Checked on the Mt. Charleston phone in April

[Dan Druff]

[Sanlmar]

You should consider purchasing that phone outright, Druff.


Woman paid thousands to rent rotary phone

CANTON, Ohio (AP) — A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as thousands of dollars for a now outdated phone.

Ester Strogen, 82, of Canton, first leased two black rotary phones — the kind whose round dial is moved manually with your finger — in the 1960s. Back then, the technology was new and most people had to rent telephones as part of their basic phone service. It was pre-AT&T when the telephone business was monopolized by the company known as "Ma Bell."

Bell was disbanded in 1983 and split into seven smaller companies and AT&T was given the right to handle long-distance and telephone-leasing services. From 1985 to 1986, customers who leased telephones were given the option to continue leasing, buy them or opt out of their agreements.

Until two months ago, Strogen was still paying AT&T to use the phones —$29.10 every three months, the phone company says. Strogen's granddaughters, Melissa Howell and Barb Gordon, ended the arrangement when they discovered the bills.

"I'm outraged," Gordon said. "It made me so mad. It's ridiculous. If my own grandmother was doing it, how many other people are?"

The number of customers leasing phones dropped from 40 million nationwide to about 750,000 today, said John Skalko, spokesman for Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies, a spinoff of AT&T that manages the residential leasing service.

We will continue to lease sets as long as there is a demand for them," Skalko said.

Benefits of leasing include free replacements and the option of switching to newer models, he said.

Lucent said records show Strogen paid just under $2,000 to rent the two phones from 1985 until they were recently returned. Before 1985, the rental costs were part of basic phone service and not broken out, Skalko said Thursday.

Strogen's family estimates her payments topped $14,000 over more than 40 years.

Gordon said she believes the majority of people leasing are elderly and may not realize they are paying thousands of dollars for a telephone.

Skalko said bills are clearly marked, and customers can quit their lease any time by returning their phones.

Strogen says she's not a big fan of her new push-button phone.

"I'd like to have my rotary back," she said. "I like that better."

[offthetop]

Slimmed down druff 2.0 Are you becoming anorexic?

[Dan Druff]

You should consider purchasing that phone outright, Druff.


Woman paid thousands to rent rotary phone

CANTON, Ohio (AP) — A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as thousands of dollars for a now outdated phone.

Ester Strogen, 82, of Canton, first leased two black rotary phones — the kind whose round dial is moved manually with your finger — in the 1960s. Back then, the technology was new and most people had to rent telephones as part of their basic phone service. It was pre-AT&T when the telephone business was monopolized by the company known as "Ma Bell."

Bell was disbanded in 1983 and split into seven smaller companies and AT&T was given the right to handle long-distance and telephone-leasing services. From 1985 to 1986, customers who leased telephones were given the option to continue leasing, buy them or opt out of their agreements.

Until two months ago, Strogen was still paying AT&T to use the phones —$29.10 every three months, the phone company says. Strogen's granddaughters, Melissa Howell and Barb Gordon, ended the arrangement when they discovered the bills.

"I'm outraged," Gordon said. "It made me so mad. It's ridiculous. If my own grandmother was doing it, how many other people are?"

The number of customers leasing phones dropped from 40 million nationwide to about 750,000 today, said John Skalko, spokesman for Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies, a spinoff of AT&T that manages the residential leasing service.

We will continue to lease sets as long as there is a demand for them," Skalko said.

Benefits of leasing include free replacements and the option of switching to newer models, he said.

Lucent said records show Strogen paid just under $2,000 to rent the two phones from 1985 until they were recently returned. Before 1985, the rental costs were part of basic phone service and not broken out, Skalko said Thursday.

Strogen's family estimates her payments topped $14,000 over more than 40 years.

Gordon said she believes the majority of people leasing are elderly and may not realize they are paying thousands of dollars for a telephone.

Skalko said bills are clearly marked, and customers can quit their lease any time by returning their phones.

Strogen says she's not a big fan of her new push-button phone.

"I'd like to have my rotary back," she said. "I like that better."

This is why regulated utilities are such a fail.

You would think all of the intense regulations on local phone companies would prevent this from happening, but there are so many stories out there like this.

There's nothing this old bat can do about it, since she just happily kept paying the same bill over time, and knew exactly what she was getting.

I'm sure you will still find some old people out there paying $60/month for 20 minutes of cell service, which they established in 1996.

[uthglitch]

Great set of breasts you have there Todd. Never knew you were a D cup?

