I Confess...I keep a landline phone

Desert Lily · ‎06-24-2011

I've had this Panasonic landline phone for several years now. When the batteries died on the 2 extensions, I threw the extensions out. But, I kept the main phone and base that has voicemail. Those batteries have been slowly dying for over a year. I finally went to Target to buy batteries 2 weeks ago. The clerk said they didn't carry them any more and that it would be cheaper to buy a new phone. I said I'd buy a new phone if it had the same type of batteries as my current old phone. It didn't. I told her I didn't care how much the batteries cost, I'd go online to see if I could find them. She said, "You don't want a new phone?" I answered no and left. I rarely turn that phone on, and I never have the voicemail on. I've always deleted unimportat messages so I had space to keep other messages. My mother's voice is on that phone's voicemail saying, "I just called to hear your voice, honey." She passed away last summerr. My SO's voice is on it saying, "It's cold here.[He still lived back East.] Maybe it's because you're not here." He died suddenly of a stroke on Thanksgiving. I even kept a message about 5 years old when my child was a senior in high school saying, "Mom, you can pick me up now. I'll be in front of the building." My brother is on there singing a silly version of Happy Birthday to me. Well, I went home and found the batteries online at WalMart. I confess that I bought 6 sets.

sunshine 919 · ‎12-22-2013

@Desert Lily wrote:
I've had this Panasonic landline phone for several years now. When the batteries died on the 2 extensions, I threw the extensions out. But, I kept the main phone and base that has voicemail. Those batteries have been slowly dying for over a year. I finally went to Target to buy batteries 2 weeks ago. The clerk said they didn't carry them any more and that it would be cheaper to buy a new phone. I said I'd buy a new phone if it had the same type of batteries as my current old phone. It didn't. I told her I didn't care how much the batteries cost, I'd go online to see if I could find them. She said, "You don't want a new phone?" I answered no and left. I rarely turn that phone on, and I never have the voicemail on. I've always deleted unimportat messages so I had space to keep other messages. My mother's voice is on that phone's voicemail saying, "I just called to hear your voice, honey." She passed away last summerr. My SO's voice is on it saying, "It's cold here.[He still lived back East.] Maybe it's because you're not here." He died suddenly of a stroke on Thanksgiving. I even kept a message about 3 years old when my child was a senior in high school saying, "Mom, you can pick me up now. I'll be in front of the building." My brother is on there singing a silly version of Happy Birthday to me. Well, I went home and found the batteries online at WalMart. I confess that I bought 6 sets.

I have a land line, can't seem to give it up. I prefer talking on that instead of a cell phone at home.

noodleann · ‎06-10-2015

What a sweet story, @Desert Lily. I can see why you want to preseve that phone. Wonderful that you got replacement batteries.

I call my phone a landline, but it's really voice over internet via my cable company. The price for the package with phone and basic internet, no TV, will rise to over $100 next month, which is nuts. I'm buying an Ooma and will have recouped the cost, even with the monthly fees they now charge, in under six months. It comes with voicemail and other services.

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

You don't need an excuse to keep a landline, you don't need an excuse to keep anything that you want to keep. A lot of people still have landlines. I have one but to be honest, I only have it for my printer/fax machine.

ECBG · ‎01-08-2011

I have a land line. I don't want to carry a phone around with me everywhere.

I'm also concerned about being able to have the additional phone in an emergency. DH became a heart patient at 34 years old on Christmas Eve day. He was this town's first angioplasty.

Lilpuddin · ‎04-11-2010

That's such a sweet story! I have a saved voicemail from my little brother, who passed away 3 years ago. You can actually log on to your landline service provider's website and access your voicemails there too. I was able to save my brother's voicemail message as an MP3 file when I moved out of state and had to get new phone service.

skuggles · ‎11-20-2013

I have a panasonic landline too, and it also contains some special messages from years ago. too personal to discuss here. But my batteries started dying last year. I purchased some panasonic replacements from amazon and they are now failing after one year, which leads me to believe I received "retreads". I just ordered new panasonic original package Eneloop AAA. I'm hoping to get a similar life out of them, that I got out of the original batteries that came with the new product.