I want a telephone, too

[Jeff]

Any comments, anyone, about the MD 761? Or Motorola in general? I have a pretty simple minded 2.5 year old Motorola cordless with digital answering machine and it's been fine, but it is pretty simple minded.

http://www.phones-n-such.com/Motorola/motmd700.html

- Jeff

[Mike]

It looks like a nice phone. What do you want your phone to do that the current one doesn't?

[Dan in Saint Louis]

Any comments, anyone
I've gotten just as good range, voice quality, and reliability from the cheapest cordless I could find at Best Buy as I have from anything else I've ever tried. I think I gave $19.95 about 5 years ago, and it is still working just fine on its original battery <knock wood>.

[fhaber]

As everyone moves to the latest 2.6 multiphone digital and 5.2G phones, I bask in the reliability of my $5 (really!) 900MHz ones. They go through 14" asbestos cinderblock and wetwall plaster. The high-frequency ones don't.

[Jeff]

It looks like a nice phone. What do you want your phone to do that the current one doesn't?

My current one doesn't do 90% of what the 761 does, and I don't need 90%of that. But handset speakerphone, battery backup, voicemail light (should I ever get same). It also helps that the current one is failing...

- Jeff

[Mike]

That may make it worth it for you, especially if you're in the market for a new phone. I have a $40 Panasonic phone that does the speakerphone thing. I keep a corded phone at opposite ends of the house to cover power outages. And since I don't use telco voice mail, the light on my answering machine tells me when it has messages. :-)

And I'm a phone geek! <g>

[Gary Maltzen]

I keep a corded phone at opposite ends of the house to cover power outages. I just keep the master cordless unit on a UPS... ;-)

[Mike]

That'd do the job, but I'm like having one phone with a real bell ringer. :-)

[Jeff]

That may make it worth it for you, especially if you're in the market for a new phone. I have a $40 Panasonic phone that does the speakerphone thing. I keep a corded phone at opposite ends of the house to cover power outages. And since I don't use telco voice mail, the light on my answering machine tells me when it has messages. :-)

And I'm a phone geek! <g>

Well now I know the answer to my own question. Do not buy Motorola MD 700 series, or likely any other series. This MD 761 is a 'walmart special'; Made in China, and while the "manual" is in native English it has very little to do with the phone. The On, Off, Hold, and Mute buttons it describes do not exist, along with things in the handset menu that are not explained in the "manual". I'd send the damn thing back but in good conscience it's not defective, just incredibly stupid. And if I'd known it was made in China I wouldn't have bought it in the first place.

- Jeff

[Lindsey]

And if I'd known it was made in China I wouldn't have bought it in the first place.
My guess is that you're going to have difficulty finding anything like that that isn't made in China.

--Lindsey

[Jeff]

My guess is that you're going to have difficulty finding anything like that that isn't made in China.

--Lindsey

I know, and that's why I'm making it a habit to ask or look. On the GE lightbulb package is "Made in China", and right next to them on the rack is a 'no-name' brand of bulbs "Made in USA". The good old standard US brand names no longer interest me as much as where those US companies are having their stuff made, to the determent of US employment. "Buy American" is no longer just a slogan.

- Jeff

[Dan in Saint Louis]

"Buy American" is no longer just a slogan.- Jeff
Nor, alas, is it a sign of quality.

[Lindsey]

and right next to them on the rack is a 'no-name' brand of bulbs "Made in USA". The good old standard US brand names no longer interest me as much as where those US companies are having their stuff made, to the determent of US employment. "Buy American" is no longer just a slogan.
It's not necessarily that easy. "Made in USA" may only mean that it was made in some sweatshop in the Pacific which is a US possession, but where US labor laws are not observed.

See here, for example: http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/Issues/00-06%20SUM/madein.html

(And if I'm not mistaken, Abramoff was involved in lobbying for firms with manufacturing interests in the Marianas Islands, and --who else -- Tom DeLay was their champion in Congress. Ah -- yes: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=9700)

But it's not hopeless; this purports to be a list of companies that sell products that really ARE made in the USA; worth investigating at the very least:

http://www.angelfire.com/nv/micronations/madeinusa.html

--Lindsey

[Jeff]

But it's not hopeless; this purports to be a list of companies that sell products that really ARE made in the USA; worth investigating at the very least:

http://www.angelfire.com/nv/micronations/madeinusa.html

--Lindsey

Thanks; saved. Meanwhile, way out West we're trying for a new cattle brand:

http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/06/news060131_5.htm

Hesperus is about 15 miles from Durango.

- Jeff

[Dan in Saint Louis]

new cattle brand

http://landiss.info/graphics/cowcode.gif

[Lindsey]

Cute!!

[Mike]

I'd send the damn thing back but in good conscience it's not defective, just incredibly stupid. And if I'd known it was made in China I wouldn't have bought it in the first place.

Most retailers will accept for return any merchandise with which you're not satisfied, even if it's not considered broken or defective. I've returned plenty of things that I felt did not live up to the advertised hype or otherwise did not meet my needs.