atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Family Phone System Recommendations?

Lets see. Your building a house. The Biggest purchase most people make. Fill with electronics. TV's, Security, etc. Yet a few hundred bucks will keep you from getting with a local company that has a track record of
providing quality home communications systems.
A communications system that you or your family will reach for in an emergency, which could be life or death.
Most overlooked in most houses? Power fail provisions. A "quality" battery back up and power fail cut over to std phones after the battery is exausted. ( the battery to be replaced every12 - 16 months) When the power fails and you hear weird noises in the middle of the night, it will be nice to look over and see the Green Backlight glow of your Panasonic phone on your nite stand.
If the system goes kaput you will still have a line out with the std phone or phones set up as power fail, assuming you have a real phone line from a central office and not some VOIP sillyness. Cheap sounds sweet, but remember those VOIP lines might tell the Cops you live in Packistan. Call 911 several times a year to verify that your correct address is being transmitted to the Public Safety folks.
System should be setup so that lines can be pulled from phone system and still be connected to std power fail phones.
If you use cordless phones remember to put battery backup on the base unit, otherwise when power goes the phone is useless. Unless its a Panasonic home cell phone, because the
transmitter gets power from the control unit,
so the main battery back up powers the wireless also. Again its your home, get a high quality battery backup, APC for example.
Not the cheap ash color units found at Sams
or the one that look like an oversize multim outlet. Go to a good computer store, look for the Black APC Smart UPS,at least 700VA, they are high quality.
Whatever system you get it needs to be set up properly, including the Panasonic,, otherwise they are as useless as Tits on a boar hog.

[This message has been edited by brokeda (edited September 03, 2005).]

Bob, as far as profit margins...

Speaking for me and most of the phone guys I know, cash flow is always an issue. Let's say I bill 30 hours of billable time this month, at $80/hr. Wow, $2400, right?

Except -- I've got to set aside 15-30% for taxes (Self-employment, licensing, fees, etc.,). So now we're looking at maybe $1800 if I won't have a really good year this year. Plus, I've got overhead; lights, phones, cell phone, computers, etc., plus I wind up using small parts (cross-connect, jacks, gel-caps, etc.) that I probably won't be able to bill a customer for.

So let's say that $1600 of billables would be spendable cash for me. Not great, but enough. Except...

I won't get paid on most of those jobs for 30 days, whereas my landlord always wants the check from me on the first of the month.

And then there are a certain percentage of deadbeats, and "I lost your invoice," and "I pay net 45" ...

So Sales are what keeps the balls in the air until the "accounts receivable" become "cash in the bank." Now, most guys I know have a set mark-up, and it's pretty reasonable.

Keep in mind that we don't just pull a quotation out of the air. We've got to sit down with the calculator and call our suppliers, specify the equipment that will do what you want at a price in your budget, work the phones until the supplier gives us a price, make a nice neat package out of it... we usually eat all that prep time.

Want to p^&& off a contractor? Ask for a quote, then tell him you're installing a used POS* that you bought on the internet, and oh, by the way, could he set it up for you?

So I'm with Mike Daniels on this: If you're buying a POS off of the internet, it was nice talking to you, and good luck getting service.

*Piece-Of-Something

[QUOTE]Originally posted by brokeda:
[QB] A properly setup Panasonic 824 with the Backlit LCD and Backlit keypad phones, 1 or 2 7895 cordless phones, ( again setup properly, these phone have 12 buttons so you see lines and have function keys like Page and Voice Mail Transfer, CID etc.) BV or TVS voice mail would be like an Atomic Bomb going off on top of all the other systems. Espicially if you let the VM (TVS or TVA- TVA has unified messaging} take calls and use CID routing. All Daughters known callers go only to her phone or page only her, Grandma,s callers ring her phone, business callers ring or page for dads home office, screen via paging or phone ( i have a call for Cindy from Jeramy, either over the page or when phone picked up, special greeting for special friends by CID,doesn't mater what line they call on, Windows program for literate home owner, modem built in for non literate homeowner, video doorphone that connects to phone system with multiple monitors including TV, IP Cam can also connect to doorphone etc,etc,etc.[QB]

Whoah, hold the phone.

Did you say CID Routing or Direct Dialing inward routing(DID/DDI)?

Do you mean that:

1. Everyone in the family has a unique phone number that will be directed to their extension?

Business phone number to DAD's phone
Jessica phone number to daughter's phone
etc....

or

2. CID Routing based on the caller ID information. So if it seen that 305-555-5471 is Jessica's friend phone number. Then the call is routed to the daughter's phone?

