Thomson SA 25415RE3 Phone/Answering Machine

Not Worth The Money

By J  Dec 7, 2006 | 5 out of 5 found this Thomson SA 25415RE3 review helpful

Pros: Lots of "Advertised" Features

Cons: On-going glitches, poor customer service

Purchased this phone and its sister model #25414RE in 02/06. This was a desperation purchase as our main office phone suddenly died after warranty expiration. We paid nearly double what the phones are selling for now, but thought the advertised featu...res would make the cost worth it. Unfortunately, it was new enough that no reviews were out there for it. First of all, "expandable" apparently does not mean the same thing to RCA as it does to other companies. If you're using the cordless handset, you or someone else cannot use the base. Transferring calls between units is a test of patience and endurance. I had numerous problems with this phone, and I'm a seasoned pro at installing and setting up phone systems. I encountered several glitches that resulted in error messages being displayed constantly on the phones, none of which were valid errors. The customer service response to each of my first 5 problems was either "we can't help with that particular problem" or to reset the phone - which meant completely wiping out all stored memory and preferences. Try doing that 5 times in 3 months - each re-entry took almost an entire work day. The largest problem is the stored name Directory does not work properly for names starting with Q-Z, which are the majority of my customers. RCA finally did a phone swap under warranty after I complained several times. The new phone had the same problem. They offered to do another switch, stating there could not possibly be the same problem in all 3 phones. Sent the 2nd phone back, spent a day programming the new phone (I entered the directory backwards this time, doublechecking the end alphabet names were still accessible throughout). Got done programming, and within 2 hours, the directory was experiencing the same problem. This time Customer Service sent me to Tech Support who promised a fix or a model upgrade within 10 days. Tech Support kept me dangling for 6 weeks, despite repeated calls, and finally told me my problem was a Customer Service problem. After contacting CS dept again, and apparently being a difficult enough customer, the company is now offering me a 100% buyback of this product. Needless to say I jumped at the chance. Sound quality is extremely poor, especially on the cordless handsets. The beep that sounds when calls are placed on hold is extremely aggravating to our customers and to others in the office. Just generally not a professional phone overall. I don't even think I would recommend it for home use, due to the numerous glitches and access problems I had with it. Read more Less