As a home office kinda guy I spend a lot of time on the phone. So much that I consider a good telephone headset an essential piece of equipment, and over the last few years I've tried a lot of them.

Last November I finally found a modest headset that worked well. It was the Panasonic KX-TA60, which doesn't have noise canceling, a feature that I find hurts more than it helps when it comes to voice clarity.

Unfortunately, after less than 3 months of use, the headset's mic stopped working. I called Panasonic's Customer Service Department to see if it was covered under warranty. The rep confirmed my purchase date, said that it was covered and issued an RMA. I sent the headset and a copy of the receipt to the repair department the next day.

Two weeks later I get a letter in the mail. Panasonic asked me to either provide proof of purchase (which I had already done) or to send them $25 to "repair" the headset. That, dear reader, is 150% more than what I paid for the headset when it was new. So, I filled out their form and faxed another copy of my purchase receipt.

Two weeks later, Panasonic sends me back my broken headset. A form letter says that they won't fix it because I didn't cough up $25, so they're returning my broken piece of crap. (OK, I'm paraphrasing the form letter, but that's the message.)

What a huge waste of everyone's time and money! Between the customer service phone call I made (where, I repeat, my warranty coverage was confirmed), the $5 I spent to mail the headset and my time sending the fax, I was already losing money. Now, Panasonic throws more money into a hole by rejecting my legitimate claim and returning a broken item.

So I bought a slightly more expensive Plantronics headset as a replacement. To be honest, it's not any better, but it certainly felt good not to give another dime to Panasonic. In the mean time, I'm still in search of good headset to use with a wireless phone.