Push buttons on house phone (GPO 746) don't work

cherydee

I bought a phone from John Lewis 3 yrs ago (GPO 746 Grey Daisychain) looks like the old fashioned rotary phones. The phone accepts calls but when I try to push buttons to make a call out, nothing.....just the normal tone. Is it possible by taking it apart to get it to work again.

Roland_Sausage

Who is your provider? Is it set to tone or pulse dialing?

The reason I ask is because some providers may not support pulse dialing. See if there is a switch underneath to switch to tone dialing.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

if it's a rotary/dial phone, why do you need to push buttons?

SouthUKMan

For everyone else, these are reproduction phones designed to look like the old classic rotary phones. They look fairly similar but inside they share no common parts.

Cherrydee, it is always worth taking a look inside if you are handy with DIY repairs, but the fact that all the buttons on the keypad aren't working suggests it's likely to be the circuitry rather than just cleaning a dirty button contact. In other words...probably game over for the phone.

Owain_Moneysaver

The Geemarc variants were rather better and are sometimes found as 'Direct Line' telephones with wheels (although the wheels can be unscrewed leaving just the phone - as long as you like red).

If you want a gen-u-ine GPO phone then Tele 782 or 8782 are the relevant models and they come up on Ebay occasionally, most often in Two Tone Grey but occasionally in Ivory or Black.

cherydee

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

The Geemarc variants were rather better and are sometimes found as 'Direct Line' telephones with wheels (although the wheels can be unscrewed leaving just the phone - as long as you like red).

If you want a gen-u-ine GPO phone then Tele 782 or 8782 are the relevant models and they come up on Ebay occasionally, most often in Two Tone Grey but occasionally in Ivory or Black.

I liked this one as a grey flowery design....daisychain is the name, I may just have to use this one for incoming calls.

cherydee

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,

if it's a rotary/dial phone, why do you need to push buttons?

Looks like an old fashioned rotary phone....but has push buttons instead

cherydee

SouthUKMan wrote: »

For everyone else, these are reproduction phones designed to look like the old classic rotary phones. They look fairly similar but inside they share no common parts.

Cherrydee, it is always worth taking a look inside if you are handy with DIY repairs, but the fact that all the buttons on the keypad aren't working suggests it's likely to be the circuitry rather than just cleaning a dirty button contact. In other words...probably game over for the phone.

Thanks for your response, it's a lovely phone as well. I like the flowery design but not being made now. Don't like the grey ones they have now as have orange cord and orange push buttons, may keep it just for accepting calls as have another phone downstairs

SouthUKMan

The original GPO phones last a lifetime and tend to sell on eBay for anything from about £20 for a standard untouched / non-restored / unconverted phone to about £90 for one that's been restored to a reasonable standard and converted so that it has the modern 431a plug that has been the standard way to connect phones to the network since the 1980s (some very basic electronic modification work is also required inside the phone). Also, remember that all the original GPO rotary phones were pulse dialing only. While most phone network providers still enable pulse dialing - it does mean you can't use these GPO phones with automated switchboards (such as press one for accounts, two for sales, etc). Having said all that, a well restored original GPO phone is beautiful.

Norman_Castle

One of these? http://www.gporetro.com/products/category/push-button-telephones/gpo-746-button/ Contact them and ask.

Have you ever been able to dial out on it?