by Susan Jacobson
Please. Don't call me "Ma'am". As in, "Ma'am you would have known that if you had carefully read your owner's manual."
As a matter of fact, being the compulsive person I am, and shamelessly confident in my technologic ineptitude, I do read my owner's manuals. Cover to cover.
Over the years, however, I've learned gradually that I can safely skip the parts that congratulate me on my purchase, warn me not to play with it in the bathtub, not to overload my wall outlets, etc.
Deciding to let my 9-year-old household cordless phones die with dignity, I replaced them with two cordless Unidens. Installation was unremarkable, programming and usage a piece of cake.
Everything was great.
For 2 1/2 months.
Inexplicably, caller ID quit working on both phones simultaneously. When a call came in, the readout showed only "incoming call". Nor did the caller's phone number appear on the caller id scroll. Everything else worked--the phone itself, voice mail, and message retrieval.
How strange.
Even I knew the problem had to be with the phone company. But two calls to them on two separate days assured me the problem lay elsewhere. Perhaps the phones themselves, they suggested.
Back to the Depot
I took my receipt and (well-worn) owner's manual back to the Office Depot where I made the purchase to ask whether or not they had had any similar experiences with this phone. The electronics maven just scratched his head, muttering, "This is really weird."
