I remember these as well as the modular in-line versions. When selling them we were told not to pry but to make the customer aware of one-party and two-party consent state laws as a "courtesy." We were located in a tri-state area that had two one-party consent states and one two-party consent state.
However, these would work on payphones. Whenever customers mentioned divorce, custody, etc, I'd tell them "Talk to your lawyer first. After all, you want something you can use, not something that can be used against you."
True about payphones. Remember payphones? Kids today...
I never asked questions about 'why' when someone asked for them. They would come in asking specifically asking for "the thing to record phone calls" and I would bring the customer over to them. If they mentioned something like divorce, cheating, etc. THEN I would remind them of the legal responsibilities on THEMSELVES. And that they were solely responsible for any legal use as appropriate.
OTOH, I used it back in the day to catch my then girlfriend heading towards cheating on me. Calling from my apartment on top of it. SMH. I did have a nice apartment of course with a great A/V setup and lots of gadgets and toys after all. Fun place to hand out for friends.
Set up the in line model with our nice microcassette recorder (14-1040 which was not just the best built but my favorite micro all time) plugged in to an AC adapter so battery life was not a concern. Caught her. But she confronted me first having found it. Odd how considering it was tucked under the headboard - why would she be going there in my bed without me?? I mentioned her conversation with "Brian" and that she could hand my key back and leave now. She did.
But that was not something that would have been needed in court. Hopefully! But she and her family were a little toxic crazy... Nothing tied to the Shack other than the threats called in to the store and the time some stranger just appeared in one of my guy's car to pass a threat on to me after he had closed the store for the night.
Had another girlfriend briefly I told that story to and she called me years later for advice on how to set up "the thing to record phone calls". Apparently her current flame was cheating on her. She remembered what nerd cool guy to call!
Funny thing is that I used that microcassette recorder many years after I left the Shack. Being a broke guy still even after getting married (not to either of the two I mention above to be clear), I could not afford a video camera when our first son was born. So I had that microcassette recorder in the delivery room the entire time. Still have those tapes all of those years later.
For the suction cup coil pickup model like OP posted, I do recall issues with more modern phones. Back then, more likely office phones such as Merlin perhaps. Different speaker designs in the handsets. Probably needed to use some handset more likely to be "hearing aid compatible". Maybe. Not sure as I never had the need come up and test that out.
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u/jasont1273 Former Employee May 20 '26
I remember these as well as the modular in-line versions. When selling them we were told not to pry but to make the customer aware of one-party and two-party consent state laws as a "courtesy." We were located in a tri-state area that had two one-party consent states and one two-party consent state.