Cordless phone/answering machines

[kriskwery]

A few months ago I replaced a separate cordless phone and an answering machine with a Cable & Wireless DECT "all in one" cordless answering system, model CWD 2700.  It was fine for a while but then started playing up, not functioning correctly with incoming calls ... no ringing tone, no messaging facility, just cutting straight to BT's standard voice mail service indicating that the line was busy & to leave a message.  As I had bought this on eBay (new, boxed) I didn't have a "retailer" as such to whom to return it as required by C&W, so cursed.  I've now bought another system (2nd hand this time), a BT On-Air 1250 and am completed fed up because I've got the same problem!!  Any ideas?  The phone line is shared with my computer and two other handsets but I've tried both answering systems directly into the main incoming BT line and they still don't work properly.  I'd be ever so grateful for some advice - if not, who'd like a couple of answering machines/cordless phones??!!

[cosmic-cow]

Have you tried plugging them in without the other devices connected at all? All telecommunications have a rating (can't remember what it's called at the moment) and your typical phone line is only designed to support a given rating. Some devices are rated higher than others meaning that you can effectively put less of them on a single line.

Disconnect evrything from your line and plug only one ofthe DECT phones in and see if the problem persists. If it does then it sounds like a line problem. Tell BT and they will be able to perform a check from their end (don't know how this works exactly but I sometimes install monitored alarm systems which use BT lines and we have had some problems which they could detect their end). They won't charge you for this - butmay if they have to send an engineer and there's no problem! Anyway, I find it highly unlikely that both the phones don't work and have the same problem, or are just really unlucky?

Hope that helps.

[Tim Baxter]

R.E.N. (Ring equivalent number) most items are rated at '1' and a total of 4 is allowed.  However my broadband won't work with more that 3 connected because my the total cable length is important too.

It doesn't really matter where you bought it from, the manufacturer still is responsible for the warranty.  Even if you bought it from Ebay the seller must have bought it from somewhere.  Imagine getting a birthday present which went faulty how would you go on for service if the maker did not support it?  Suggets you contact C&W direct and they should advise you of an agent to help you.

[kriskwery]

Thanks folks for the advice.

I have tried plugging both machines directly into the incoming line but to no avail.  The C&W one is just of guarantee (I "sat" on the problem for a while and reverted to an old dinosaur of an answering machine), so haven't got a hope in hell there now.  To their credit, C&W were helpful on the phone, suggesting I remove the battery and let it discharge completely to restore the system to factory defaults and if that didn't work to return it to the retailer. It didn't do the trick:  all messages, stored nos.etc were still there.  I assumed I had a duff item til I tried the BT On-Air one.  Oh dear, tis all a mystery to me!

I'll try the other suggestion & contact BT.  I am going through one of those phases in life when just about everything crashes, breaks, fails, dies ....... this is just a tiddler compared to some of the others! ! !

[joshuareil]

If you can afford to switch to a home PBX system or a VoIP phone system then you can have this kind of alerts you wish.

See this site:
http://www.virtualpbxcompare.com/

[jeremyhousely]

Try considering some cordless phone/answering machines from manufacturers like Siemens, Samsung, Philips, etc.