BT Advanced Cordless Landline House Phone with 100 Percent Nuisance Call Blocker, Digital Answering Machine, Quad Handset Pack

Nice and small footprint, easy to use and programme.

After looking at seperate phone call blockers etc, I decided to get integrated phone and call blocking. This didnt work out bad as most of those seperate devices are knocking around 50 quid mark for decent features. Once the phones were setup and phone numbers entered (thats the painful part), it at least shares any updates to numbers with each handset. Good news is now when I've checked the phone occassoinally, I see its done the job and blocked calls with not even a murmur, so no more pesky scam calls with witheld numbers or whatever. If the number is in the phone, it goes straight through and if not, it asks them to name themselves before ringing and gives you the choice of answering, voicemail or simply blocking. I reckon if you have older relatives who get stressed with these nuisance calls, this would be a great investment in making their day calmer! Overall good features, and usability. Sound is fine (slightly hissing sometimes, but you get that with even the best dect phones), so happy I got them.

Bought to replace the earlier BT model that had the same functions. The Tru-Call function, (call blocker) sets this apart from other phones but you will need 'caller display'. Set the phone with contacts you will always answer for and then, any calls from people not on your list will hear a message asking them to say who they are. The phone then rings, tells you who has called and gives you the option to answer, block or send to the answer machine. Most cold callers (and auto-diallers) are long gone by this time. No more dodgy calls and, odd but important calls like doctors or people who actually need to talk to you aren't automatically ignored.

I was sick and tired of getting unwanted, unsolicited calls every day. Two or three a day was perfectly usual - sometimes it could be five or six. I had tried registering with the call barring service, but pesky, determined companies would always find a way around this. This phone has solved all of those problems and I no longer get any unsolicited calls. I was so impressed I also got one for my elderly mother, who was worried about scammers calling her. Now she also has peace of mind. Nuisance calls aside the phone scores well for its other attributes too. There is a good level of capacity on the answering machine and for entries in the phone book. Call clarity is also very good, which is, after all, the key purpose of this piece of equipment, but one that is often overlooked by manufacturers who get carried away with the desire to offer ever increasing amounts of other features. All in all a very good cordless phone / answering machine combo that does its job well ... and most importantly - no more unwanted calls!

I am 78 years old and care for my invalid wife and was finding that I was being pestered by sales calls and would be scam calls. It was obvious that I was on some "vulnerable old git" list. I saw an article in the press about call blocking and when I went online to investigate came across an article recommending the BT8500 telephone. I looked at the reviews which seemed mostly favourable so went ahead and ordered one. It has transformed my life. I set up my contact list which was very easy and straightforward, plugged it in and waited for the pesky calls so that I could add them to the block number list. Well the phone has been in situ for over a week now and I have not had a single nuisance call. As soon as they are asked to identify themselves they hang up. So I have not had to block a single number as yet. It's bliss when the phone rings as I know it's a genuine call. I found the phone easy to set up and easy to use and the only action required so far has been to add a few numbers to the allowed list. If every phone was like this then those dammed people would go out of business. EVERY OVER 65 SHOULD HAVE ONE.

I was looking for replacement landline telephones for my elderly and hard of hearing parents. I needed good incoming telephone ring sound which unfortunately these phones didn't have. I also wanted talking caller ID, which having asked the question before purchasing, other buyers had advised these phones had. However they had caller ID BUT DEFINITELY NO TALKING CALLER ID. My parents are 93 and 88 so, can't see the name of the incoming caller and having previously had talking caller ID found it frustrating not to have it in these phones. Overall not really suitable for elderly people who need just that little bit more help and assistance in their later years to continue to manage as independently as possible. Feel and quality felt good, good price, but just not what I was lead to believe I'd be receiving.

We love its call blocking feature, though resent having to pay to stop an invasive nuisance that no phone user wanted, ever. The build quality is decent as is the sound, and the monochrome screen is fine - the Panasonic set that we had did have colour screens but the definition of the text on the BT phone is crisper. I would have liked an option to change the size of the text. Some have complained about poor sound quality but the sound on ours are quite acceptable. There is a volume control on the answer machine which can be turned up until it distorts so maybe a play about with the options on the extensive (exhaustive) menus would help. To get the best from the call blocking technology you have to laboriously enter all your contacts in to the phone, which thankfully syncs with all the other handsets. Its only to do once but it took over an hour swapping them from a mobiles contact list To sum up, I thinks its an OK phone with the killer feature of configurable call blocking.

We recently bought this set to replace an older set of BT phones which we'd had for 6 years and which had had a LOT of use - we have poor mobile signals where we live, and our children don't have landline phones, only mobiles, so we always have to use our handsets for calling them, and them to us. This puts a lot of strain on the batteries, as our daughters can be on the phone for 1-2 hours at a time. The main handset battery finally gave up, lasting only a few minutes before the low charge warning went off, so we looked at what was available and felt that this new more modern set but similar to our old ones in functional menus would be ideal. The new sets are smart, a little more modern in style, and slightly slippery at first due to the smooth surfaces, but everything else is great so far. The call blocking works well (we are with Sky, not BT), and once you have all your numbers in the phone memory (up to 200 separate names, with 2 numbers for each name, plenty for us), then your own contacts can get through immediately, but numbers not in your phonebook have to announce who they are, and if they don't you can reject the call and block them. If they do say who they are, then you can choose to take the call (press 1) and also to allow their calls through in future. Earlys days with this new set, but so far we are very happy with them. Tip: if you have two sets, like we do, it makes sense to interchange them from time to time, so that no one set gets all the battery wear. So, we have one in the lounge, and one in the bedroom, but we are swapping them every week or two to spread the battery load, since the lounge set gets by far the most use!