Widow rented rotary phone for 42 years

Gina_M

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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- A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as more than $14,000 for a now outdated phone.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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060914/ap_on_fe_st/renting_rotary
 
My grampa did the same thing until his house burned down in 1993. :( It was the phone the company installed in the 1940s! No one realized he was renting it until the insurance company balked at paying the phone company over $100 for the destruction of "their property!"
 
Good Grief the money the telephone company made out of those old defunct phones is outrageous but i bet there are lots of aged people in the same position.They should all be replaced or free.
 
Even when I was getting my first apartment and phone in 1990, our phone company strongly "encouraged" me to rent my phone from them by saying that other phones can cause problems with the lines that I would be liable for. I rolled my eyes and said I'd take my chances!

My dad also rented a phone until around 1994...I didn't realize it till I saw his phone bill one time. I promptly bought him a phone and told his phone company where they could put theirs ;)
 
My grandparents have a yellow mustard colored rotary phone....I wonder if they are still renting it....they also have a cordless phone....so I ask why do they need a rotary and a cordless? Its an ugly yellow phone!
 
A.Wood said:
My grandparents have a yellow mustard colored rotary phone....I wonder if they are still renting it....they also have a cordless phone....so I ask why do they need a rotary and a cordless? Its an ugly yellow phone!
Rotary phones still work when the power is out, lol. But then so do phones which are not cordless.
 
I remember hearing about this back in the 80's


I think AT&T may have been sued?? It was on something like 60 minutes or one of those news shows. It was a huge scam.
Bak then as now it was the elderly who got taken in.

Bakers?? Cell phones work when the power is out too:) For that matter for 10$ you can buy a plug in princess style phone at the Dollar store.

Lisa... That if definately not right. So they are telling these people such BS about phone lines and many probably believe it!.

I think this should be investigated as elderly fraud. In Florida that is a stiff penalty.
 
I love the old rotary phones. I buy them when ever I find a working one at a garage sale or flea market. I have a big black one in my guest room ,
a red one in my living room and a green one next to my bed. LOL we have the new fangled fancy cordless ones in the office and the kitchen.
 
tybee204 said:
I love the old rotary phones. I buy them when ever I find a working one at a garage sale or flea market. I have a big black one in my guest room ,
a red one in my living room and a green one next to my bed. LOL we have the new fangled fancy cordless ones in the office and the kitchen.
I love the old black phones. :)
 
I like the old phones too. I have an ugly yellow wall phone and a princess. Of course we don't use them any more. I have bought so many "new fangled" phones, I could start my own company. The ones I bought from Bell for 150. only lasted as long as the 14.00 I now buy from Walmart.
 
Beyond Belief said:
I like the old phones too. I have an ugly yellow wall phone and a princess. Of course we don't use them any more. I have bought so many "new fangled" phones, I could start my own company. The ones I bought from Bell for 150. only lasted as long as the 14.00 I now buy from Walmart.
I buy my phones from Fry's Electronic or Walmart.
 
I have a reverse twist on that story. When we children were wee ones my mother, who may have been 25 at the time, was given a "lifetime subscription" to Readers Digest by a neighbor who appreciated what mother did for her. Mother died in 1986, at the age of 85. (Correct me if I am wrong but I assume this cost the woman about $30.)
I have a sister who is still receiving the magazine today, which would make my mother 105 years of age. Guess what I am saying is that the story works both ways.
 

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