BT Diverse 4010 Executive Digital Cordless Phone

I have a master and secondary phone, and they have proved reliable despite abuse by teeange children. The intercom faciltiy is very usefull for finding a handset , usually under a bed or in the pocket of a jacket.

The ability to wander off down the road with is very useful.

CallerID must be activated for the SMS to work. When BT disabled my CallerID, the phone was ever ringing as the SMS service could not be identified. This was a BT fault, not the phones.

The user guide can be downloaded off the 'Net if (as I did) it gets lost.

I've not scored service and suppport as I've not had any call to use it.

It's been boringly faultless over some 4 years use, and still on the same rechargeable batteries.

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- I bought an Executive dual handset model on Ebay, (described as "nearly new") to replace a pefectly satisfactory but out of date and cumbersome Vtec digital cordless which was several years old.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