And we all know your narcissistic attitude. This was the best of the best. The hand picked pictures that you decided to post. I'd love to see the ones that didn't make the cut.

[Dan Druff]

Great set of breasts you have there Todd. Never knew you were a D cup?

And we all know your narcissistic attitude. This was the best of the best. The hand picked pictures that you decided to post. I'd love to see the ones that didn't make the cut.

You're right, I had a full photo shoot of 300 pictures on the way up to Mt. Charleston.

Still continuing with the terrible attempt at trolling, I see.

Besides, an older gentleman like you really shouldn't be making man-boob jokes.

[handicapme]

Great set of breasts you have there Todd. Never knew you were a D cup?

And we all know your narcissistic attitude. This was the best of the best. The hand picked pictures that you decided to post. I'd love to see the ones that didn't make the cut.

You're right, I had a full photo shoot of 300 pictures on the way up to Mt. Charleston.

Still continuing with the terrible attempt at trolling, I see.

Besides, an older gentleman like you really shouldn't be making man-boob jokes.

Why not just ban this guy? He adds nothing to the forum and just shits on you.

[ftpjesus]

You should consider purchasing that phone outright, Druff.


Woman paid thousands to rent rotary phone

CANTON, Ohio (AP) — A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as thousands of dollars for a now outdated phone.

Ester Strogen, 82, of Canton, first leased two black rotary phones — the kind whose round dial is moved manually with your finger — in the 1960s. Back then, the technology was new and most people had to rent telephones as part of their basic phone service. It was pre-AT&T when the telephone business was monopolized by the company known as "Ma Bell."

Bell was disbanded in 1983 and split into seven smaller companies and AT&T was given the right to handle long-distance and telephone-leasing services. From 1985 to 1986, customers who leased telephones were given the option to continue leasing, buy them or opt out of their agreements.

Until two months ago, Strogen was still paying AT&T to use the phones —$29.10 every three months, the phone company says. Strogen's granddaughters, Melissa Howell and Barb Gordon, ended the arrangement when they discovered the bills.

"I'm outraged," Gordon said. "It made me so mad. It's ridiculous. If my own grandmother was doing it, how many other people are?"

The number of customers leasing phones dropped from 40 million nationwide to about 750,000 today, said John Skalko, spokesman for Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies, a spinoff of AT&T that manages the residential leasing service.

We will continue to lease sets as long as there is a demand for them," Skalko said.

Benefits of leasing include free replacements and the option of switching to newer models, he said.

Lucent said records show Strogen paid just under $2,000 to rent the two phones from 1985 until they were recently returned. Before 1985, the rental costs were part of basic phone service and not broken out, Skalko said Thursday.

Strogen's family estimates her payments topped $14,000 over more than 40 years.

Gordon said she believes the majority of people leasing are elderly and may not realize they are paying thousands of dollars for a telephone.

Skalko said bills are clearly marked, and customers can quit their lease any time by returning their phones.

Strogen says she's not a big fan of her new push-button phone.

"I'd like to have my rotary back," she said. "I like that better."

This is why regulated utilities are such a fail.

You would think all of the intense regulations on local phone companies would prevent this from happening, but there are so many stories out there like this.

There's nothing this old bat can do about it, since she just happily kept paying the same bill over time, and knew exactly what she was getting.

I'm sure you will still find some old people out there paying $60/month for 20 minutes of cell service, which they established in 1996.

On the flipside the competition for VoIP services seems to be getting fiercer everyday. I remember when Vonage started out and everybody thought it was a great deal.. Cheaper for sure then your avg phone line but honestly until bandwidth increased and speeds did there were times at least for me back when I had Vonage it seemed to lag out and even have voice quality issues.. The big cable companies have hopped on bundling it with their video and internet and price wise its a total failure.. Their prices aren't even close to competitive even Vonage beats them out... The one that has intrigued me is when the wireless carriers started offering "home phone service" definitely cheaper then vonage at 15-20/month. Ive also wondered about MagicJack.. I bought one and used it to keep out previous landline number available when we moved and we were already using cell phones primarily (not sure if folks are aware but lack of a 'landline' actually can ding your credit report I found out somehow your viewed as a higher risk dunno who..).. Let it lapse though when we moved to AZ.. Ive seen a few others out there but never tried like Basic Talk which is Walmarts own home phone through VoIP service at 9.99 and the new duotalk which seems to be a competitor for magicjack..Either way the options nowadays for a 'home' phone are such its fairly cheap and easy if you have decent high speed internet or even if you don't the wireless options from Verizon,ATT,Sprint which carry contracts unless you buy the device outright or theres a third party one Ive seen also at Walmart for 99 which offrs 15/mo for US Nationwide and I think its a little more for access to international LD...

