$14,000 to rent an ancient rotary telephone might seem excessive, but that's what one eldery US resident has paid over the last four decades. And you might be doing the same.

Around 125.000 Kiwis happily pay Telecom $48 a year to rent something they could buy from the Warehouse for half that sum. Even worse, it's reckoned that many of the original phones have long been binned, so they're actually paying the rental on a something they already own!

Apparently TV Auckland News ran an item on this a couple of weeks ago. That would've brought a smile to Theresa's face as no one would have seen it - at least the way the news show's been haemorrhaging viewers lately. This link has more details about the phone scam, but don't bother clicking the video links unless you've got a few days to kill. I tried the 1 minute, 44 second clip and gave up after 10 minutes. (Honestly, I don't know why these bozos don't just stick their clips on YouTube. I get much quicker playback from the States than I do from Auckland!)

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that if you're paying for a pointless rental, call Telecom and tell 'em to stop charging you. And send me the money instead.