Customer Rating:  
Summary: Horrible! DO NOT PURCHASE
Comment: I purchased my SPH200D about 60 days ago. I have had nothing but problems and HORRIBLE customer support from Netgear. The base station frequently locks up and needs resetting. Even the landline stops working when the base station crashes. The instructions for pairing a handset are WRONG. The tech support (From India.) is not helpful. The seem to know less about the product than I do.
I would NEVER buy another Netgear product.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great phone so far
Comment: Having 5 of them for 3 months now. They work like a charm. Don't try with land line. But I don't need land line anymore anyway.
As the others review, it doesn't seem to sync the contact list (It did on my first phone). Updated new firmware as soon as I got them. I recommend to change default password on the box as well. Nice phone, great sound. Sometimes, people ask me to low the volume down b/c it is too loud.
Batteries are kind of cheap. But I can get the good batteries at any store for cheap. People are surprised when we don't use regular phone any more. We are using unlimited SkyOut in US. Save us a ton of money for the phone. Don't try SkyIn yet. But we don't need anyway. You can add contact on the phone without turn your PC on too. Great job.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You can save $100's
Comment: I just got rid of my landline service and using this Skype service should pay for the purchase of the Netgear handset in about 5 months.
Here is what my situation was:
Paying for a "measured service" line through Qwest. This allowed for up to 180 minutes per month for only $9.95, however the caller ID feature added an additional $7.95 and after all taxes were said & done my minimum bill was around $25.99 (Hmm $9.95 plus $7.95... that should be less than $18... Oh wait the taxes!!! (What a rip)
I also had a Virgin Mobile phone, where I have an older service, so was paying $0.25 for first ten minutes per day then $0.10 per minute after. I had this set up so I only feed $5 per month into the phone - $15 every 90 days - Obviously I am not a big cell phone user. (Of course if the money runs dry, I had to re-feed with a $20 top-up.)
Also I am not from US originally, so I call the UK to chat with the folks, hence Skype was something I already used for a great rate of $0.021 per minute.
Now recently I have (upgraded) changed my phone services so that....
Dropped the Qwest service saving at least $25.99 month
Realized that the Virgin Phone allows you to earn FREE minutes - up to about 75 per month (71 just using the internet) - using their Sugar Mama service. You watch up to 5 minutes of ads per day & they give your 5 free minutes of phone time. (Really you just click on the ad to start then you go do something else for a minute i.e. check your e-mail - rinse & repeat 5 times.) Do this for about 15 days of the month and get free airtime.
Signed up for the Skype subscription for unlimited calls in the US. The subscription only cost $2.95 per month, plus they gave me a Euro's worth of calling, which worked out to a credit of $1.53 - This of course means that in my case, they just gave me 70+ minutes of calls to my folks in the UK. Sweet!! (I hope I get this every month)
Subscribed to the Skype phone number, so people can call me directly on Skype, or.... here's the really great thing..... Skype will forward the call to my cell phone after it attempts to connect using the Skype number, so now I can just give out my Skype number and if people don't reach me there, i.e. I'm out of the house, the call will come to my cell. Due to the fact that I was part of the subscription service, the Skype phone number only costs $24 for a full year.
So previously my monthly charge, at best, would be the $25.99 from Qwest, plus the $5 from Virgin, which in effect wouldn't give me much more that 200 minutes per month, based on using 1 minute per day for 20 days on Virgin. (Of course for a little web time per day for about 15 days you can get 70+ minutes free)
Today I spent $99 for the Netgear phone and my new monthly charges will be:
$2.95 per month for unlimited calls in the US (including approx credit of $1.53 per month (70 + mins) towards call my family/friends in the UK. Hopefully I get this credit every month!)
$2 per month for the Skype phone number that people can call me on and will forward to my cell.
$5 per month (based on $15 per 90 days) towards my Virgin Cell Phone. Plus with a little work earning 70+ minutes of free calls per month.
Sooo a total of $9.95 per month, provided that my cell use/calling the UK doesn't exceed it's limits. This means I'm saving at a minimum $21 per month. In 5 months time the new Netgear handset will be paid for!!! Then I'm gonna save $252 per year!!!! Thank you Skype!!!!!!
I also like that it takes AAA batteries - Or do I? I started using it today without charging up the batteries that came with it, just put in two new ones. I do notice that it seemed to use them up pretty quick, but maybe that cuz I was messing around with it soo much. But it is nice to think, that if the unit can keep working for a few years, I won't have to worry about trying to locate a special battery for it.
So far the communications have been real good - No dropped calls - Sound quality pretty good. Not choppy in speech. I guess I should reserve judgement until I've been using it a while, but the anticipated savings make me want to post this, so that you all can see how much you can save. I was already using a budget version of the regular phone line, so some of you stand to save even more than me!
Setup was sooo easy. Had it up and running before I could finish my Subway sandwich! Haven't even made use of the handset cradle - as mentioned - just inserted two regular (non rechargable) AAA batteries in it and was making calls within minutes
OK drawbacks - I did notice that it kinda sucked for Contacts - I may not know how to do this, - but to have to "scroll" through your list as opposed to maybe creating a list of frequently used numbers versus the ones I maybe call once a month?? I ended up deleting a bunch of my contacts and just saving their numbers in Excel to avoid seeing them.
Picky Picky, but why is the minimum backlight a minute - I would prefer a few seconds to preserve battery life
I have noticed (already) that the touch tones for use with automated systems doesn't work well (it often/mainly doesn't work at all). But I guess I'm willing to go back and use a headset and Laptop if I need to make that kind of call. Not a biggie (for me).
I probably would have continued to use Skype via the internet with a headset, but my wife had no interest in this. This is the real reason why this was necessary for our house, however, I can see how much easier this will be to use, what with the ability to wander around the house and not have to wait for the laptop to power up/have headset plugged in etc. maybe I'm just becoming lazy!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Easy to setup and simple to use
Comment: I wanted to buy a Skype phone for a long time. I waited till prices were reasonable.
I have had this phone for over 3 weeks and it was been very good.
Setup: Really easy. I connected an ethernet cable (Internet connection ) the base station and powered it up. I powered up the cradle that charges the cordless phone. I logged into Skype on the cordless phone. Setup a few things such as use Skypeout as the preferred outgoing calling service and i was up. I could see my contacts list and make calls to skype contacts and using skype out. I even used the phone to make skypeout calls to India. The clarity was very good.
This is an excellent instrument and worth the price.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Impressed with Netgear SPH 200D
Comment: I have one Huge complaint about this phone...everytime I buy one and travel overseas, I end up giving it away to someone because they fall in love with it. 2 in the last month. I am now purchasing 3 more. One for Mom, Dad and hopefully one for me (If I don't end up giving it away as well).
Simple to use and install!
The only trouble I ever have is that it occasionally doesn't connect to the network. The simple way to fix that is unplugging the power cord from the base station for 10 seconds and then pluging it back in and I am back in business.
I have a Skypein number and people call me at a local TX number when I am actually on a different continent. I just gave the last one to my buddy that lives in Shanghai and he purchased a U.S. number so that his customers in the US don't have to pay when calling him in China. I am still amazed that I can talk to people all over the world for 2-3 cents per minute.
A.C.
Dallas, TX
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