I left out Skype because well for direct video chat its fine but the few times I tried to use it for normal calls for some reason there was bad echo and other serious quality issues and wasn't impressed.. Cant blame my INet I had decent upper tier quality of 30-40Mbps down and roughly 5 up. (slow compared to now with 150 down and avg 30 up we have here in Phx metro now.. and we have Google 1Gig coming soon ironically Cox now claims they are going to chase the customers as well and will upgrade to offer 1Gbps service to compete with Google Fibre but somehow I doubt costwise they'll have a chance in hell)

[uthglitch]

Handi,

Love how you run to your daddy's defense. Maybe you could lick his balls while he's on the treadmill trying to lose the man boobs?

[Hockey Guy]

Great set of breasts you have there Todd. Never knew you were a D cup?

And we all know your narcissistic attitude. This was the best of the best. The hand picked pictures that you decided to post. I'd love to see the ones that didn't make the cut.

Fluffer, Fluffer....is that you?

Handi,

Love how you run to your daddy's defense. Maybe you could lick his balls while he's on the treadmill trying to lose the man boobs?

I guess not. Fluffer would never use gay sex as an insult since he's all for it.

Carry on.

[uthglitch]

HG,

Sorry but I don't get the fluffer reference.
And Todd before you ban me. I'd like to have lunch on the 23rd with you. I'll be at the Rio as well on Monday. I'm pretty sure you'll change your mind upon a face to face.

[Dan Druff]

HG,

Sorry but I don't get the fluffer reference.
And Todd before you ban me. I'd like to have lunch on the 23rd with you. I'll be at the Rio as well on Monday. I'm pretty sure you'll change your mind upon a face to face.

Why would I want to have lunch with someone who does nothing but troll me with terrible insults?

And even if I did, why would that change my mind about you?

[Hockey Guy]

HG,

Sorry but I don't get the fluffer reference.
And Todd before you ban me. I'd like to have lunch on the 23rd with you. I'll be at the Rio as well on Monday. I'm pretty sure you'll change your mind upon a face to face.

Why would I want to have lunch with someone who does nothing but troll me with terrible insults?

And even if I did, why would that change my mind about you?

It's someone you know just fuckin' with ya.

[Dan Druff]

Why would I want to have lunch with someone who does nothing but troll me with terrible insults?

And even if I did, why would that change my mind about you?

It's someone you know just fuckin' with ya.

It's not someone I know. Trust me on that one especially.

[Hockey Guy]

It's someone you know just fuckin' with ya.

It's not someone I know. Trust me on that one especially.

Go for lunch then you'll know.

[uthglitch]

HG,

Sorry but I don't get the fluffer reference.
And Todd before you ban me. I'd like to have lunch on the 23rd with you. I'll be at the Rio as well on Monday. I'm pretty sure you'll change your mind upon a face to face.

Why would I want to have lunch with someone who does nothing but troll me with terrible insults?

And even if I did, why would that change my mind about you?

Cause I'm buying. And we all know that you cream in your pants for a gratis meal.

And to Richard brodie: fu (k off!

[Dan Druff]

Why would I want to have lunch with someone who does nothing but troll me with terrible insults?

And even if I did, why would that change my mind about you?

Cause I'm buying. And we all know that you cream in your pants for a gratis meal.

And to Richard brodie: fu (k off!

You don't need to type "fu(k off" here. This isn't 2+2.

I have $2300 in RCs (you know, the ones you think I obtained illegally), so I don't need trolls to buy me food.

[zealanddonk]

He obviously has a crush on you Druff. For the love of God, do not follow him to the back of the RIO parking lot.

Any chance its Slim-T coming back after finding the cure for cancer?

[uthglitch]

Todd,
I retracted my use of the word illegal and replaced it with Unethical. You exploited a glitch and used it to your advantage.

Zeal,
Not in love with Druff. And please don't lump me into the same category as these major ball lickers:
Beer & poker
Lew
Richard brodie
Badguy
Dj chaps

[badguy23]

Lol id love to shoot your fckin mom u fckin faggot nerdy wet cunt..Then fck your half sister slash wife while i play a banjo as one of your 5 stray dogs licks my balls. Dont ever say i love any jew.