Visited mom after work on Friday night. I phoned mom in the morning to ask if there was anything I should pick up. There was nothing. Got there and phoned, no answer. Stopped to get gas and called a few more times. No answer.
Parked at mom's and had someone let me into her building. Once I got inside I gave mom some flak about not answering her phone. Turned out her phone was not working. Actually neither phone was working. Tried the bedroom phone and could not call out nor would it receive a call. Same for the living room phone. Never ran across this kind of thing before. I had replaced one of her phones with a new cordless one just two weeks ago. I kept the old phone.
Next morning I bought two new phones that plug into a phone jack from Walmart. You used to be able to get plug in phones with no problem. I only found one model. Replaced both phones. Mom was visiting people in her building. They have a regular get together at two in the afternoon daily for coffee in the social room. Tested the new phones by calling from my cell phone. Both worked but only the bedroom one rang. Unplugged the bedroom one and called again. No ring on the remaining one. What the . . . ? I need her to be able to hear both.
Plugged the one back in the bedroom. Replaced the living room phone with what was there before, not the cordless one, the older one. Called from my cell phone again. Both phones rang. Switched the living room one back to the new one i just bought. Called and only the bedroom phone rang. Went through the process again with the same results. This is bizarre.
The bedroom phone was replaced with the new one. The living room phone went back to the old one she had weeks ago. Tested them a few more times, both rang. The leftover new phone got set aside in case I need it as well as the cordless one. By the way, trying to call the phone company for support is useless. I sat on hold from forty minutes and when someone finally answered I was told I had someone in the fibre department, whatever that means. I hung up. Customer service anywhere is a joke these days. I am not satisfied but at least mom can communicate. That is important since she does not drive anymore.
At least things work for now.
Because land lines are essentially obsolete these days, any new phone equipment for them is now cheap crap from gawd-knows-where that doesn't work worth a damn. And the old equipment including phone jacks and connections just aren't being maintained or serviced. My sister had the same problems with her land line and just (finally) ditched it a couple of weeks ago, opting to use her cell phone as her only phone now, like everyone else.
ReplyDeleteAs much as we hate to say it, land lines do have a use. I kept mine for emergency back up until I retired. There have been too many instances around the world that show the rapidity cell phones can be silenced.
ReplyDeleteDebra is correct in that the phone companies don't want to service land lines.
Dave
We have to keep our landline because it's tied into the buzzer system in our building. Our phones are getting quite 'elderly' so I suspect we're going to have to invest in some new ones before long. Hopefully they'll work better than the ones you got!
ReplyDelete