Customer Reviews

Panasonic KXTG4000B 2.4 GHz DSS 4-Line Cordless Phone with Caller ID and Voicemail

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I purchased this phone for my home office. I liked the ability to have access to all the lines (including my fax line) on one system. This system has excellent functionality based upon the attendant and call routing. It also has better range in our 4,500 sf house than the Siemens 2420 system, which only is only a two line phone (more later). This system has large programmable memory locations, intuitive interfaces on the extensions as well as the base station.

HOWEVER, the primary purpose for acquiring this phone was to use the base station as my primary office phone with the capability to roam throughout our three story house. As a base station, this system is severely lacking. Although the speaker phone is great, it has NO MUTE! If you participate in conference calls, you need a headset with a mute switch to have an offline discussion or even sneeze. Also, using two friends as guinea pigs, the sound quality was pitiful on two different units of this same model thinking it was a fluke. According to my unscientific testing, the sound quality of the cordless handsets was poor as well. Finally, the handsets are huge. While the antenna makes the range a little better, it is a large unit that makes me feel like I have a Motorola Brick phone next to my head. Ergonomics are not Panasonic's strong suit, but the lit keypad is nice for using in the dark (although I prefer doing other things than dialing someone while in the dark).

I tried these units in direct comparison to the Siemens 2420. I've never been a VTech fan and didn't even consider them. The Brother was too cumbersome so I excluded it too. So, based upon my personal, and time consuming, experiences, I chose the Siemens because it had better sound and, of all things, a mute button for the base. The range of the Siemens compared to the Panasonic may not be great and I had to replace the NiMH with Li batteries, but taken as a whole I liked the Siemens better.

If Panasonic had put a mute button on the base of this system, I would have kept it in spite of the sound differences. Funny how one litte feature made my decision.

Battery life rated at 8 hours talk time on Panasonic web site but believe me, it's closer to 2 hours. We've had to switch handsets in mid conversation more times than we should. Also, when talking on the phone, incoming calls are not put into voice mail automatically, they are ignored. Such an obvious feature overlooked (if it is possible, we can't find it explained anywhere in the manual). Also, when listening to messages, you can not save the message on the base unit, you have to transfer it to a handset/mailbox or lose it. Best feature is that you only need one phone jack for 8 handsets, you can put the handsets anywhere you want (near an electrical outlet). Handsets not very comfortable for long conversations. Overall, we wished we'd waited for shortcomings to be worked out. Lots of reasons to buy, these are some reasons to wait or look elsewhere.

I purchased the Panasonic KX-TG4000B as a replacement for my old Siemens Gigaset 2420. I'm really disappointed with the Panasonic KX-TG4000B, and I'm considering trashing it and returning to my old Siemens Gigaset 2420.

The Panasonic KX-TG4000B has some critical flaws:
(1.) the sound quality is not great - just as BAD as the Siemens;
(2.) there is NO mute - no mute on the speakerphone - and no mute on the cordless handsets;
(3.) only one handset per line (I'll explain details later); and
(4.) cordless handsets cannot be assigned "names" (like "kitchen" or "master bathroom") -- the handsets only have pre-assigned numbers.

The problem with the "one handset per line" is basically that you CANNOT join a conversation ... you get "line busy". For example, if the base unit has a call going on line #1, and you try to join that call from one of the cordless handsets, then you get a "line busy" error message and a busy signal. So, if someone else in the house in on the phone with Gramma, and asks you to "pick-up the phone", ... basically, ... YOU CAN'T. You try to join Line #1, and you get a busy signal. The only way to get another cordless handset to join the call is for the current caller to "conference" the an additional handset onto the call. And, that's difficult because you cannot assign a "name" to the handsets (like "kitchen" or "master bathroom") -- the handsets only have NUMBERS!

If preventing you from joining a call in progress is some kind of "security" feature (e.g., might be appropriate for an office setting), then they ought to have some kind of configuration option that will let you turn it OFF (especially in a home setting).

A minor annoying aesthetic is the base station number keypad that you use to dial the phone -- the number buttons are BIG and GOOFY looking, not professional, not backlit. The cordless handsets have nice transparent number buttons with a backlight. Panasonic should have used the same number keypad on the base unit.

The inability to join a conversation (because you get a busy signal when trying to join a line with a call in progress), combined with the lack of a MUTE capability (neither on the base unit nor the cordless handsets), the inability to assign names to handsets, and the poor sound quality make this a disappointing phone with a very large price tag.

