Amazon.com Review
When you've had your dinner interrupted by a telemarketer one too many times, treat your phone line and yourself to the Telezapper. It's a simple, one-time-cost solution to the problem of annoying telemarketing calls.
Here's how it works: Given that more than 90 percent of telemarketing calls are placed with computer assistance, when either you or your answering machine answers the phone, the Telezapper emits a special tone that tells the computer your number has been permanently disconnected. Telemarketing companies that use automated dialing systems typically remove disconnected numbers from their calling lists, and as your phone number is eliminated from more and more telemarketing lists, you'll notice fewer calls. Of course, not all telemarketers use predictive dialing systems, and those that do will undoubtedly work to evade the Telezapper, but it can be a partial solution.
For the most part, regular callers are unaffected by the Telezapper, but it may "zap" calls from other organizations that use the same predictive dialing technology (such as charities, pollsters, and automated emergency weather systems) and from callers who use certain types of calling cards. (For more information, click FAQ, or frequently asked questions, in the left navigation bar.)
In our tests of the Telezapper, installation took just seconds. We plugged the Telezapper into our phone line and our phone into the Telezapper and then connected the AC adapter. It was that simple. There are no moving parts to wear out and no batteries to replace.
We field-tested the Telezapper for several weeks, and during that time, we noticed a significant reduction in telemarketing calls. Of course, this was not a scientific study, and we cannot with certainty attribute our results to the Telezapper, but the device seemed to work well for us.
The Telezapper includes a phone cord, power adapter, and instructions. Privacy Technologies backs the device with a one-year warranty.
--Mike Brown, with Ariel Meadow Stallings Pros - Reduces telemarketing calls placed by predictive dialing systems
- Doesn't interfere with most normal calls
- Inexpensive, one-time-cost solution
- Extremely easy to install and use
Cons - May "zap" some desired calls
- Annoying beep every time the receiver is lifted
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(88 customer reviews) 74 of 76 people found the following review helpful
Here's how to save your money,
March 10, 2002 By A Customer
This review is from: Privacy Technologies TeleZapper (Office Product)
Yes, telezapper will work in many cases & will reduce the # of solicitors. But, save your money - simply record the 3 tones for disconnected lines onto your answering machine - you WILL get the same results. I did and went from averaging about 6 calls per day to one. About 5 minutes of surfing led me to a web site that had these tones. The description about this box doesn't tell you exactly what it does for good reason - you don't need it!
61 of 64 people found the following review helpful
Telemarketing Eliminator,
December 11, 2001 Fred Gold (Canton, Ohio) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Privacy Technologies TeleZapper (Office Product)
Now that I work out of my house I became aware of all of the telmarketing phone calls we were receiving and it became very annoying.I purchased a Telezapper and installed it on one of our phone lines in the house. Immediately I began to see the Telezapper do it's job since I got 4 calls the first day that were Zapped. You can tell when this happens because you get no sound when you answer the phone as the device signals the telemarketng computer that our phone number has been disconnected.In just 2 weeks we notice a marked decrease in the number of unsolicited calls. We may only be getting one a day and we expect that number to decrease as the Telezapper continues to do it's job. The cost is insignificant compared to peace and quiet.
45 of 47 people found the following review helpful
TeleZapper doesn't work.,
March 19, 2002 By A Customer
This review is from: Privacy Technologies TeleZapper (Office Product)
After I returned the TeleZapper that I bought from RadioShack because its annoying tones simply did not do the job promised, I was intrigued by the range of reviews other Amazon customers have encountered.Being an engineer, I became curious. why didn't the TeleZapper work for me? Or, how would I know that it really worked? A friend mentioned that the Telemarketing industry can easily update their predictive dialers to ignore the TeleZapper's tone generation technique.It turned out that this is the case for a widely used predictive dialer from Avaya, named "Mosaix". "The TeleZapper has absolutely no effect on the operation of the Mosaix Predictive Dialing System", according to an Avaya Sales Support Bulletin that I found on the Mosaix User's Group website. This finally cleared up my puzzlement about the TeleZapper.I have also investigated the Caller Id systems that some phone companies offer to enable privacy management services. They seem rather complicated to set-up and to...Read more
