pushp@cerf.net (Pushpendra Mohta) (09/04/90)
#Moderator's Note: "Toll Saver" is a way of saving money on calls to #answering machines by having the machine not pick up until after #several rings if there are no messages received. If a message is on #the tape, then the answering machine picks up immediatly, on the first #or second ring, as you have it set. If there are no messages, then the #owner calling in knows to hang up after about the third ring so no #charge will be made to call an answering machine which has nothing to #say. Its a little more involved than that, but that is the idea. PAT] Be prepared to be mislead if you call immediately after someone called and left a message. On most (non-digital) answering machines, You will continue to hear rings till the machine resets itself. pushpendra CERFnet [Moderator's Note: This of course depends on your call arriving within seconds of the last call; not impossible, but not terribly likely unless you have a very busy line. And one guideline would be if you called and got a busy signal, then called a minute later and got a ring, let it ring until it does reset. PAT]
john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) (09/05/90)
Pushpendra Mohta <pushp@cerf.net> writes: > Be prepared to be mislead if you call immediately after someone called > and left a message. On most (non-digital) answering machines, You > will continue to hear rings till the machine resets itself. Ah, what a sheltered life I've led. The two mechanical answering machines that I have owned that had "toll saver" (or as someone once put it, "cheap realtor") didn't have that problem, and for different reasons. The first was an ancient Coda-a-Phone model 333. This unit did not come with this mode, but one day I got a great idea. The machine had a light on it that would come on if the incoming message tape was "off home", indicating visually that you had messages. There was also an internal resistor that one could change to set the number of rings that would be ignored before the unit answered. Why not put a little relay in the unit that would bridge another resistor in the circuit if the "off home light" was lit, causing the machine to answer on the first, rather than fourth ring? It worked perfectly. And this was long before I had ever heard (1975) of "toll saver". The machine also had the advantage of being able to "reset" immediately. As soon as it hung up, it was ready for the next call. The other machine was a Panasonic two-line (I forget the model number). After each call, it would churn and whirr and clunk, but the entire time this was going on the line was kept off hook. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !
ted@eslvcr.wimsey.bc.ca (Ted Powell) (09/05/90)
}[Moderator's Note: This of course depends on your call arriving within }seconds of the last call; not impossible, but not terribly likely }unless you have a very busy line. And one guideline would be if you }called and got a busy signal, then called a minute later and got a }ring, let it ring until it does reset. PAT] Better yet, hang up and try again in a couple of minutes. With my machine at least, if the caller hangs up before the beep, this doesn't count as a message. That is, assuming no other messages on the tape, it will answer after four rings rather than two. Getting a busy signal only means that someone was on the line, not that they had anything to say. ted@eslvcr.wimsey.bc.ca ...!ubc-cs!van-bc!eslvcr!ted (Ted Powell)