So, my question for other shoppers is: If the Siemens Gigaset and Panasonic KX-TG4000B both have problems / drawbacks / feature flaws, ... then, ... what's the answer --> What is the best cordless, multi-line, multi-handset telephone system? Which frequency gives better voice sound quality: 900MHz or 2.4GHz? Or, are they the same? Does FHSS (Frequency-Hopping Digital Spread Spectrum) provide better voice sound quality? What's the best?

4 lines and 2.4 GHz are a great combination. And Panasonic implements this combo. well with their KXTG4000B. Connections are usually very clear. Both the base and the handsets seem durable and stylish.

Despite the limitations and problem listed below, I heartily recommend this item. It does well what it's supposed to do, and I consider the lists below to be fairly complete.

Limitations:
(1) If a colleague is on the phone, you can't join in on the conversation by just picking up that line. Rather, your colleague has to conference you in after hitting a series of buttons. This is by design for security purposes, but a limitation in my mind.

(2) Setting up voicemail is quite complicated ... probably because there are so many combinations of options.

(3) While on a call, you can't see Caller ID on the phone you are using.

(4) Call lists are fairly easy to set up and great to access. Unfortunately, you can't share set-up lists between handsets or with the base unit.

Problems:
(1) One handset sometimes has worse connections than the others. And, it sometimes isn't recognized by the base unit at all.

This Panasonic system is GREAT! The features are abundant and very useful. I'm not having the same problems as other people, and the "problems" they describe seem to happen because they have not thoroughly read the manual. Let this be a warning that the phone is not necessarily the ideal solution for a home or very small office. This phone is somewhat complicated because of all the ways to configure it, but if you're willing to learn the mailbox system, line selection, and all the little extras that this phone touts, it will be a very useful tool. We happen to use it in a 1200 sq. ft. office with 6 people and multiple rooms, and it works quite well. The only problem we have is there is only 1 mailbox per phone. This is because the phones are bound to the mailbox. For example, if you have 4 people and only 2 phones, you only have 2 mailboxes plus the general delivery mailbox. This is my only real complaint with the phone - I wish it had as many mailboxes as we wanted.

I am planning to return my system today (base station and 3 wireless including one desk wireless). Like an earlier reviewer I had planned on this being my primary office phone and I like the idea of having access to my fax line. We have 2 primary offices in our home and so my first serious problem was that the desk top unit did not make a good ofice telephone. Access to all email was impossible by design. There was no way to change which phone number appeared on which line.

Also, and maybe this is only me, I wanted a general mail box for each line-much simpler for callers not to have to press any other buttons. Not possible as near as I can tell.

Same with caller ID. You can not go back and see which line a call came in on. If you think about the features on a PCS phone you soom see what is missing.

The ring sounds are nasty and there is no simple ring. There are only 2 ring volume levels plus off.

I found the buttons and display too large and not professional looking.

There was occasional interference with a regular telephone.

The base station battery is Nicad and it has never charged! Worse it is a very poor location for a NiCad which has a charge cycle that requires full discharge and for a back-up system this is not good.

At the CES shouw the Panasonic rep told me there would not be a new version for a year. Too bad.

Also, I would like a computer interface (USB) or whatever, so I could more easily make alterations to the setup.

Bottom line: disappointed.

Alternative solution: Go with AT&T 964 4-line wired systems and a separate wireless system.

Ideas?

People seem to have strong feelings about this product. We thought long and hard about buyint it, due to the many negatiive reviews. We ultimately decided to try it, and we've been using it as the phone system for our 6-person ad agency for about 6 months now.

We run in auto-attendant mode, since we don't have a dedicated person to answer the phone... so we are using the system as a call-director and answering system. Here's what we've found:

The system is no more or less complicated than other multi-line phone systems. The documentation is pretty good.

The system lacks features we'd like. (You'll see lots of complaints in other reviews.) But it's less than half the price of "full feature" systems, so we decided we could live with the shortcomings. Frankly, once we got used to it, we've really come to like the system.

We saw lots of complaints about handsets failing. We bought one more than we needed. Sure enough, one of our handsets stopped working. We called Panasonic and got through promptly. The customer service rep told me to try removing the battery, reseting the handset, and trying it again. He told me if that didn't work I would need to send it back.

