Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: dmr@csli.stanford.edu (Daniel M. Rosenberg) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: PhoneMate Answering Machine Problem Message-ID: Date: 8 May 89 19:01:28 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: "Daniel M. Rosenberg" Organization: World Otherness Ministries Lines: 41 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 158, message 6 of 8 In article gonzalez@bbn.com writes: >I recently purchased a PhoneMate answering machine. Consumer Reports had >indicated that readers had complained of failures of machines that had been >"check-rated" (highly recommended). One of the problems they reported was >that callers would be cut off while still speaking. I am now excountering >this problem. With the machine in VOX (record-'til-caller-stops-talking) Not with PhoneMate machines, but with Sanyo machines. Mine was a TAS-450, not a cheap little bugger, and it would hang up also between 5 and 20 seconds. Our outgoing message said "Shout so you don't get cut off," but that didn't help much. I sent a letter to Sanyo, and they said that their machine was a "quality product," and I obviously got a defective one. I sent it in along with $10 worth of postage, and got it back even more broken then before. The machine not only cut callers off, but almost never recognized touch tones for remote operation, had randomly blinking LEDs, would often lose messages instead of saving them -- it was just a piece of crap. I sent another letter to Sanyo, and threaten them with exposure on the net, among other places. They told me to try replacing my batteries again. (Didn't work.) My machine was not defective, I think, but designed wrong. Would it be too difficult to inlcude a VOX sensitivity adjustment with these things? (Mine didn't have one inside or out.) I hope you can return your PhoneMate; I doubt it can be repaired. I bought a Code-a-Phone, and am reasonably pleased with it. I lost a lot of money on the Sanyo, and got a lot of grief. I hope you folks consider not purchasing Sanyo business products, and *especially* stay away from the TAS-450 and the TAS-250. Bottomed rated in the Consumer Reports issue of two months after my purchase. Sigh. -- # Daniel M. Rosenberg // Stanford CSLI // Opinions are my own only. # dmr@csli.stanford.edu // decwrl!csli!dmr // dmr%csli@stanford.bitnet