T-lock Call Blocker Version 5.0 by hqtelecom (OEM)

I have had the T-lock Call Blocker Version 5.0 call blocker for about a month. Set-up is easy: setting the date and year is easy, programming is easy, operation is easy. Just follow the enclosed instructions. We have the old-fashion copper wire landline into the house with outlets upstairs, downstairs, and in the basement. I have the call blocker hooked up on one outlet between the outlet and an old push-button phone that doesn't have Caller ID. We have two other phones and a V-Tech base unit (five-phone system) on three other outlets. All phones ring only one time when a call is blocked. Caller info is displayed on the V-Tech phones for all calls, even the blocked calls, as well as on all of the other Caller IDs in the house. I programmed in 105 numbers that I knew I wanted to block. New numbers are added to the blocked list with one push of a button when I can eventually get around to it. Sweet! Once set up, I have never needed to reset the date/year (or unplug the unit from the outlet to do a power off/on reset). I do not use several features because I don't need them; e.g., I don't block unknown incoming numbers, I don't block outgoing numbers, I don't block by area code or exchanges. I only block incoming 10-digit numbers. I have experienced only two abnormalities. First, randomly once in a while I was not able to scroll through the numbers (blocked, recent, etc.). The fix, pick up the handset and put it back on the cradle (open and close the phone line). I haven't discovered a cause. It happens so infrequently and the fix is so easy that I'm not concerned why (probably a line issue). The other abnormality was experienced while programming numbers to be blocked. Occasionally a number would not register, usually the fourth digit when programming in the first phone number, so I had to press it again, sometimes a couple of times before it would register. I believe this was either a problem with my old phone or the fact that the telephone computer was giving it's spiel (if you are trying to make a call, hang up and try again....) and interfered with the tones, or a combination of both. Once I got through that first number (and the line was quiet), entering more numbers to be blocked was a breeze. I love this call blocker! It does everything I want it to do, and it is really easy to set up and to use.

My original motive was: Between getting a flood of political calls and just plain creep calls I was getting a mite perturbed. So instead of getting angry I got this call blocker. (THEN I REALLY GOT ANGRY, $40. WASTED) I bought this and installed it two days ago, and boy HOWDY! does it ever work! (NOT REALLY, TIME SHOWED THAT IT DID NOT) NO political calls got through at all! ls got through. (NO CALLS GOT THROUGH) Time will be the test, but it has already paid for it's self imo. (Less than 1 WEEK showed that THIS IS WORSE THAN USELESS, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT IT'S BLOCKING. I COULD HAVE TAKEN THE PHONE OFF LINE WITHOUT WASTING $40 on THIS THING). I'll update this review after I've had it installed for a while later on. ------------------- One week later yeah it was quiet, TOO quiet. This thing was blocking every ground call into my place. (EVERY CALL) That "manual" really is one of the worst that I've ever seen. (THAT'S IN MY OVER FOUR DECADES IN ELECTRONICS/FIELD SERVICE /SERVICE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE) I'm going to mess with this thing some more, but if I can't get it to work this week it's getting returned. (I DID MESS WITH IT WITHOUT POSITIVE RESULTS) I can't even get the change in the year to stay updated. (IN MY EXPERIENCE, HALF AZZED DESIGN AND EXECUTION IN MINOR DETAILS IS INDICATIVE OF HALF AZZED DESIGN AND EXECUTION IN EVERYTHINGI ---------------------- Six weeks later. I got busy and then forgot about this thing, (you know like getting distracted when actual LIFE happens)? (OH WELL ...) And now I can't even return this thing, (which I FREELY ADMIT WAS MY OWN FAULT for missing the time limit). (THIS IS WHAT HONEST SALES AND SERVICE CALL AN OPPORTUNITY. I GOT WHAT I EXPECTED HERE, NOTHING) IMO it's a very good idea but the actual thing is very hard/clumsy to use. Live and learn. (PLEASE NOTE AND LEARN FROM MY ERRORS HERE! SAVE MONEY AND HASSLE, AVOID THIS FLAKY PIECE OF JUNK.) .............................. DO NOT BUY THIS FLAKY PIECE OF JUNK. IT'S VERY DIFFICULT TO PROGRAM IT. YOU CAN NOT MONITOR IT'S OPERATIONS. YOU CANNOT DEPEND ON IT TO WORK FOR ANY SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF TIME. I had nothing to say about the seller until I realized that this seller is selling a "product" that about 45% of their customers find useless. What kind of business plan is that? Yeah.

