Big Disappointment
After having a good perfoming phone system that finally died, this one was a big let-down. As mentioned by others, the sound quality was poor, and the caller ID inconvenient to access. Worst off, however, was the reliability. This phone had the nasty habit of losing connection with the base just as people were calling in. Missed many calls because of this. Needless to say, I'm returning it. Don't waste your money on this phone. You'll regret it.
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High Hopes Dashed
Being that this is a beautifully designed phone, with an excellent layout of buttons, user-friendly display and menus, and sleek design, I had high hopes for this system. I WANTED this system to work for my family, but...
No. I don't usually take the time to write reviews, but when something doesn't work well, I feel compelled to warn others. To Philip's credit, their customer service answered calls quickly, tried to help, but seemed confounded themselves--blaming it on European manufacturing and design. Here are my issues:
/// If you try and set up "networking" (voicemail), be warned. First off, *99 (Comcast's voicemail access from home) doesn't seem to work with these phones. Nobody could get that code to work. The phone would dial all other codes (*70), but not *99. Philip's was puzzled. Neither handset would work. Finally, on my own, I figured out that *990 will allow it to dial.
/// If you have voicemail with this phone, it is not easy, almost impossible, to ignore it when it displays on the phone. If you click TALK, it dials voicemail. If you click OK, it dials voicemail. Good luck if you suddenly needed to dial 911. You can hold, briefly, on EXIT/END and it will ignore, but you risk shutting the phone off too. Anyone new to your home, or visiting, wouldn't know how to call out if voicemail was waiting. If you have younger kids or grandparents who visit, be warned--they may not be able to make calls.
/// Flashing indicators are handset independent. Therefore, expect lots of flashing lights. Flashing for voicemail, answering machine, or a missed call. It's always flashing. You must scroll through the caller ID list to clear the flashing light (ON ALL PHONES). As if that's not bad enough, you have to press about three buttons to get to the menu and then scroll along almost guessing at which are new (unless you wait long enough for it to flash NEW). Names are often missing on the CID, unless they're entered into the address book. The flashing LEDs blink even after you listen to the voicemail or message! You MUST go into the CID list and clear/acknowledge the calls. And, quite honestly, I couldn't care less about people who hung up and didn't care to leave a message. They should allow you to disable notification for those calls.
/// Sound quality was great, but we had "blackout" periods where nobody could hear us for about 3 seconds. Happened with both handsets.
/// There is one tolerable, and I use that word lightly, ring tone. You've got a rather high-pitched twittering ring, bells, or a bunch of music. Nothing pleasant to the ears.
Overall, it's as though someone didn't actually work with these phones for a few days before putting them out there for the public. Even the customer service said that they had the phones available to look at and use, but not connected to a line--so they couldn't actually test my problems with *99 or the need to run through CID lists to clear flashing indicators. Again, I wanted this phone to work and be loved by my whole family, but when we risked people not being able to make emergency phone calls easily from our phone, when you can't get out of calling voicemail, I drew the line. Too many inconveniences and, honestly, dangers.
With just a few simple tweaks, this could have been one heck of a phone!
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