Posted on 09/14/2006 7:42:49 PM PDT by annie laurie
CANTON, Ohio - A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as more than $14,000 for a now outdated phone.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 owning telephones was unaffordable for most people.
Until two months ago, Strogen was still paying AT&T to use the phones $29.10 a month. 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?"
New Jersey-based Lucent Technologies, a spinoff of AT&T that manages the residential leasing service, said customers were given the choice option to opt out of renting in 1985. The number of customers leasing phones dropped from 40 million nationwide to about 750,000 today, he said.
"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.
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."
Good grief, about being "savvy." I'm not elderly or senile and I paid the stupid rent for 20+ years. Didn't get it taken off my bill until about 10 years ago.
No one ever called me up and pointed it out to me. I thought you had to rent them to have decent service. But, at some point after 1985, I just didn't pay attention to the service portion of my bills.
I worked very hard and I also made a ton of LD calls every month, which I did pay attention to. I didn't have time to mess around with $10-15 extra every month. Yes, it added up, but my time *then* was much more valuable to me and I was always on deadline - talking to the phone company for hours (and it was *always* hours) would cost me a lot of lost business if I didn't finish an interview or story or business plan or script or something on time.
That has to be a prank "story." "E. Strogen"????? C'mon!
Send me your email. I got one laying around here somewhere.
I'm sorry. I should have called you.
Yes, you should have! No worries, tho - my AT&T dividends more than paid for my phones over all those years.
FWIW, I did turn them in from time to time and got modular connections, lol. I started with push button, so rotary wasn't a problem. I do think those first ones had the "pulse" switch, tho!
That's right. Up until the late '50s most folks used tin cans and string.
Doesn't any newsroom proofread articles anymore?
My 26 y/o daughter wanted a rotary dial wall phone last year for Christmas for her basement rec room. Found one in virtually perfect shape on ebay for around $30. The sound of the mechanical bell is cool in itself!
"Until two months ago, Strogen was still paying AT&T to use the phones"
Es Strogen gave those bad men a pause.
IIRC that thing has a ring that can wake the dead.
I want my rotary back too!
That was a great advertising tool. I remember it well.
Pure stupidity and a sign of the times.
Look into high-speed satellite internet. My rancher friends hereabouts swear by it!
My mother was renting at least three phones from what was SNET (Southern New England Telephone) at the time several years ago. It has now morphed into SBC or some company.
I didn't realize she was renting the phones until I had to help her with her bills / checking account a few years ago and saw the charges on her bills. I finally put a stop to it and returned all three phones... and it was somewhat of a hassle, too. Geesh, I wonder to this day how much $$ she paid over the years to "rent" those old phones...
It is just too expensive right now.
This is HughesNet (Directway) Prices
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With our Promotional Purchase option, we've waived the activation fee (regularly $99.99) so you pay $0 upfront. Then, select a service plan with a monthly fee of just $99.99 for Home, $109.99 for Pro, or $119.99 for ProPlus, for the first 15 months. After the 15th month, your monthly service fee will revert back to the standard monthly rate. The Promotional Purchase option includes equipment and standard installation of your satellite dish and modem by a certified professional installer. You'll save an additional $100 after mail-in rebate!
A Wild Blue site I saw has it at $399 for installation and then $49 a month.
The cost is bound to go down, though. Tech stuff almost always does.
I know how you feel about the $$ outlay; I used to feel the same way about DSL, but one day I just bit the bullet and eventually found out I could afford it after all. What with the growth in online video and the thousands of radio stations available for free (in addition to high-speed FR, of course), it's a bargain. Sure beats TV (which I barely watch anymore but for sports and breaking news).
My gosh,I did not realize I was that old.Ours was two shorts!We had seven households on one line!Whew,the stuff we heard!
I have a friend who is 96 and still using her rotary dial phone. I did convince her to add a portable phone so she wouldn't have to get up so often. But there's no talking her out of that rotary.
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