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What's a Handset?

November 17, 2005

Handset is another term that means different things to different people. Handset is used to describe the receiver on a phone, an entire phone or a cell phone. It is sometimes mistakenly used instead of the word headset. For the purposes of this discussion, we will define a handset as the receiver or the part of the phone that you hold to talk and listen.

There are many handsets made for different phones. Our company, Applied Voice and Data deals with handsets on business phone systems. Handsets are not all the same. They differ in fit, color and internal components. If your handset isn't the right size and shape, it won't fit properly in the cradle to hang up a call or it will fall off if wall-mounted. There are many different colors to handsets as well. Finally, if the internal components aren't made to match your phone, you and your caller won't be able to hear each other well, if at all. Different phone systems, even from the same manufacturer, often require different handsets.

Handsets break. It is a fact of life. People drop them, slam them, throw them and knock them out of their cradle when wall-mounted.

Given this fact, it is hard to find handsets. Most interconnects (phone companies that install and service phone systems in a local area) don't respond too quickly to a call requesting a replacement handset. They don't stock them or know where to find them. They may be too busy to stop what they are doing to solve such a small problem. I know of a lot of customers who became too frustrated and replaced the whole phone at a much higher expense.

Replacing a bad handset is something end users can easily and inexpensively fix themselves. The first thing to do is to make sure the handset is the problem. Get a handset that is known to work well from another phone on the same phone system and put it on the phone you are having trouble hearing on. If the phone now works, you have isolated the bad component. If not, try replacing the handset cord, too. If that doesn't work, you have a bad phone.

If you have determined that the handset is the problem, identify the phone that it is from. Then visit my website, www.usedphonesforless.com to find your handset. We carry handsets from many phone systems including Partner, Merlin, Magix, Merlin Legend, Definity, Norstar, Meridian, Comdial, Vodavi, Inter-tel, Premier, Samsung, Executone, Spirit and Aastra Centrex phones.

I hope this helps you get all of your phones working.

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Applied Voice and Data
1681 W. Hamlin Road
Rochester Hills, Michigan 48309

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