Hello,
I have a small home-based office with a Panasonic KX-TVS75/100 in the basement controlling the 4 business lines (including 1 dedicated fax line). I also have the doors and home phones (1 other line) split in, so we can answer doors throughout the house, and page different phones.
There are some problems that I've persevered with, but it's time to look at an upgrade:
- Voice mail: the built in system is very klunky, lots of extra waiting, key presses, etc. People get very frustrated.
- Updating things is very complicated, sometimes requiring a laptop and serial connection. I do it so seldomly that I never remember how to do it, and it's very, very klunky at best.
- I can't have my phone have different voice mail depending on if they hit a general extension (e.g., for sales press 1) or mine specifically (e.g., Matthew at extension 100)
- Strange stuff: the system time doesn't match the time on my phone display (why aren't these the same settings?)
- Support: Panasonic (the company) is painful to work with, dealers come and go. It becomes very expensive to bring someone in for minor stuff, so things have gotten dated.
So it's time to convert, and my preference (without getting into a holy war over it!!) is for a PC based system. We first used Watson (many years back), and it was a breeze.
So: How much rewiring may be needed? The unit is in the basement, wires coming up outside, and a box in my office with the phone lines going into it. Are there systems that make more or less sense given what I need (4 lines, voice mail, some flexibility, no expansion needs) Can they still support the hybrid aspects that we use (ie, home phones and doors)?
Thanks for any ideas.
Matthew