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Uniden EXS9800 900 MHz DSS Cordless Speakerphone with Answering System and Caller ID

Uniden EXS9800 900 MHz DSS Cordless Speakerphone with Answering System and Caller ID

List Price: $129.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Chose this over the EXR2480 but now I wonder
Review: (background info) had been using analog 900MHz cordless by Panasonic. It had a battery compartment in the base that allowed a 2nd battery to be charging while the headset was away from the base. We NEVER returned the headset to the base, and always let the battery in the headset run down, then just swapped batteries and were talking away again. Worked (works) great!

I wanted the DSS security, speakerphone, and caller ID in a handset, though, so purchased the EXS9800 (after two unsuccessful trials of the EXR2480).

Since I knew that the battery would be no good for the 1st 24 hrs, I just plugged the base into 110VAC and charged the battery pack by placing it in the "charging compartment" on the base. Didn't plug the phone line into the phone. Didn't install the battery into the handset or even place the handset in the base cradle. (Note this failed with BOTH EXR2480 phones).

So after the initial 24 hour charging of the battery, placed the battery into the handset. The phone worked GREAT. But...

1) When the battery got low, there was NO indication (no beep). Concluded a call, and attempted another, and got NO dial tone.

2) Removed the battery from the handset, placed the battery in the "charging compartment" (left the handset off the base as well). This is what would be done if a second battery was available. Well, this time the battery did NOT charge! Waited 24 hrs!

3) Now had to physically place the handset with battery installed in the base cradle to charge the battery.

If this is how it is supposed to work, then the 2nd battery compartment in the base is completely worthless. Why it worked once and not a second time is unknown. Calls to Uniden Customer Care were unsuccessful (line was always busy).

After dealing with the EXR2480, and now this, my suggestion is that if you want a cordless phone with the ability to have a second battery charged and ready to go, and never have to worry about always having to return the handset to the base, look to some other manufacturer.

Otherwise, the phone "seems" to be quite acceptable.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great phone till it died in 3 months
Review: Best featured phone ever owned till got up one day and it was completely dead. Just exchanged for same model and works great (so far)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Uniden EXS 9800
Review: Good reception, nice features, but poor digital recording playback quality. Microphone finally gave out after 1.5 yrs and decided not to buy another Uniden with this technology.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: EXS 9800 has good and bad qualities
Review: Good: -this phone has great clarity at long distances -hard to find all these features in 1 phone -easy to operate Bad: -messages are difficult to understand, muffled -my handset went dead yesterday, 3 months old, it's not the battery, so now I already have to send it in to Uniden for repairs.

All and all, I would not buy this phone again.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Uniden phones and customer service are the worst
Review: I bought a Uniden cordless phone with Caller ID and built in answering machine features for my family for Christmas. Less than 3 months later, the handset died completely. Since it was still under warranty, I contacted Uniden (never speaking to an actual person, but a audio response unit). I was required to send my phone to their repair center at my own expense for the repair. The receipt of the phone at the repair center was acknowledged by a card indicating that it would be six weeks before I got my phone back. I used a corded phone with no caller ID and no answering machine while it was gone.

About six weeks later, it did get back to me. The handset worked again, but it was now impossible to set the time on the answering machine. This was a major annoyance, but since I didn't want to be without my phone and answering machine AGAIN for six weeks, I decided to live with the inconvenience.

One year after Christmas, to the day!, the handset on the phone went dead again. I couldn't, however, find a forum to express my frustration to Uniden at first. The instructions included no phone numbers where I could talk to a customer service representative. I finally happened on Uniden's website, where I e-mailed customer service with a summary of my problems, in hopes that a major company like that cared enough about the customer to do the right thing. No such luck. They responded that my phone was not under warranty anymore, and that if I had problems with my phone after it was repaired that I should have sent it back (at my own expense for another six weeks, apparently). My explanation of why I hadn't sent the phone back was ignored.

They told me that I could, now that my phone was dead again, mail it to them again and they would get back to me about what they would charge to fix this reccuring problem. I gave up in frustration and put the phone away in the closet.

I will never again buy ANYTHING manufactured by Uniden. Not only was the quality of their product substandard, but the quality of their customer service was abysmal.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This cordless phone exhibits virtually no static whatsoever
Review: I have owned this particular phone for about 9 months. The sales person billed it as the best phone of its type on the market. I went for it, albeit with some scepticism. Years ago I had had several cordless phones that were more of an annoyance than a help. So I blew them off in favor of the regular corded kind; I actually wanted to hear my phone conversations. But this phone really has lived up to expectations. This is true not only in the incredibly clear reception but also in the length of life between charges. Actually, it fits very easily into the cradle either frontways or backwards. How do they do that? There is only one downside; the reception on the answering machine is, in my opinion, substandard. Calls are sometimes difficult to decipher and you find yourself anxiously straining over the speaker to hear the message. But the caller ID is great, it's on the phone, and being able to plug-in a separate headset to it during long phone calls had been a big plus. I can put on the headset, slip the phone into my pocket and wander around the house doing stuff while I talk. I love muli-tasking.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Phone, But Check out 9960
Review: I just got a Uniden 9960 DSS w/CWCID. If the sound quality of the 9800 is as good (and I bet it is identical), then what a great phone!

I chose the 9960 because I wanted CWCID with a backlit LCD, and with lit buttons...AND because it is for my bedroom, I wanted to be able to turn the ringer OFF. Don't laugh at this last one...Uniden has a 2.4 GHz model that sells locally for $159, where you can't! The 9960 has two ringer volumes, and a mechanical switch to turn the ringer off. What's more, if the phone is ringing, the Mute button will temporarily mute the ringer, so that if you check the caller ID and decide to let the answering machine get it, you need not listen to the ring, a nice touch.

I found it locally for $119, I have seen it for $110 and possibly even $100 on the net. Amazon.com should consider carrying it; it was not easy to find DSS, CWCID, and backlit buttons/LCD.

I have to say that the two power/charge LEDs are extremely bright, too bright for a nightstand, so I had to tone them down a bit.

A minor complaint, a great phone.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Needs to add "1" When Memorizing Caller IDs
Review: I received this phone from my wish list for Christmas. So far so good, except for the fact that when it "memorizes" a number from caller ID, and you try to dial it later, it hasn't added the "1" before the area code. Thus you can't dial properly in the U.S. I'm looking for a fix to this problem. Otherwise good sound quality and reception.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Uniden has history of "dying" handsets
Review: I used to be a fan of Uniden, having purchased several of their 900 Mhz models in the last few years. Unfortunately, I feel compelled to report that a high percentage of them (about a third, in my experience) have failed ("died") within a two year period. Replacing the battery only works temporarily, as the problem appears to be related to the charging mechanism. They must continue to use similar internal components, because the problem persists in current models. Although I like the functionality of the Uniden phones, I can neither recommend them to others nor continue to purchase them for myself because of their high failure rate.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poor audio; non-intuitive user interface
Review: I was looking forward to using this phone, as it has all of the features I was looking for bundled together into one appliance. However, I've been extremely disappointed with it's performance. The audio quality of my outgoing message is terrible (and I've tried dozens of recordings, in different rooms in my house, to try to get it to sound better). Also, the user interface for playing, listening, and especially deleting messages is annoying; going through old caller ID results takes forever due to the built-in delays of the interface. Very disappointing overall...


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