I purchased this phone with the accessory handsets--three of them to be exact and I've had the same problem with all of the handsets...none of them can retain a charge. One phone will hold for about 10 minutes and the other phones will die after only 2 minutes of use! Of course, this happened after the approved return period, so now I am stuck with these phones that do not work.Do not buy this phone under any circumstances. If it was just one of the cordless phones, I would have thought it was just a defective battery, but all three of the cordless phones are having the same problem which makes me think that it's a manufacturing problem.The corded telephone with the answering machine work great, but if you are in the market for an expandable system, then this is not the phone system for you.