On 08/25/2013 11:02 AM, polygonum wrote:
My mother's phone has developed a habit of deteriorating in quality in
the evenings. It seems to get markedly quieter and has an odd "talking
from inside a cardboard box" quality. This seems to happen quite often
but getting a proper analysis of exactly which days and for how long
just ain't going to happen.

Her phone is supplied by the Post Office and it comes in through an old
single socket. A microfilter and two-line splitter are fitted.

That'll be BT then, not the PO.

The simple thing to do is get a known good phone, best borrow one and
eliminate all the existing equipment, then after disconnecting
everything else, plug it into the socket where the line first enters to
house. If the line still sounds distorted, insist on an engineer's
visit. If you'd done this, they'd be hard pressed to prove it was on
your equipment and therefore apply any charge.

Andy C