The fix didn't work, so I sent it back to the address he gave me (including my receipt and a letter explaining the problem). I got a replacement in about 2 weeks.

So yes, I think Panasonic has a quality problem with the handsets. That's why I give the system 4 stars instead of 5. But I can't complain at all about the service, which was professional and fast. Maybe Panasonic has added support staff since the previous reviews.

I recommend this system for any small business that wants a reasonable feature set at a rock bottom price. Buy an extra extension, as we did, in case one fails... you'll still besaving a LOT of money over comparable systems.

We've used this system with 3 cordless and the base unit for at least 4 years - maybe more. I purchased it for the auto attendant and cordless phones, which are a must for our car lot. One major flaw for us is when you transfer a call to another extension and that person doesn't answer, the caller is NOT forwarded to their voice mail - rather, they are sent back to the person that originally transferred the call.

Another not so major - just annoying flaw is the fact that you must push the # key after the extension number (ie- 1#) it really confused some of our customers.

My final and biggest gripe is with the cordless phones. About every 9 months, we have had to replace each cordless because the key pad quits working - it's usually the #1 and 6 keys that go out. You can "play" with them and finally get them to dial - but at over $100 each, this should not be a problem!

We have just bought the new RCA system (Model 25450-just out mid May) that holds up to 16 extensions and WILL forward to voice mail if a call is transferred from another extension. It also has drawbacks, but is currently the only one on the market to replace the discontinued Panasonic - without having to spend a lot of money on a box system- although the RCA is quite expensive itself.

We purchased this product to avoid spending hundreds more on a high-end phone system. So far everything has worked perfectly. We bought two additional cordless handsets and the base station (comes with one cordless handset). So we invested less than $700 ($400 for the base system at Amazon.com was the best price around) and now our small company has an automatic attendant, voice mail (can be checked remotely, too), call transfer, hold, conferencing, paging, etc - everything we need. And it works the way it should. We had our phone company provide calling "roll-over" so calls to the main line are automatically bumped to the next number when busy. So if you have 4 numbers in a series you only need to publish one number. The system will answer for you and allow callers to hit extensions (followed by the # key) or 0 for the operator (calls the base station). You can have individual messages for all four lines or one like we do with the same outgoing message. Then you can have separate greetings for each handset. And each handset has a mailbox. With support for 8 handsets, this system can get most small companies off the ground with room for growth. It is also worth mentioning that the reception is outstanding and I forget I'm on a cordless system. I've already roamed a couple hundred feet from the base station and the signal was clear.

Five stars because of simplicity, features, performance, and price.

purchased the base unit (which includes one handset) and two additional handsets. They worked okay for about a month or so, then the handset started inexplicably dying. Sometimes the screen went totally blank and you would lose the call or couldn't dial. Othertimes the screen said that I was too far away from the base (even when I was literally right next to the base). So I called customer service and they said that it sounded like I needed a new battery (after a MONTH!). I actually read the directions before using the phone and I wasn't even putting the phones on the bases to recharge after every call so that the NI CD batteries wouldn't develop a memory (they don't use the better Lithium Ion batteries that do not develop a memory). So this made no sense. Anyway, I went ahead and bought the batteries (for all three handsets) and that didn't solve the problem at all. I then went ahead and purchased another handset. Again, no problems for a month and then the same issue. Customer service issued remanufactured phones (4 handsets) and in about a month to 8 weeks all were exactly the same.

I know I wasn't doing anything wrong to cause this. I began searching the Internet and low and behold I am not alone. Apparently a law firm in New Jersey has already filed a class action law suit against Panasonic for the entire KX-TG and KX-TC cordless phone lines. Search "panasonic cordless phone class action" on google. It will be the first hit. As an attorney myself (not in any way affiliated with or even previously aware of the firm that has filed the suit), I can tell you it takes a lot of consumer complaints before a law firm decides to invest its resources in a class action suit as they are very expensive and time consuming.

So, I've learned my lesson the hard way (although there wasn't anything I could've done differently at the time of purchase). Hopefully, my experience and research into this can prevent you from having to deal with it in the future. Panasonic was unjustly enriched in distributing such a defective product and not having the corporate decency to at least recall it and replace it with a functioning line or refunding our hard earned dollars. Very disappointing and I certainly will not be purchasing the Panasonic brand again.