Hooked up in series on a COX digital line and CID info is being passed to the digital VTech phone displays as well as the television. Programmed the date and time no problem, device is not dropping any programming. Already had my first block, but was not home to hear if it produced a ring. I have an analog old school phone on one jack because I like the ring of actual bells, and it will now ring once before the other digital phones will ring, which tells me that likely the old style phone will give up a single ring on blocked calls before falling silent. I can live with that. I find it strange that the right facing arrow is considered "Back" when reviewing received calls, and the left facing arrow is considered "Forward". That is opposite of what I would expect, but once you know the quirks, it is irrelevant. Whenever an incoming call from a number not previously scanned is received, the display will flash NEW prompting you to scan back through the received calls. As with the previous models, no backlight and very basic LCD technology with strong ghosting when read at an angle. Placing under or near a lamp is recommended. UPDATE: I decided to dock a star (originally 5) because my inexpensive VTech phones can read text ID, i.e. "John Smith 555-1234" but the T-Lock only displays phone number and time called, which is not as intuitive for deciding on missed calls. You may have to wait until being called again when home to determine blacklist status (where my phone can help me decide if the number should be zapped).

I needed a call blocker for our business because nearly half of the calls we were getting were unwanted spam or scam calls. Having to stop what I'm doing and answer the phone only to be greeted by a robocaller or "Bill Gates" from Microsoft telling me that my computer has a virus was a huge waste of time and extremely annoying. So after looking at several different call blockers I settled on the T-Lock call blocker. What a fun little toy! It feels so satisfying to hit the red "blacklist" number to add scammers and annoying telemarketers to the blocked number list. It's also satisfying when the blocker automatically hangs up on a call you don't want. The good: 1. It doesn't require any kind of batteries or external power at all. It's completely powered by the phone line. And if you disconnect it from the wall jack, it retains all the memories. 2. It does exactly what I need it to, that is automatically hang up on the numbers I program into it. 3. It's easy to go through its caller ID history and press the red "blacklist" button to block specific numbers. 4. It can block 1200 numbers, whereas some blockers only hold about a hundred. 5. The unit is small (about the size of early caller ID units, remember those?) and doesn't take up much space on the desk. 6. This unit can block all numbers from 10 area codes. 7. Using the instructions, it's fairly easy to set this unit up and program it using a phone plugged into it. The hard part is remembering which number on your phone's keypad controls what function, but that's why I keep the instructions handy. 8. Callers won't know they're being blocked since it just answers & hangs up on them after the first ring. Therefore they won't be as likely to spoof their caller ID with a different number in order to get around the block (until you add that number too). 9. It has the ability to block any callers who are blocking their caller ID. So if you turn this feature on, no more calls from "NUMBER UNAVAILABLE." The way I see it, if someone really needs to speak with me they will do it from a phone that doesn't have blocked caller ID. The bad: 1. The display is kind of hard to see unless you view it from an angle. 2. I wish it had bigger EEPROM chips in it, because I'm afraid that I might fill up its 1200 number memory at some point. With as cheap as memory chips are nowadays, it should be able to hold thousands of numbers. It would be nice to have a blocker with a virtually unlimited number of potential blocked numbers. 3. The blacklist of blocked numbers displays in numerical order, and not in the order you add them. If I ever do have to erase some older numbers which haven't called for a long time in order to add new numbers, it's going to be hard to figure out which ones they are. 4. It only blocks 10 area codes. I wish it did more, because there are a few area codes which are the worst offenders. 202 is probably the worst. The indifferent: 1. Scammers and shady telemarketers tend to spoof their caller ID information, so they may call you from one number and the next time call with a different CID number. So far, very few numbers have been repeat offenders, so to speak. But they have called back with the same number and they got blocked, so it's well worth it. 2. The need to have a phone hooked to the blocker in order to program it. While it's easy to go through the caller ID list on the blocker and choose which ones to block, to access any of the other functions you will need to have a phone hooked up to the blocker. The instructions explain how to do this. It's clumsy, but not hard to use. It would be easier if the unit had a keypad on it, but it's not a deal breaker for me. 3. The way I had to set up the blocker for our business was to hook it between the line and the cordless phone base. The desk phones are two line phones (2nd line is for the fax/data), so it wouldn't work on them. However, it does work with the cordless. This means that when an unwanted caller calls, the desk phone will ring but the cordless ones won't until it gets the caller ID info. If the call is blocked, the desk phones will ring just once and the cordless ones don't at all. Which is fine for me because I never answer the phone on the first ring anyway, and one ring just lets me know that someone was blocked. Overall, I wish I'd gotten one of these a long time ago. It would have definitely cut down on the annoyance calls from both legitimate telemarketers and scammers. But as it is now I can go about my work and not be bothered by annoyance calls.

