Feature packed for business

Before we moved to our new location, I was given the task of researching a new phone system. We needed a system that had similar features to our existing system, but we wanted voicemail and and a system which would allow us to have a few cordless handsets to roam out in the warehouse with.

I reviewed, and was very interested in, the Panasonic KX-TG4000. As far as I could tell by reading, it had all the features we wanted, but there was no way I could test the unit before making a purchasing decision. I was concerned about range because I have a 2.4gHz Siemens 2-line system at home that has performed horribly, so I ruled out the Panasonic system based on that. However, we were unable to find a system that had a good features vs. price point ratio and with our move coming up we were forced to order the Panasonic system anyway, even if we had to purchase a replacement system later.

It worked out great! We ordered the base unit, plus 4 handsets and 2 desk stations. My co-workers prefer the handsets over the corded models, but personally I have to have a desk phone with receiver. This is the only wireless system I know of that has wireless desk stations that look like a regular desk phone, but they operate wirelessly just like the cordless handsets. You can even unplug the desk station and carry it around with you if you get restless while on the phone! It has a battery with the same talk time as the cordless handsets.

A little about range: While the Panasonic KX-TG4000B has performed MUCH better than the Siemens, you have to realize that this is a cordless system with a limited range. With all the features this system has, you might forget that. The cordless handset we have in the warehouse cuts out a lot. Though we can take calls, you can't carry on a long conversation unless you come inside the office. And my boss' desk station cuts out every now and then, but he hasn't complained so far. Those two phones are furthest from the base. I'd say the system has the same range as any home cordless phone. And I'll tell you right now that the Wintenna range extender antenna that's advertised for the KX-TG4000 does not work at all (for us at least). It doesn't even help a little bit.

About features: The automated attendant was a new feature for us as our prior system didn't offer this. You can set it up with a message that says "For sales, press 1 followed by the pound sign", etc, and the system will pick up calls on the first ring and transfer the call to whichever phone corresponds to the number. If no one answers the particular phone that's ringing, the call goes to voicemail. Very nice. However, we like to answer our phones personally during our regular business hours, so we set the system up for "Auto Answering" which picks up after a specified number of rings (in our case, 5) and is supposed to act like an answering machine. However, when you set the system to Auto Answer instead of Auto Attendant the caller can still dial an extension, so we use the same message that says "For sales, press 1 followed by the pound sign, etc". This gives us some flexibility and acts as though you could program the Auto Attendant to answer after 5 rings. Note on the Auto Attendant, the phones never ring on incoming calls until the caller dials the extension.

Some features we had before that I miss include Hands Free Answer on Intercom, which means that you dial an extension and the extension phone beeps and switches on speakerphone. With this system the extension phone just rings (even if it is a desk station) and the extension must be answered before you can talk. We also cannot transfer a call to an outside line like we could with our old system. This was useful when we had an important call for my boss, and we could use a free line to set up an unsupervised conference to transfer the call to his cell phone and use our system as a call bridge (we don't give out his cell number).

One feature that I think Panasonic could improve is in the voicemail system. Particularly when you answer a call and the caller wants to speak to "Donna", but "Donna" is at lunch. You would want to transfer the caller to Donna's voicemail, right? You can't do this directly. When you press the voicemail button and hang up, the caller goes to the Automated Attendant and must listen to the options "For sales, press 1 followed by the pound sign, etc" and choose from the menu. The reason we answer the phones personally is to prevent callers from having to press buttons (since we deal primarily with the older generation). It would be nice if we could simply transfer the call to a specific voicemail box.

Another quirk is that if I want to intercom a co-worker, I am used to picking up the receiver and dialing the extension. With this system, if you are using the base station or a desk station extension, you must dial the extension first, which turns on the speakerphone and then pick up the receiver. You can't pick up the receiver first, because it immediately selects an outside line, and when you press intercom, it puts the line on hold and thinks you want to transfer a call. This is kind of annoying because the only time I use the speakerphone is when I'm put on hold, so I turn the volume up all the way so I can hear when they come back on the line. So when I make an intercom call, the intercom beeps are loud and disruptive until I pick up the receiver.

A few other additions and changes to the feature set would be nice. For example, why does the caller have to press # (pound) after dialing the extension? This is an extra step and makes things a little more confusing for callers because with most phone systems they just press the number of the extension. Why not just press 1 or 2 or whatever extension they want? It would also be nice if we could program the phones so the user's name appears on the screen (like with Siemens systems).

Another thing I thought was odd is that voicemail on the base station and desk station phones only works through the speakerphone. If I have a private message, I like to be able to pick up the receiver and not have everyone in the office hear it. You cannot do that with this system because as soon as you pick up the receiver it selects an outside line. This deficiency also makes it difficult to record your greetings as you have to use the speakerphone mic which picks up every echo and noise in the office. I actually had to pick up the base station and turn it over to get my mouth closer to the microphone so I could record a decent greeting.

It would also be nice if we could program a different ring for the intercom ring. It sounds too much like the ring on regular phones.

Other good features to add would be music-on-hold, and a mute button for the desk phones and base station.

Some good accessories to get with this system include an Audio Image 4-line Music-on-hold adapter, and a door intercom. Ablecomm.com has handy things like that.

I think when we're writing a review, we tend to focus on all the negative things, or features that are lacking. In actuality, this is a great phone system. Unless you just have money to spare, you will have to compromise on features no matter what phone system you buy. The Panasonic KX-TG4000B is the best value for the money that I've seen.

Overall, I think we gave up a few luxury features we had with our old system, but we gained a lot more modern and critical features with the Panasonic KX-TG4000.