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Can anyone recommend a quiet phone?

pewpewmcdrew

(landline not mobile)

The last phone I bought I had to get rid of because the ring was too loud even with the volume at the lowest.

The phone I have now (different make) the ring is still too loud, and the speaker is too loud as well I usually hold it away from my ear because it's too loud to have pressed against my ear. 

And the fact the ring is high-pitched doesn't help matters.

  • I have a cordless phone (Panasonic KX-TG6821), which has a night mode during which only the base rings and not the handset. Presumably the quieter night mode could be set constantly, e.g. start and finish time set for the same, or maybe allowing a minute when it is extremely unlikely to receive a call. I do have to ask people to repeat themselves when I speak in the phone, though I'm not sure whether that is to do with my sound perception, them speaking quietly or the speaker on the handset.

    An older person I used to know had an old BT telephone with the very loud ring. It made her jump every time it rang, so she used to put a pillow over it.

    If you did look to buy another phone perhaps you could ask a shop assistant to demonstrate the phone so you could tell how loud it is before buying it. If buying in person you could also confirm the returns policy if it didn't meet your needs. Buying online you have the right to return within a set period (14 days I think), although this can be a hassle if you have to post a product back. If you bought in a shop, having said your requirements then you could return it arguing that it was not fit for the purpose for which it was bought (your consumer rights). Any returns, unless faulty, would need the original packaging though, so it could be resold.

  • Just trying to think of work around ...

    Ring too loud: - have you tried putting some cotton wool over the speaker to dampen the sound a bit.  Or some tape or something similar?  I just tried this with my phone and it works, although perhaps not very elegant.  Get some cloth tape of the same colour as the phone and use this to cover the speaker, it might do the trick and not look too bad.  Or a bit of similar coloured plastic cut to size and fastened into place with some blue tack or similar.

    If you can undo the phone without much difficulty you may be able to damp the ring tone speaker internally and it would not be apparent when the phone is reassembled, but phones these days do not come apart easily like they did in the old days (nothing does!) but you might be able to do it like that.

    For the phone earpiece itself, a bit more tricky I think as if you put a bit of tape over it may muffle the sound too much.  But if you can get the cover off the earpiece speaker it might be worth while cutting a bit of plastic and put a few holes in it to let the sound through. before putting the earpiece back together.  A bit of trial and error wanted I think.

    These are just my idea as to how I would go about this problem, but cheaper than a new phone which could have the same problem which you probably would not know until you got it home.