Please let me know because I did not think any phone system could do CID routing(or it was a secret hidden feature)

number 2. gets info from 1000 number speed dial list.

put number and name in list.
you can direct a call from that number to an ext,or auto attend. If the auto attend answers first there are even more options.
Caller ID also looks at this list. If you get number only from CO. if it sees number in SD list and a name is attached it puts the name with CID info.
Lot of options. I like talking caller ID best

Talking caller ID! My gosh, that is cool. Do the phones actually read the person's name?


Why does Samsung not have the CID routing. That is such a cool feature. In my office, certain people have their own customers list.

The CID routing can be used to add each person's client list to route the call directly to them instead of forcing the clients to dial it from the voicemail directly list.

Is this a feature unique to Panasonic? I must say, Well Done Panasonic! I think I read in the Samsung forum that they use to have this feature but it was a hidden feature that was not published then it was removed in the next software!!!

Ugh.... that makes me mad!!

I don't know your budget (the thread has gotten pretty long so if you've covered that, sorry) but consider the Inter-Tel Axxess. I have one in my house configured very similar to your specs and it will do everything you want and more.

I have mine at the house and the offices configured for CID routing which is really nice. Plus any 800, 888, 877, 866,0 area code or unavailable just gets disconnected on dial in. I hate telemarketers.

Good luck.

What I call Talking CID =
This is in conjunction TVS or TVA voice mail:
this is just 1 example: maybe your regular calls just ring all phones, CID routing sends Mom's call from her home to Voice Mail(CID sends Mother In Laws call to Wife's phone! ) its set to treat this call in a different manner depending on how your mailbox is setup. 1. System can page all phones, a group of phones or just 1 phone and play this file over the speaker " I have a call for (jerry) from (your Mom). You then have an adjustable time period to pick up the call. You record the names as part of CID setup.
2. You are using a std cordless in parallel mode with your key phone, or a system cell phone in parallel mode with your key phone, your key phone is set for Live Call screening, or you could be using a wireless by itself. Call comes in, goes straight to your mailbox, phones give special ring (both key phone and wireless) you can answer and hear the person leaving the message,they cannot hear you, if you want to take the call you push a button and connect, if not then just hang up.
There are many variations as to how this can be set up.
Another great feature of Panasonic , for home use, is the Backlit display and keypad. The green display is easy to find in a dark house, lift handset and the keypad lights up - very bright. Lighted display without lighted keypad is useless.
This feature is indespensible in a home environment. Just be sure to have good UPS on the system. When you wake in the nite after a storm and the power is off, the phones are ready to go
and easy to find.

Does Inter-Tel even let you buy the phones or just lease?

Anyway, about the Panasonic. Do all the phone have the backlit display and keypad or just 1 particular model?

I'm pretty impressed with the Panasonic, they seem to give you a lot of features at a reasonable price. I love the ability to be able to control/route inbound calls based on the caller ID number.

I can't tell you how many times we get
1. crank calls
2. salesman trying to sell us junk.
3. Fax machine calling every 5 minutes at 3:30 am and going on all NIGHT!!


I wish I had the ability to just route the call anyway I want. Phones system should be easy to program and have features that the user likes.

My phone system good list is:
1. Samsung/Panasonic
2. ESI

You can buy Inter-Tel phones and they're actually based in Phoenix.

The Axxess system is very feature rich. Really overkill for a home but I love them. They do not have the backlit key pads however. I guess if you wanted to you could run single line sets that do if you really wanted one in a particular area.

As for the CID routing it's wonderful. I have a select group of people that when they call it, the system multi-rings to several extensions at once, then if I don't pick up, the call is routed to my cell phone. Everyone else (except the telemarketers, etc.) get the auto attendant. The telemarketers just get disconnected.

Also, one last note since this is for home use. Probably my biggest pet peeve about the Inter-Tel executive keysets is that they display CID but don't retain it for later review. Therefore you would need to have a CID box in your bedroom to review past calls unless you were using a single line set. In my case I have the CID dispaly on the TV screen anyway. It's such a great system, I really hate it that they didn't add that feature.

I noticed no one said anything about the Norstar!!! (GOSH!) I love those things. (sorry) Plus you keep talking about GREEN LIGHT UP PANASONICS?? Doesnt norstar make a phone that lights up ORANGE all over?