I work shifts and learned long ago to turn the phone ringer off after night shifts. However, in the last couple of days, the phone (Panasonic KX-TG1061C - a corded answering machine base unit) has rung anyway on a couple of calls (but not all).
It’s not a physical switch to turn the ringer off, but a programmable setting. Anybody know if there’s a way to defeat this remotely that telemarketers might use? (I’m pretty sure that’s what the two phone calls were.) Or what else might be going on?
There is no way that the telemarketers can control the program setting of the Panasonic. I would first confirm the ringer is programmed off. It could also be a firmware bug in the Panasonic unit.
Speaking as a former telephone tech I would bet that your problem is the phone itself. Wether it is a hardware of software issue I have no way of knowing. Being electronic it is possible that the fault is intermittent, so some calls might not ring in and some may. Also, if you have any other phones in the home, did any of the others ring? Surest way to confirm the problem is isolated with this phone is for it to ring while all others on the same line stay silent (providing their ringers are off as well).
Thanks to the both of you. I was hoping there maybe was some sort of undocumented emergency call feature that you could punch in a default code that would force a ring. But I agree it’s probably the base unit itself. It definitely had the ringer turned off - there’s a little bell with a slash through it on the display - so it must be some sort of bug or failure.
(There is a cordless handset as well - also with the ringer turned off. I don’t think it rang, but it’s further away than the base station, so I can’t swear to that.)