Home > Consumer Reviews > IBM 412 4-Line Telephone with Caller ID

I got this phone for the telephone company voice mail indicator, which other 4-line phones don't have. After about a year, the results have been quite unsatisfactory:

(1) I have replaced three of them because some of the buttons stopped working. They must have fragile switches or something.

(2) Two of the phones will pick up line 2 on speakerphone, spontaneously. The phone will just be sitting there and then the line 2 light comes on, the speakerphone comes on, and then you can hear a dial tone.

(3) Sometimes the phone has a mysterious delay (1-5 seconds) before it will let you pick up a line when it is ringing. I pick up the handset, push the button, try again... eventually, the line connects, unless the caller hangs up first.

(4) Voice mail indicator often does not know when there are no more messages and keeps blinking (there is a way to turn it off manually).

(5) Conversations bleed through between lines.

Looks like buggy chips to me. The phones are "IBM" brand but really made by TT Systems. As soon as I can find another 4-line phone with an FSK voice mail indicator, these are all going in the trash.

Does it all--except you cannot hear the party talk back to a page until they pick it up. Everything else it superb.

My office has five of these phones- none of them are problem free. The numbers do not work on a few of them and the sound is terrible on another. I have read through the manual which offers no valuable trouble shooting tips. I called the 1-800 help line and it has been disconnected, the website also no longer exists.
This phone is a terrible deal for the listed price of over $100.

Does it all--except you cannot hear the party talk back to a page until they pick it up. Everything else it superb.