The best way to stop unwanted calls is use a VOIP provider (like Anveo), use a whitelist and only allow numbers on the whitelist to ring in, unless you want to pay your phone service company for blocking. My elderly parents weren't interested in either so I got this instead. This isn't really a call blocker, what it does is answer then hang up, so you will hear at least one ring. It's been in service several months now and it does work although it's a bit quirky and could definitely be improved. Provider: AT&T standard phone service with caller id (phone only, no internet) Pros: 1) Blocking numbers is normally simple, just press the red Blacklist button when the number is on the screen. If you want to program numbers in when you first set it up, from a list you have, that's more troublesome. You input them using your phone (see Cons 1). 2) Blocks Out of Area/Unavailable tagged calls out of the box without any programming. (This could be a con depending on your situation, for example if friends and family have numbers like this, for me it was great.) 3) Unit seems to work reliably once you get past the learning curve and experimenting with phones to see what will work. Cons: 1) Doesn't seem to work well with wireless phones. It kept the caller id from working which wouldn't have been a problem except for Con 2. I also had difficulty programming it with a wireless phone. Luckily there was an old wired phone without caller id and the device works fine paired with it. If wireless phones were my only option I doubt I would have kept it. 2) Doesn't display the caller name, only the number. Technically it's not a caller id device, but it's still a bit annoying not seeing the name. Usually this means you check your regular caller id for names you don't recognize, compare the number to this unit and then block it. If the number you want to block isn't the most recent call you have to pick the phone up. 3) If you want to scroll through the call history, you have to pick up the phone before you can do so. It hangs on the last number, picking the phone up frees it. 4) Blocking a number is easy but removing it from the blacklist isn't. To block, just hit the red Blacklist button when the number is on the screen, and it's done. The process should be the same for removing it (except use the Remove button) and the manual says that's how to do it, but it doesn't work. You have to enter the remove menu using the phone, then scroll through the numbers and press Remove. While I've listed more cons than pros the device does work and definitely has saved my parents' sanity. Anything beyond simple blacklisting is going to be a chore for the elderly or anyone who's at all technically challenged, and its inability to show the caller name makes blocking numbers more of a chore than it should be. I strongly recommend VOIP service with whitelisting, which makes devices like these unnecessary, but if that's not an option this will work as long as you have a little patience while setting it up.

I used to deal with telemarketers every day, often 2 to 3 times a day. These days my house is much more quiet and the phone calls that come in are actually friends and family looking for us and not telemarketers! I was on that Do NOT Call List which takes care of legal callers, but not the callers who call illegally. Since they don't call legally, asking them not to call again does nothing. Now they are blocked. Only thing I hate is there is a half to full ring before they number is blocked and discarded. Yet I learned to listen for a second ring.After having this for 2 years, I now am able to stay relaxed and listen for the second ring that signals me to sit up and look at the phone. I will say that some of these callers use multiple phone numbers to call you on and it might take awhile to get them all blocked, but once you do, many will stop calling. Yes, the directions aren't good. But if you are even slightly able to figure out things in life, you will be able to figure out the directions. And I don't love that you have to use the phone to set up the box. I'd say set up took me around 15 min because of how confusing it kinda is. But I ended up just writing each and every step down correctly by their weird ones and the second one I set up took me only around 2 minutes. The arrow facing to your right is the back button, the arrow facing to your left is your forward button. It is backwards to most American's but it works all the same. Trial and error with the directions is all it took me. It's nearly a race in my home to see who gets to hit block when a new marketer calls us. We all want to be the one to block and when a stupid call comes in. I've got to say that it is now our favorite gadget in the house, even better than cell phones and computers. Peace reigns from not being interrupted at dinners, and family time ever again. If you have only one phone line with multiple numbers on it, you only need one box. If you have multiple lines with multiple numbers, than you need one for each line. I have two completely different telephone lines in my house, meaning each have their own phone number. Our second line is can only be accessed through it's phone jack and not other jacks in the house.. We have a business line and a personal line. I loved this call blocker so much that I bought 2! If I had more lines, I'd buy one for each one of those lines.

