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TeleZapper TZ 900

TeleZapper TZ 900

List Price: $39.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You don't have to use it Forever !!!
Review: After a month or two, you can remove it...and lend it to someone else. The bulk of the telemarketers (as well as the Do Not Call exempts) will be gone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Keep on ZAPPING 'EM
Review: Been zapping telemarketers for a couple months now. Now when the phone rings, it is actually someone I want to talk to; like it was meant to be. I got tired of telling them over and over to take me off their call list. This does it for me. Thinking of buying one for my sister as a gift.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Complete waste of money!!
Review: Don't waste your money on this junk -- the only thing it zaps is unsuspecting consumers' wallets! And the so-called customer service is an absolute joke.

My experience: I was receiving junk faxes and telemarketing calls on my new unlisted dedicated fax phone line. Installed the Telezapper TZ900; no change. Bumped up the settings on the Telezapper per the instructions. Still, no change. Called Customer Service to find out why no change. (It took me a week of several calls to even get through to Customer Service.) "Tech" told me that since I had a second phone line, I'd have to buy another Telezapper to add to that line for the first one to work. ...!!! I put the voice line on speaker mode and called my fax via my cell phone (ridiculous in more ways than one, eh?) so that the Tech could hear what happened on the line. Yeah, the special Telezapper tone kicked in -- it just DOESN'T DO ANYTHING except embarrass the hell out of the so-called Tech. Worth it after all just for that? Nah!

Bottom line, don't waste your money!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It works - sometimes too well.
Review: Great device... it actually works. A ring still brings you to the telephone though and, upon answering, you do hear a beep (Note: you even hear the beep when you pick up the receiver to dial out); it's a little annoying, but worth missing all of those sales calls. When a computer calls your house, as I said, you still get the ring and when you answer you hear a beep but then... silence. At that point you know TeleZapper has done its job. How does it work "too well?" Unfortunately I've discovered that it zaps computer generated calls from my hospital which they use to remind out-patients of scheduled appointments. But it works so well at zapping sales calls that I will not disconnect it. Now, with the government's "do not call" registry, I still leave it plugged in and am rarely bothered by sales calls.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: TeleZapper TZ 900
Review: Great product. Has saved us a lot of time. No computer generated calls during dinner anymore. We are very pleased with this product.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Save the packaging and reciept so you can return it!
Review: Here's the message I sent to Privacy Technologies:

I purchased a TeleZapper TZ900 and installed it per the instructions. However, whenever my answering machine or my wireless phone picks up the phone line, the TeleZapper dosen't beep. If I pickup the phone with one of the wired lines, it beeps and will continue to beep while I'm dialing the phone. This is unacceptable, if I knew the TeleZapper was incompatiable with certain types of phone, I wouldn't have bought it. Do you know how to solve this problem short of purchasing another answering machine and not using my wireless phone?

Here's the answer I received from Privacy Technologies Customer Service. Notice they don't address the incompatiability between my answering maching and wireless phone and the TeleZapper:

Hello,

Thank you for your recent e-mail. There is a switch on your unit that allows you to switch between basic and advanced mode. If that switch is not all the way to one setting then you can get some intermittent beeping. Move the switch back and forth and then to the desired setting, making sure that it goes all the way over. This should eliminate the extra beeps. I would like to make you aware that the TeleZapper could zap calls from organizations other than telemarketers that also use predictive dialing equipment such as charitable organizations, blood banks, public safety and service organizations, market researchers, opinion and political pollsters, and academic institutions. If you prefer to receive calls from any of these organizations, please check with them to determine whether or not they rely on predictive dialing equipment to reach you. If so, you can ask that your phone number be manually dialed or that alternative means be used to contact you. Manually-dialed calls will not be "zapped" by the TeleZapper.

Thank you for your time in this matter.

Sincerely,

Customer Service

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not the End-all, Be-all Solution
Review: I actually have the earlier model of the TeleZapper -- the one that's the size of a small answering machine. The product does exactly what it is designed to actually do, and it does so reliably. But the real question is does what the product actually do stand up to it's marketing as a way to stop telemarketers from calling you.

The answer is, to some degree, sort-of.

The way it works is this: The telemarketer calls you. You (or your answering machine) answers the call, and the TeleZapper beeps. If the telemarketer is using the right equipment to recognize that tone as being a non-working number, the telemarketer will automatically disconnect from the call, and theoretically delete your phone number from the list it is using.

So let's look at this closer. Your phone still rings. If you (or your answering machine) does not answer the ringing phone, the beep-tone is never heard by the telemarketer's equipment. The result of not answering the phone is the same with or without the TeleZapper.

Okay, so we have to answer the phone once. But after that one time aren't we deleted from the lists they all use? Well, no. There are lots of lists out there. Some are used only once. Doesn't do much good to be removed from a list that will never be used again. But in all fairness, you will be removed from a few lists that might have gotten used again.

