BT Diverse 4010 Executive Digital Cordless Phone Review

Overall Rating

Good range, excellent quality audio, hands-free worked well (past tense!). Smart appearance. Caller display was a boon. Executive version has SMS.

Failed completely after only a few months light use.

B.T Diverse 4010 Executive Digital Cordless Phone - I bought an Executive dual handset model on Ebay, (described as "nearly new") to replace a pefectly satisfactory but out of date and cumbersome Vtec digital cordless which was several years old.

I did have a BT Freestyle before that, which was one of the most ghastly, troublesome phones I ever had, and I swore to myself as I chucked it in the bin that I would never buy another BT phone.

However, years had passed, I'd mellowed with age, and when I saw the photo and details of this smart looking silver phone that did everything short of make the tea I was hooked and immediately forgot the oath I'd taken so many years before.

It worked perfectly for six months before both handsets simultaneously lost contact with the base for intervals lasting up to several hours at a time. After a few days of this carry-on, they failed to restore permanently.

Called the BT helpline, who took me through the usual list of daft instructions read by a woman with no technical knowledge at all. In the end she said it must be my batteries. However I pointed out that both phones were failing at the same time, so this was unlikely. She then said that the base unit must be faulty.

This, in fact, seems to be the problem, and from what I can find out it's a design fault that causes them all to be claimed by the grim reaper sooner or later.

BT gave me the number of a repair company called Teclogic who I emailed with the details. I might as well not have bothered since they didn't reply.

In short, - if you've not already got one of these and are thinking of buying one on the strength of the looks and impressive spec, DON'T. It'll cost you sooner or later!

Members' Comments ondavidken's Review

• ckirby25 on 4th Sep 2004

  I totally agree. I have had my phone just over a year (yes, warranty has run out!) and it has given up the ghost. I rang BT and after lengthy discussions they told me to ring their out-of-warranty repair desk. I asked if they knew what the problem was likely to be - "I would think that your phone isn't working" says the technical adviser. Hmmmm, I'd worked that out for myself.
  
  So up until it packed up, I was really happy with the phone, but it isn't worth the £30 repair that I have been quoted.

• Giewont on 29th Jun 2005

  I bought Diverse 4010 Executive +/- two years ago.The phone has been working beautifully from the very start. I have never experienced any problems you have described. I would recommend it to anybody considering purchase. I like 200 names phone book, alarm & appointment reminder. I am also impressed with an option to vary ringer volume depending on time of a day/night(it does not disturb children at night). It slowly becomes an out of date model (no colour display etc), but the price reflects it. Some on-line companies retail it at £40 for twin pack and that is what I would call value for money. Great phone.

• kfaulkne on 1st Oct 2005

  Seems another reviewer's claim that the grim reaper would eventually bring in the BT Diverse 4010 is absolutely correct in my sad experience. It lasted 3 years RIP. Kevin.