Dumb down a dumbphone?

[ghotib]

My elderly mother has no landline phone at the moment, so we bought her an unlocked Alcatel "senior phone".

Good points are that she can read the screen and she can see and press the buttons.

Bad point is that she's having huge trouble making "normal" calls. The problem seems to be that the dumb phone displays the last number in the call log and she doesn't know how to clear it. She's a lot smarter than the phone and she neither wants nor needs it to help her dial a number; she expects it to work like a cordless handset.

Does anyone know a way to persuade the phone to stop trying to help? And preferably to turn off messaging as well.

Thanks.

 

[Julia]

Not covered in the accompanying instruction booklet?

Simplest solution might be to just go back to the retailer with the phone and ask them to show you what to do.
I'm hopeless with phones and always find the retailer is really helpful.

 

[SirRumpole]

I can't help with the problem posed, but as someone who has tried to help elderly people use phones I know how frustrating they (the phones) can be.

The ideal solution would be voice control, not available on the phone my friends have because it's a "dumb" phone, but apparently some smart phones have it.

All they want to do is call home when one of them is away, so just being able to say "call home" to the phone without mucking around with screens and buttons would be a godsend.