My personal experience was that initially there was no change in the number of calls. It took some time before any of those beeps my TeleZapper made had any effect on whether or not I was going to get called again. During this first period, I still got to talk to a lot of telemarketers because they weren't using equipment that the TeleZapper had any effect upon.

After about three or four months, I realized that there were far fewer times that I answered the phone, and no one was there. That could mean one of two things: Either the TeleZapper was working, and I was really was being taken off the lists, or telemarketers stopped using the kind of equipment that's stopped by the TeleZapper.

It's been over a year now, and it's just been in the last two weeks that things changed again. I'm now suddenly again getting lots of calls with no one there. My speculation is that the TeleZapper worked, and I was taken off of quite a few lists, but now there are new lists out there that include my name.

You can't really control who calls you on the phone any more than you can control which people you pass on the street will say something to you. But just as there are things that you can do to discourage people you pass from saying something to you, there are things you can do to discourage telemarketers from calling you. The TeleZapper can be a part of your arsenal, but don't expect it to be the best tool you can use. And since the TeleZapper doesn't start to do anything unless you (or your answering machine) picks up the phone, don't expect this tool to take the lead, either.

So the TeleZapper functions. It does have some effect. Is it worth the price? Well, I don't have any regrets about spending the money, but I wouldn't do it again. If your state has a no-call list, the fee to be included on that list is probably going to get you a better bang for your buck.

On the other hand, if you're not as assertive as I can be with Telemarketers, the TeleZapper saves you from having to speak directly to sone telemarketers, so the price may be worth it to you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works as advertised
Review: I always enjoy reading reviews of "controversial" items. It amazes me what expectations people have in a product. This item is a great example. Here's how this item works:

Telemarketers and others use computers to call up people to try to sell them stuff. They can literally dial THOUSANDS of numbers a day. It doesn't matter if your number is unlisted. If it can be generated by a computer, you will get unsolicited calls. Caller ID is great to avoid unwanted calls BUT unfortunately, just because you don't answer, doesn't mean they'll stop calling your number. The phone company offers a "blocking" service, but you pay every month and sometimes every call coming into your number. There is a national and state by state "NO CALL" list you can sign up to on the net. But, I'm signed up with several, I still received DOZENS of calls selling stuff.

For various reasons, the Phone company's computer has an electronic signal to mark disconnected phone numbers to other computerized systems.
The Telezapper TZ900 mimicks these electronic "disconnected" signals. That fools the telemarketers' (and others) computers into believing the number is disconnected and hangs it up. The telemarketers system is set up to delete "disconnected" numbers, so it doesn't waste "valuable" telemarkerters time.
If you have Telezapper connected correctly (pretty easy with instructions), your phone number will eventually show up as disconnected to all the telemarketers! The telemarketers will EVENTUALLY stop calling.
There are NUMEROUS telemarketers with NUMEROUS computerized calling systems, but EVENTUALLY your phone number will be on less and less lists! Thus less & less calls.
It won't be immediately. I noticed a difference after a week. And if you have that one telemarketer who seems to call YOU 8 - 10 times a day, he's gone after just one ZAP!
As telemarketers lives become harder and harder, their equipment becomes more sophisticated. Thus, so do the countermeasures like TeleZapper TZ900. Life in the 21st century. So, unfortunately, I may have to buy an updated "better" one next year.

The pros are that this unit doesn't need a converter to take up an electrical outlet. It has a three tone signal instead of the earlier model's one tone signal. This eliminates even more telemarketing systems!
The cons are that this unit is kind of expensive. And you need to avail yourself of different anti-telemarketing strategies in addition to help eliminate unwanted sales calls completely.

This product is a good tool you can utilize to stop telemarketing abuse.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Makes a loud, annoying tone when used with a cordless phone
Review: I bought my TeleZapper for use with a new Motorola 2.4 GHz Digital cordless phone. Whenever I press the "ON" or the "HANDS-FREE" buttons on the handset, the phone emits a loud and annoying beep. This makes it very difficult to hold the handset close to you ear when you make or take a phone call. When I disconnect the TeleZapper, this loud tone is not present.

Anyone else have this problem?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Be sure this is what you want!
Review: I didn't purchase one of these, because I found out something useful before I did. I had the blocker service on my phone, purchased through the telephone company. It did a great job of filtering out calls from telemarketers. But, what I didn't know was, it also filtered out calls from phone cards and all 800 numbers. I have some relatives and friends that have either phone cards with limited minutes or an 800 number they use. The blocker service I had wouldn't let these calls through. I found out from the telephone company that the TeleZapper would do the same. So, if you know someone you would like to hear from that uses these things, just be aware that they wouldn't be able to get through if you put the TeleZapper on your line.


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