Customer Reviews

Panasonic KXTG2000B 2.4 GHz DSS 2-Line Cordless Phone with Caller ID and Voicemail

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I purchased this phone system several months ago. My overall experience has been positive, but with two qualifications. On the plus side, I have had an excellent experience with signal strength and sound quality. Further, it is very convenient being able to locate handsets in areas of the house which are not near phone jacks. On the negative side, the batteries are not good. In the handset which gets the heaviest use (significant use 2-3 days/week, very limited use the rest of the week), after 4 or 5 hours of talking time I have to recharge (unlike the advertised 8 hours). After about three months, the battery in that particular handset gave up the ghost. Having tried Staples, Walmart and Radio Shack, I will add that it is not easy finding a replacement battery in a local store. Second, because I use the system as a home office phone, I like to have the phone ring throughout the house rather than having callers select a particular handset. As a result, if I am on the line and a second call comes in on the same line, it will not ring over to the Voicemail system. This is a very unfortunate flaw in the design which limits the system's usefulness. On the whole, it is good, not great, and it's a lot of money to pay for something that's only good.

I purchased a KXTG2000B system as an alternative to wiring in phone jacks all over my house. The system works excellently, the one problem I have with it is that there is no way to mute the speakerphone, which makes long conference calls where you are trying to talk to someone in the room and not interfere with the call somewhat problematic. Reception is excellent throughout my house even though I have the phone located in a less than optimal location and have an iffy phone connection to boot. The system is smart enough to determine if a line is in use and route you around it, this is nice as I can dial in to work on line 1, go downstairs and pick up the phone to dial and it automatically dials out on the second line. Battery life is good on the handsets although the batteries will discharge if the phone is left out of the handset for a day or two. If you work from home and need a SOHO solution for multiple lines this is the phone to buy.

I recently installed this system replacing the Seimens system. I'm 100% impressed with the features included, especially the auto attendant feature. You're able to allow the standard message that is built in or record various messages-each being different for the two phone lines-yourself giving the caller options to select what extension to use, e.g. 0#=Operator, 1#-user1, etc. and if that user isn't available being able to give the caller the options of leaving voice mail or switch to another extension. In addition to being able to instantly switch between the auto-attendant and standard voice recordings for incoming call is great and on each of the two phone lines as they operate independantly. Each portable phone has their own address and voice mail feature plus being able to inter-com/conference between units while on the phone. Nice large display for caller ID, back lite all the time plus icons in the display indicating what extension is in use and what line is being used. Retrival of voice mail is excellant and the pleasant voice walks you through the various commands including forwarding a message to another extension. I have a 4 extension office and this unit is my answer versus rewiring my SOHO for additonal phones. Adding additional units are a snap and are controlled from the main pbx unit. The handheld units are comfortable and have exceptional range to the base. Additional features include a jack for headsets on both the base and portable units. In addition to being able to see who has called, you can click the speaker phone button or pick up the receiver and that number can be dialed immediately. I also like the ability to change the tones/volume levels of each of the phones so you can tell which extension is being called.

The only minor draw back I have and I've passed this onto Panasonic is to include "music on hold", of course you can buy external units, but it would've been the "Crown Jewel" for this great unit if it were standard.

I was just like you looking for a dream phone system then one day out of the blue came this phone system. It was the answer to all my prayers. Every thing was working great for about 4 months (except for the melted battery incident)when it hit me all at once.

While the phone system itself works great the major flaw are the:

BATTERIES.

I've had my system for about 7 months. After a few months one handset quit working and when I opened the battery cover I found that the battery had melted into the case. If that wasn't enough about a month ago I picked up the phone and after about 15 minutes of using the phone I heard a beep and the display read (recharge). I called Panasonic's terrible customer service and they sent me out a new battery (only after I whinned and pouted). Then a few weeks ago my second handset did the same thing and just yesterday my third handset did the same thing.

Made another call to Panasonic customer service and this time they only want to send me out one battery. The jury's still out on wether I get another battery (I'm waiting for a call back from them). I asked the customer service represenitive if they've had problems with these phone and she wouldn't answer my question even after I pressed her more. I told her that her silence on this question spoke for itself.

It a shame that after I spent $600.00 plus dollars on their products that they won't send me a stinking lousy battery. I've always held Panasonic in great regards, but now my mind has changed about this company.

WHAT'S GOING ON PANASONIC

WHERE'S THE 100 PERCENT CUSTOMER SATISFACTION THAT YOU TELL ME ABOUT!!!!

I asked customer service if leaving phones in the charger all the time is causing the problem and he said, no! These phones have Nickle Metal Hydride batteries and they do not have a memory and that leaving them in the charger is perfectly fine. I also asked if I have the same problems in another 5 months are you going to send me out more batteries...are you going to keep suppling me batteries as they go bad. Their answer....."I can't answer that question at this time".

What ever the problem is, it's a given that Panasonic is not going to freely admit that they have a problem.

I'm sure that three phones and three of the same problems is not an isolated incident.

