480vs 4 Line 8 Analog/IP 8 IP Extension Small Business Phone System

I purchased a Talkswitch 48CVA unit many years ago similar to this one only with VOIP enabled (using an ad-on card) (4 line, 8 analog, 8 IP VOIP). This Talkswitch 480VS unit does not appear to be a current model as the current unit is a Talkswitch Model VSX.I gave the talkswitch a two star rating as I puchased my unit based on the sales literature and because I desired a PBX type system which allowed me to use VOIP lines. The unit did work, but not without a lot of problems and troubleshooting. I purchased my Talkswitch with four Talkswitch analog phones and two Talkswitch TS-480 internet phones. It took 4 to 8 hours to properly set up the talkswitch for my office, including properly configuring the auto attendants, setting up the timing for the various functions, and more. It took over 8 hours to configure the remote / external Talkswich TS-480 phones. A lot more time was expended to change the configuration to compensate for employee turnover, changing business needs, fixing problems caused when the telephone companies modified their telephone service, and when Talkswitch upgraded their software necessitating programming changes for the system to work. Over time, I watched as one by one the talkswitch phones began to malfunction and cease working. As each Talkswitch phone broke, I replaced it with a regular analog phone. At the end, even the the two TS-480 phones ceased to function properly.In use, the system did work most of the time, and did save me thousands of dollars in telephone bills. I say most of the time because I did experience problems with the system, such as lines dropping calls during the middle of a conversation when new calls came in. Initially, I was told that the problems I experienced were due to "user" error. However, one by one, the problems would disappear with each new software revision. So, how could this have been user error? The biggest conflict created by the system centered around the fact that the system did not provide any indicator as to which phone lines were in use. The result was a "lot" of yelling around the office to see if the person was on the line. I purchased the TS-480 as it did have the capability of indicating if a line was in use if you page through the list to find the line (yet another problem). Talkswitch does provide a software solution, at a significant cost, where you could load software on your computer to see if any of the lines were active. However, for a small office, I could not justify the cost of the software.The distributor I used recently decided to eliminate free support and charge an annual fee to provide telephone support. This was probably due to the complexity of programming the Talkswich system. Due to all of the headaches this system caused me, I decided to no longer use the Talkswitch in my office.

Overall, TalkSwitch is a decent system, but there are far better options available, for less money.I would suggest considering the 200 Series IP PBX by voiSip instead.The 200 Series supports unlimited extensions, and up to 32 simultaneous calls, right out of the box.It also has a LOT more features, such as Call Record, Call Monitor, Call Whisper and Call Barge, to name a few.The voiSip 200 Series is also quite a bit less expensive to buy than the X16 system.But the biggest advantage is being able to use voiSip's VoIP trunk service, which is FAR less expensive than land line service, and even less than Vonage VoIP.

I have had this phone system for three years, it has worked without a hitch and fulfilled and exceeded every expectation. (talk about a jinx) It is easy to use; you don't need anyone to come in and program. It is resident in a simple operating system on your server/computer and you can switch up everything at the touch of a button, direct extension to your cell phone, fax routing, hold music, voicemail... you name it. The only "problem" I had was figuring out how to access whatever feature I was looking for, which entails going through the very simple user manual. On the occasion I have been to lazy to go through it or figure it out, I have called customer service, years after purchase, and they have been great in helping me out. I highly recommend this phone system. Highly.I wish everything was this good, reasonably priced, and utilized. I know I sound like a shill, but I love this thing. The only thing that was a decision for me was going with a hard line system or a VoIP system. The VoIP systems are cheaper; but the hard lines are more reliable. VoIP will eventually go out and have to be reset and that interrupts business, but you pay less.

Purchased this product a little over a year ago and it worked well. Just over a year after the install the system began dropping calls and then started to turn itself off. I won't go through the list of things we did to try and fix the problem, but needless to say none of them worked. Tech support for this product is terrible. The company is now part of Fortinet and while they may support their new products, they have abandoned support of the old talkswitch line of products. I would stay away from this phone system.

We used that system for 4 years in a small business environment. In the beginning we had copper phone lines, but then moved on to VOIP from Vonage. The integration into the Talkswitch was intuitive and didn't require any external assistance. Adding lines was easily programmed and required a new phone set for each new person. Outgoing lines could easily being added or cut. We grew it to its maximum capacity of 8 seats (phones) with 4 outgoing phone lines. I believe it can be extended, but that wasn't necessary for us. One item we would recommend is a power UPS: The system did crash due to a ton of power surges in our building. But with the UPS we never had a single issue.