eBay and other auction sites can offer some very attractive pricing on used phone systems but if buying a phone system at auction unless you really know what you are buying they can end up more expensive than if you consulted a specialist to begin with. There are a few things to look out for:
Brands – stick with the common brands such as Avaya, NEC. Other less common brands, while they may be very good systems, don’t have as many installers so there may only be 1 or 2 installers in smaller towns who can charge virtually what they like and there may be nobody at all in remote areas. Bear in mind that while once popular and very good systems, both Panasonic and Samsung are not worth getting since Samsung has already exited the phone system market and Panasonic will be exiting at the end of 2022 so while you can get phones and hardware, licenses to unlock additional functionality won’t be available.
History – these are used systems with an unknown history. What sort of environment have they been in such as temperature, humidity and dust? What sort of power surges have they been subjected to? Phone systems should be given at least as good an environment as a PC but in some cases we find them stuck out in a warehouse covered in dust and cobwebs. Our used phone systems have a known history. They were either sold new and serviced by us originally or they are New Old Stock systems from various sources that are a few years old but have never been installed before.
Configuration – digital or analogue lines, digital or IP extensions, voicemail and other features may or may not be present and may be expensive to implement after the purchase. Some phone systems are fixed configuration with respect to lines and cannot be changed for another type.
Programming password – many phone systems come with the default password however if a specific password has been used it may be impossible to recover easily. For instance, on a BCM200 or 400 if the password is not known or cannot be guessed such as if it was an ex-Commander system then the hard drive needs to be re-imaged.
Model and firmware – there are many different models of Avaya IP Office, for example but only the current IP500v2 is worth considering because it is still a current model. Even a 2010 model can be upgraded to the latest firmware and it is then functionally equivalent to a brand new system. There are many licenses available but it is impossible to tell what is in it and many sellers don’t know.
In summary, think very carefully before spending your hard earned money on a questionable system because it looks like the bargain of the century. We have a number of refurbished phone systems in stock that can be configured to suit your requirements.
Contact us for assistance.
