Whats the preferance? Panasonic 8x24 or 8x48 or somebody elses? It needs caller id, 4 lines min, 16 extensions. Has anybody woked with ESI? I've seen in a few places I've worked on.

Personally I like the 824, the software(finally) is easy and programming a snap. I have done several 848's and the programming is something to be desired. Basic items such as ringing groups and others are overly complicated, executive override for the customer cannot be accomplished by just hitting a CO button.

However, the 848 has cell stations that seem to work ok, but my customers complain about how they can't hear the other person on the other end(even with the volume all the way up).....I'll never do another 848 unless I have to.

Stick with the 824 you can't go wrong. I forgot it even has message waiting light signaling for phone co. message center..nice.

The new 824's are an improvement from the old 624's - especially becasue of the programming software.

But beware of hardware issues and poor factory support. I for one am sick of Panasonic and am going to quit installing them. Not enough margin for the amount of headaches.

When all goes well, it isn't too bad. But when you have a bad KSU, they deny having problems and you end up eating loads of time to make it right for the customer.

FP Crazy,
I can not agree with you more!! Pana had by far THE WORST TECHS! i mean hell there are only 5 techs for the whole dam country when you call them! I waited a few weeks ago on hold one time for hour and half and the other almsot two hours. That is why you have to by from people who know what htey are doing sucha as fred.

Never ever Pana......

Customers don't like them and their competition is offering virtually all of their features at a much better price. They used to have an in for the CI industry by offering programable contacts to work with things like Holovision units, so options were limited. Not anymore.

I use Fred's company for all my Panny stuff. But their tech support is limited in what they can offer. They are pretty good at helping with programming issues, questions, etc... but if there is an outright hardware problem (and there have been many) or buggy firmware (and that has also been an issue) then Capitol is powerless to help and you are forced to go to factory support (which is very, very painful). They, nor any distributor, cannot take hardware back that is defective or problematic. If Panny would empower them to do so, then it would make a huge difference.

Becasue of this, I take every chance to rag on Panasonic - and will continue to do so. They have made my life miserable and I will do everyhting I can to make their life miserable too. Even if I have to extract my pound of flesh, one cell at a time.

I personally have had good success with the 848 system. A little more involved programing but the results are great, and the cell stations are a definite plus.

Hi guys, I am glad this thread was started. I have a job coming up that I need to quote a phone system for.
I have questions however. Do you have to use Panny phones with the 824?
What other options besides the panny are there?
I have yet to install a phone system. Typically I just punch down to a block, and I'm done.
Any insight would be helpful... Thanks all...

So jcmca,
Which product are you talking about? I"d love to have an option to Panasonic......

No, you don't have to. The 824 is SLT compatible. There are drawbacks to that, however....

Be prepared to lose money when programming takes 8-10 times longer then you think it will.

Next question. If I don't want to install a Panny system, how can I integrate a door phone into the phone infrastructure? For example, cust. has prewire to door for future door phone, but no infrastructure in place for a typical intercom system. What options exist beyond phone system?

Inexpensive system called Door Bell Fon. Available at one distributor that I know.

Fred, I just wanted to thank you again for setting me up with Dave...

My pleasure.