We ordered the Panasonic KX-TGM490S to replace a different phone that my hard of hearing mother-in-law had. The phone was a Clarity XLC7BT and was purchased on June 12, 2021 from Amazon. The Clarity worked flawlessly until my 1.5 year old grand-daughter dropped the handset on a hard floor this past summer/fall of 2024 and it broke.
The Panasonic KX-TGM490S was ordered on December 8, 2024 and it stopped working around February 17, 2025. My mother-in-law (87 years old) indicated it started beeping in the middle of the night and not being tech-savvy she was uncertain what to do. It kept her up for most of the night but eventually the beeping stopped. We looked at the phone and thought perhaps the batteries in the hand set and/or base unit were no longer taking a charge (on a brand new phone). I purchased 4 AAA NiMH batteries and initially the phone worked and one could place or receive calls. However, it stopped working again about a day or so later.
So we had almost four years of trouble free service from the Clarity and just over 2 months with the Panasonic KX-TGM490S. Not very happy with this. We have had other Panasonic cordless phones for over 20-25 years when we had land lines and no issues. Within two months of purchasing the Panasonic KX-TGM490S stopped working. Very poor value for money. Should have gotten another Clarity phone.
Update April 16, 2025: Fortunately, the original unit was just over two months old from purchase and is covered by a one year Panasonic of Canada warranty. We did have some back and forth as the seller indicated that Panasonic would provide the replacement, while Panasonic said it was the sellers responsibility. Eventually the seller arranged to exchange our non-functioning one with a new unit. They provided prepaid postage and we were able to drop it off at a local courier pickup location in an local drug store. The new unit was received promptly, but at present it is still in the box.
Unfortunately our mother-in-law is very skeptical of the KX-TGM490S phone now and we are hesitant to set it up again for her as she was so frustrated with the original KX-TGM490S that we don't think she really wants to try the replacement. She is very skeptical that the new unit will actually correct the problem or if it works initially that it will stop working like the first unit we ordered.
At this time the phone is still in the storage box it came in. Our mother is using her old non-amplified Panasonic cordless phone that she has had and used for likely over 15-20 years without any issues other than changing the batteries. If she encounters volume problems then we will likely try to use the amplified replacement unit. If she doesn't want to use it we will just sell the replacement on Kijiji or Facebook marketplace. Again the Clarity phone that she had worked great and she had it for almost 4 years before our granddaughter dropped it on the floor. We likely will go back to the Clarity phone given our mother's experience with it.