Bottom line........if you don't want to go through what I'm going through don't buy these phones till Panasonic admits and fixes the problems.

I bought one of these, and then found out there are several 'gotchas' for home use. * You get multiple mailboxes, but can only access 1 from each handset * After the answering machine picks up, there's no way to answer the phone, other than using the corded phone (at the console). * Battery life seemed poor

Something to consider: I bought this system for (1) home and (2) home-office lines and found much of the vaunted Auto Attendant (AA) features and multiple mailboxes to be unusable in this configuration. The basic issue is the number of mailboxes that one can deploy is limited by the number of handsets used with the system. With one handset, which is all I need, you get one AA mailbox. This eliminates virtually all of the flexibility of the AA system and its ballyhooed 8 mailboxes. Despite this significant limitation, I ended up keeping the unit and like it very much. The general voice mail alternative to AA is useful because it can be configured to play different outgoing messages to each line and having all messages in the same mail box works for me, although it might not in a more populous household. Also, the overall functionality, 2.4 GHz power and nice design make for a excellent, if expensive, integrated home and home-office solution. Update: After two weeks of very light use, the handset battery problems discussed in other customer reviews are beginning to creep up.

My wife and I tried multiple 2.4ghz multiple handset systems to no avail. Bad receptions, background noise, flimsy build and other problems led to returns. It was disappointing given some fo the reviews I had read of the systems.

We decided to spend the money (much more) and go for this setup because a friend we trust raved about it and the reviews highlighted the comments our friend made. We were very happy to see that this unit delivered in every way.

The best reception I have ever had on a cordless, combined with comfortable styling of the handsets, easy setup and programming made us extremely happy purchasers.

This is not a solution for everyone. If you have a fairly large house, a house in an urban area where lot setbacks are small, or a small business, this is a unit you should consider. We had the problem of multiple cordless phones causing problems with each other and neighbors units. This is a much better solution as it relies solely on a single base unit eliminating interference between bases.

We are using the unit with 4 handsets (3 additional) and have nothing but praise for the system. We are even about to switch over to using it for voicemail with it's very large (over 90 minute) capacity and dumping the service from our phone company which is fairly expensive.

Another nice thing is you can use the system to call someone in another part of the house though you need to know the handset number on the system. It works much better than any home intercom system I have used.

All in all, this is an expensive unit (though the price has dropped recently) that is well worth the money. It is extremely well built. It also handles two lines. There is a 4 line version, but that would be more suited to a small business.

I have a house full of people and two phone lines. 6 Adults and 3 children. We have set up this excellent phone system so that every person has their own wireless handset with their own maillbox and forwarding, caller ID etc. But the true BEAUTY off this system is that the basestation handles and routes the calls to the individual handset, only ringing THAT handset, and not disturbing anyone else. Because we take advantage of individual ring sounds, no one is confused, when a phone we know immediately who it is for.

I only give it 3 stars because, although it has worked very well for a little over a year and we havn't had the battery problens with the handsets that others have had, the basestation recently went down. That in of itself would not be such a big deal, heavily used electronics sometimes go down. No, it is the customer service that is more than lacking; a big surprise because I have always in the past had great service from Panasonic. The customer service phone line is continuously busy and I have sent two emails, over a week apart each, and only had the automated response. This is unacceptable for a business product where businesses rely so much on thier phone systems! My tenants are, quite rightly, very angry that we have had, over a week, no phone service AND no progress towards getting it fixed!

While I don't know of a better phone, it still is not perfect.

Main problems:

1. Difficult to know which handset to transfer calls to - important since you can not join an existing conversation.

2. No quick dial numbers on base.

3. No Router for inbound fax calls. (seimens feature).

4. Had to warranty two handsets. Customer Service was difficult to reach and get replacements. One replacemnet was clearly defective. (don't buy refurbished IMHO)

5. No dial by name on voice mail menu

I wish there was a great solution.

Recently replaced an ailing Siemens 2400 series system with this. The cotrasts are pretty extreme. The Siemens was trouble from day one and after numerous base and handset replacements it was out of warranty and Siemens did not stand by their product. All they said was they "fixed these issues with the 8800 series" and suggested I purchase it.
Instead I was ebaying and found this. It was factory remanufactured and I cannot tell it from new. And with 4 handsets it was quite inexpensive.

The bottom line is this system works. The handsets are clear and the ringers are loud enough to hear when I'm in the garage. Unlike the Siemens they are not affected as badly by a microwave, they don't lose contact with the base station, and the system is overall very reliable.
Some things I don't like:
No spare battery in the handset base.
Cannot share directories
Voice mail boxes are set to a handset
Not as configurable as the siemens products (however at least I can talk on these).

Hard to join a conversation
No spekaerphone in handset
Things I like
Relatively easy to set up (though I haven't attempted the voicemail or auto attendant system)
Solidly built.
Lit keypad
Lots of control from the base unit
8 handset capability.
If I had to buy this system new though in this configuration it would have cost over eight hundred dollars and it would not be worth the money. As it is it was on the edge of not being worth the money but so far I'm happy with it.