Home > Consumer Reviews > VTech ip5850 5.8 GHz DSS Cordless Phone with Dual Handsets and Digital Answering System

Mine worked great for the first few months, then I started getting the "warning, check battery". If you take the batteries out and reinsert, it works for a few hours but then the same warning message comes up. It happened on both headsets. I called customer service and they told me this is the first time they've ever heard that (uh huh - doesn't sound like it from the reviews here). A little too expensive to replace yearly...

Right out of the box, one of the handsets would not take a charge. A call to VTech got a live person, whose instruction was to call back in 24 hours to a different 888 number, the reason being that the tech people needed 24 hours to research the problem. When I called back the next day, the number was disconnected, and a new call to the customer service line would not produce a live person no matter what I did. I even selected the order line but was disconnected after 13 minutes on hold.

I see now that other people have had the same problem with handsets not taking a charge and the bad customer service, and I leave this review as a word to the wise.

UPDATE: I did finally get through to a customer support person, who helped me through the return process. I returned the defective phone and received a replacement two weeks later. The phone itself now works just fine.

I had these phones about a month before I decided that I just had to return them. Now, these phones do have a lot of good qualities: Easy to use and program; very clear sound - no interference or static; good speakerphone (handsets stand nicely on any hard surface); nice form and function of the handsets; decent sound to the incoming and outgoing messages; and reasonably priced for 5.8mhz system (although as with all Vtech phones, it's 5.8 one way and 2.4 the other way). But, the deal-breaking annoyance was the phonebook. Every time I'd make a call and for one reason or another not get through (ie: busy signal; no answer), there would be a 10-15 second delay before the phone would access the phonebook again. If I tried access the phonebook or the caller ID, I would get a 'not available' error message. If I tried to redial or call an alternate number right away, the call would not go through and I'd just get a dial tone. I don't have the patience to wait 10-15 seconds to redial or call another number. If you can live with this drawback, this is a nice phone overall (woulda given it at least 4 stars if not for this major useability problem).

We bought this phone mainly because it had two handsets and was a reasonable price. The first one we got from Amazon was pathetic - the extra handset didn't charge at all, and the quality of the other handset was poor - voices breaking up every couple seconds, lots of static, etc. We returned it and got another one (not at all an easy process - the link to print the return prepaid mailing label didn't work and Amazon had to mail us one, which took 2 weeks; Amazon tried to charge us for the shipping on the replacement until we called them on it). The new one works well - all the problems of the first one are gone, and it seems to be a good phone for the money. The sound quality is good, and the answering machine works well and was easy to set up. The handsets are very lightweight, which to my mind makes them seem a little cheap and cheesey, but they work well so far. I do agree with another reviewer that the ringtones are not great.

I like the phone but still not a fan of the digital answereing system. My problem is not with Vtech but rather with the technology. Digital machines sound robotic and sometimes the messages are hard to understand. Also the phones don't show battery strenght while off bases.