New technology...vs..old stuff...phones.. got to share this....

[Stuart G]

I think it was four years ago, I bought two cordless Panasonic phones..latest gadgets...I had two more hooked up to phone lines around the house..ok..4 phones..one very old..dial phone that looked like the old ones..you know..desk types that everyone had short ugly face with a dial.
Another old one I bought in the 90s, is a push button slim looking thing. Both of the old ones, have always had a better clearer sound then the new ones, but the new ones did not need a cord, and had gadgets..built in phone book, automatic dialing, ring tones..settings...etc.....etc...etc...

A year after I bought the new ones, the answering machine built into the new main base went out..just went out, and never returned..so I hooked up an old answering machine bought about 10 years ago..but the 4 phones worked ok, till Sunday..Then for no reason at all.......I was getting a ring ring...and picked up, and no answer..like the phone was picking up a ring, but then deadening the whole call..Who knows what the hell...but...and here is the but.....where the hell is the ring ring coming from????

So I go down to the old 1980s dial phone and the ring ring is from that...so I call someone on that and it works..regular call...But...the cordless modern phones. identify a ring, but...no call...and you could not get a call out on the cordless either..I was sure that it was the phone line.........................................
.....but, I hooked up the slim push button, to the same line that the cordless was hooked up to...and guess what...the push button 1990s phone got a dial tone and made a call, while the new, gadget cordless did not. same line..and of course, the cordless had a twin , you know..another that sends a signal to the original base...that doesn't work either...
....So...I am down to 2 phones...a 1980s ugly dial phone built in the USA..(near Chicago) ...and a push button thin long phone....full size.. ... ...clearly the same old technology as the dial..but push buttons....without
the gadgets as the wonderful new Panasonic..cordless....they don't work no more.....................................
Why.. does the old stuff work, and new stuff don't work....you are smarter than me....thank you................

[snooper2]

1. beacuse the old phones had less complex technology

and companies try to do everything on the cheap these days...

Panasonic makes a shitty phone FYI...I know since it's kind of like my job to know


You'll have to spend a little money to get a decent phone this days. Or just get a black phone and be done with it. (black phone = basic tip/ring, DTMF, and flash hook.)

[Frustratedlady]

6. Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where I could get a cover

for a light on a desktop phone, would you? I have one from the 50s that I assume was used by a hard of hearing person, as the phone base has a tiny light bulb that blinks when the phone rings, but the cover is gone. I can't find a place to get a replacement.

[snooper2]

9. I wouldn't know, google the model number

[Frustratedlady]

12. Thanks!

[Frustratedlady]

2. Quality is gone. I want my old telephones, washer, drier and dishwasher back.

There was a very different tone to the old phones compared to the new. My daughter is having a horrible time with her phone hook-up thru the cable company. She complained about the tone of my phones, but it ended up her phone. My sil's phone sounds like she's in a barrel and cuts out.

Maybe the FBI is tapping you for your undercover work.

Good luck with finding a solution. I assume the warranty ran out?

[snooper2]

8. CALEA warrants have nothing to do with the endpoints (phones)

FYI..

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I'm still using a wall phone I bought from AT&T when we started having

to buy phones vs. having them as part of phone service. What year was that?

[MineralMan]

4. I actually have an old Oak farm phone on my

kitchen wall. The kind with a separate earpiece plus a microphone attached to the cabinet. You can still answer calls on it. You can even dial out by depressing and releasing the earpiece cradle the appropriate number of times, with a pause between numbers. I also have a 1930s rotary dial candlestick phone. It works great.

The telephone is the ultimate backwards compatible system.

[Romulox]

5. My wife sews. Some of the best machines out there are Singers...from the 1930s-1960s.

I really appreciate the engineering of the older machines. With a little tlc they work perfectly, today.

[UncleYoder]

10. and some of the crappiest

are Singers from the last 20 years. I do agree they used to be good but no more. Every moving part inside is plastic now.

[olddots]

7. i'd like to say its because of printed circuits instead of wired circuits

that could be wrong but the new stuff does seem to be falling apart for many reasons .what saddens me is we take what we get now and don't complain because we have no input when everything is made by slaves over seas and or here .I used to sell electronics and at one time Panasonic gear was really dependable then about 10 years ago it became just as crappy as the junk brands.
Don't stop complaining we are not Luddites we care.

[RC]

11. Phones have a polarity.

They need to be connected correctly. Is it possibly your problems are because they are hooked up backwards?
Those color coded wires are for a reason. Also faulty devices on the line can cause problems.

How to Check Phone Lines for Problems
http://www.ehow.com/how_5095766_check-phone-lines-problems.html

A tester such as this is good to have
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Gardner-Bender-Telephone-Line-Tester-TT6200L/202821557

Any hardware store that sells telephone hookup stuff should have something to check the phone line.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

13. Your corporate masters whant you to buy shit. Over and over and over. It's that simple

[Hekate]

14. Planned obsolescence in (formerly) public utilities

My husband has an old rotary dial phone in the garage. Guess which was the only phone in the neighborhood that actually worked during the wildfire? We sat in our neighbor's driveway watching cell towers blow up in the hills, and all those cute little gadgets whimpered and died. He dug out the rotary phone (our cordless ones also went silent) and that sucker gave us a dial tone on the first try.

There are a few things in my life that I want to be built to last....

[trackfan]

15. The worst part is the bad "walkie-talkie" effect you get on newer phones

and systems. If I'm talking, the other person blanks out, and vice-versa. It's to the point where sometimes, when I'm talking with my wife from work, we have to say "over" when we're done speaking and ready to receive.

[llmart]

16. I have a cordless phone that I use most of the time....

but I kept my old push button phone from the '80's (or was it the 70's?). When the power goes out the cordless phone doesn't work, so I just plug the old one into the wall and voila! It always works in a power outage. Except I can't call anyone because everyone I know has cordless phones.

During the rolling blackouts in the Midwest in I think 2002 (?) even cell phones didn't work.

[talkingmime]

17. Simple. The old stuff was built to last. The new stuff is built to fail.

[hobbit709]

18. I have one phone hardwired in the house.

the others are portable. Whenever there's a power failure the wired phone works.