Returned after one day of ownership. I tested the T-lock Call Blocker Version 5 the next day after initial install and it blocked my cell phone number that I previous used as a test to see if it worked. On initial set up I added my cell number to the "Black List" block list. It blocked my number sometimes, after repeated calls to test unit. Some calls were blocked, and others passed through. I then deleted my cell number from the blocked list. I checked and doubled checked and my number was removed from the "Black List" blocked list in device. The next morning, I tried calling my home with my cell number and my call was blocked. I promptly checked the "Black Listed" numbers on device to see if my cell number was there, and it was not on the list. Therefore, it somehow was blocking a number that was previously being blocked (for testing purposes), but then was removed from listed "Black List" numbers by me. Setup was a little tedious but not too difficult. I have Comcast Xfinity service and could not get it to work by using a parallel setup. By using a serial setup it worked....to a certain extent. "See above". By the way, only three numbers were in my "Black List" so the processing power, or lack thereof was desperately lacking. I was so seriously hoping this device was going to work for me. However, it failed in many regards.

This would have been ideal for my needs but after a few days it failed and I returned the unit to Amazon who promptly refunded my money. Here is a rundown of my experience: I'm using Verizon DSL. Cons: The instructions could be better. You have to wait 15 seconds for the unit to exit programming mode before trying to enter another number or any other programming tasks. This is especially frustrating during setup, as with each mistake you have to wait before retrying whatever you were trying to do. You have to be patient with it when setting it up. If you get pissed off, walk away and try again later. I'm fairly patient with this kind of thing and it pissed me off plenty while getting it set up. It does not always display the caller ID and block the call, even though a separate caller ID device on another jack displays the call every time. This I don't understand. I found if I had another caller ID device on the same jack in series, (to be able to see the caller name) the separate caller ID device would work, but the call blocker would not display the number or block the call. The phone number is displayed on the call blocker, the caller name is not. When entering in a number to be blocked manually, the call is connected and the other line rings before you can complete the steps to block that number. However, since you have to enter a single digit first (like a 4) an audio error message comes on saying you have to dial 1 first. It is annoying, though. When it does block a call, the phone on that jack does not ring, but a phone on a separate jack rings once. Only being able to block 10 area codes is disappointing. Pros: A call coming in from a blocked number is displayed and recorded on the call blocker and any other caller ID devices you have connected. When an incoming call connects the blocker disconnects the call right away. I like this because there is no audio message saying the call is blocked so the caller can't tell if this is an active line or not. When it is working it is really helpful. No more running to the phone to see who's calling when it is just a telemarketer. When the thing worked it was awesome. I really like the red Block button. If it is a new telemarketing caller I just press it and that is the last time that number will ring through (hopefully). Being able to block entire area codes is a real plus. It gives you a feeling of control over all the dirt bags that ignore the Do Not Call registry. **** However... I LOVED it once I got it working but after 3 days of use the unit began allowing ALL calls through and no longer displayed them on its caller ID screen. Disconnecting and reconnecting the unit made no difference. The other caller IDs in the house continued to display the caller numbers. I returned the unit to Amazon. I REALLY wanted this to work. I may try ordering another and see if it was just a bad unit. T-Block - if you are reading this, the features on this product are ideal and if it were reliable you could sell them as fast as you could make them, but you've some work to do in terms of testing and quality control. Also the instructions need to be proof read and tested with new users to insure the instructions are complete and understandable.

I like this call blocker alot. Very quiet her now. It did have some inconstant results for the first few days. But I just disabled the caller blocking in the panasonic dect handsets as well as disabling the caller blocking Bell Canada feature with the right touch tone commands. I think I correctly guessed having 3 caller blocking systems on at the same time was like having 3 baseball outfielder running to catch the same fly ball but just crashing into each other.

Not working at all, no display and even the phone connected to it was not working. I had to return this product for a refund.

Bloquea las llamadas pero no libera la línea, por lo que la línea queda ocupada hasta que el llamante cuelgue. No me gusta.