought a level of satisfaction that normal use was never able to deliver. Stay away from this phone! Primary problem was with picking up a dial tone - it rarely did. It did have one benefit - it should be marketed as an exercise device. When a call comes in it will force you to run for the corded phone.

I purchased this phone 6 months ago . I discoverd there was no adapter included in the package. My discovery was made three months after purchase. I need an adapter, can you tell me where I may purchase one. Radiao shack has been no help .Thanks in advance.