Is it me or are manufacturers making phones cheaper? In the last few phone purchases, I’ve not had one quality, long-lasting phone. Long-lasting means making it to one year without problems. Most of the time, they break on day 91 - the day after the warranty expires. Slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

One phone didn’t last long away from its base (battery died fast), another one’s battery doesn’t work at all and it costs $20 to replace, and another could never make a connection and we discovered too late as it was a gift to the oldest and it sat in her room collecting dust. We have another one, but it is not cordless. Seriously! Paul is threatening to get a cord phone. Noooo!

We’ve got to get a new cordless phone as the main one we use disconnects me from the Internet every time it’s in use. We’ve had it for a while, but I finally moved my workstation into the real office and connect wirelessly to the Internet. Previously, I was close enough to connect with a cable without anyone tripping over it, pulling it, or playing jump rope with it.

Most of the phones I’ve reviewed get lousy ratings. Simple requirements - cordless, CallerID, average prices, and DOES NOT disconnect PC from the Internet. Oh yeah, as soon as we found out about this phone’s lousy side effect, we called the company and it would not do a thing. All sales are final. I understand that rule - but there was NOTHING about Internet interference. It was the first (and I hope - the only) phone to do this. I worked for the company that sold this phone and management would not budge.

The phone that kicks us off the Internet is a 2.4 GHz phone… and so are the other two that don’t interfere with the Internet. Supposedly, the latest 5.8 GHz phones don’t interfere with the wireless as they’re not on the same frequency while 2.4 GHz uses the same range as 802.11b/g use (thanks, Will) - how do you explain the other two on the same GHz don’t scramble our lifeline to the world out there?

Recommendations, anyone?

[Originally posted on meryl's notes]