Monday, February 6, 2017

Product review: TelPal Call Blocker Display for Landline Phone with 1500 Number Capacity Block Robocalls , Telemarketing Calls, Junk Faxes and All Spam Calls


This call blocker works - i.e. once you block the number it is disconnected after one ring - but its user interface is difficult to use because it is not intuitive. Someone older or not computer savvy is not the right audience for this device. I tried showing my mother how to use this blocker as she complains about getting marketing calls every day and she got totally confused. The blocker's feedback on the display is numeric, not words. The manual is written in a broken English, not very detailed, so it does not provide clear instruction when someone is confused.

The second issue is that depending on how you hook up the blocker, you could lose caller id on your phone. There are two options for hook up - you can plug the call blocker into the wall, and hook up the phone to the blocker. Alternatively, you can put a splitter in the wall and have the phone and the blocker hooked up in parallel. I am using the parallel hook up because in this configuration I still get the caller id on the phone.

The unit displays the wrong time and day. The manual said that it will be set automatically, but I have not seen this happen. However, this information is not relevant to the blocker operation so I did not bother setting it manually. Setting it manually is cumbersome, you need to put the blocker into setting mode and then use the phone's key pad to do the setting of values.

TelPal documentation states that the blocker can block 1000 numbers.

On the positive side, the blocking does work. I recruited a friend to help me test the blocker. I was able to block the number and the next call disconnected after 1 ring. The caller was not told anything, it was just a hang up. After blocking the number I was able to see it listed on the blocked phone numbers list. Then I was able to delete it from the list. I show these three operations in attached video.

There are two ways to block calls. One is to push Blacklist button as the marking call is coming in another one is to enter the phone number by hand and save it. The number displayed on the unit does not show the caller id, so it is not easy to identify a marking call without picking up the phone or looking at another phone which shows the caller id.

Blocking a marketing calls gives me a lot of satisfaction. Just the fact that I am not helpless and can take some action has a great mental benefit.

This call blocking device is provided by TelPal for testing and review. This is not the best call blocker out there because of the difficult to use interface, but it does block calls.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

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