No, it is not a joke.
What you need is reflextion around you.
Only when you have free line of sight the 10 meters is feaseble. The body is
really a big absorption for the Bluetooth frequency (2.4 GHz, same freq as
magnetrons are using and you know why this freq is used ??? Correct, because
the body (=water) absorbs the energy and gets hot).

So with a BT headset on the left ear you should wear the phone also on the
left part of the body.

When you are in a place with metal around you it doesn't matter that much as
the metal reflects the radio signal.
But when you are outside in the middle of nowhere ..... bad bad bad.

It's a fact of life ;>)

Bernd

We own the Jabra BT200, Logitech (forgot the model, but it's like a
claw), Fellowes Blueglove, and just got the Scala500. We also have
several BT phones.

There is no combination of phone and BT headset that will work
satisfactorily more than 6-8'. No combination will work "through" the
body. That is, if the phone is on the hip and the headset in the ear, no
luck - the phone must be in a shirt pocket or handheld away from the body.

What did we miss? Is BT a joke?

I had a Motorola 270c and a Motorola headset (can't recall the model
#). It worked a good 30+ feet through a few cubes and a wall.

In some respects BT *is* a joke. It takes too long to recognise other
devices, pairings break for no good reason & device compatibility is often
poor. Using BT handsfree is perhaps the most demanding function most people
use (streaming rather than packet switching).

I've had an ancient Ericsson HBH-15 for over 3 yrs. It didn't work well
enough with either a T39 I bought it for or a T610. I now have a K700i with
which it now works well enough to be useable - no dropouts, noise etc.

However, I do have faith that things are improving with BT; both
manufacturers getting it right & the standard itself being more robust. So
yes, it does work with certain combos.