external answering machine recommendation?

[shaveice]

here i am with another request if anyone knows of a simple but reliable external answering machine. for the past 8 years or so, my panasonic phone/fax/answering machine has been working flawlessly but i recently bought a new canon fax/phone. the only problem is that it doesn't have an internal answering machine so i need to buy an external one to connect to the fax phone. when i went to amazon.com, most of the answering machines had very poor ratings and the few that had good ratings were no longer available!

anyway, if you know of any that you'd recommend, i'm all ears. thanks!

[pzarquon]

Re: external answering machine recommendation?

We bought the Uniden digital system (phone and machine) at Costco. I usually research and comparison shop for technology items, but answering machines are venturing near "toaster territory," in the sense that - like VCRs - they're getting so affordable, I'm just happy with one that works than one that's top-of-the-line.

I haven't bought an 'answering machine only' box in a while, though I bet they get as cheap as $20-$30. We've had Panasonic models and few complaints.

[shaveice]

Re: external answering machine recommendation?

yup, i hear you but i only wanna buy an answering machine cuz the fax/phone already has a phone so it'd be redundant to have a phone with an answering machine hooked up to a fax/phone. see what i mean? also, i don't want more space to be taken up by this thing.

i went to walmart this evening and they have just one: small and cheap for something like $17 but i have no idea how good/bad it is. after reading the numerous reviews on amazon, i'm amazed at how overwhelming the criticisms are of answering machines. there were only a very small handful of products that got 4 or 5 stars (out of 5). most were 2 or 3. i would have thought that such a simple device would be cheap, small and almost foolproof but i'd be wrong.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: external answering machine recommendation?

I go with Hawaiian Telecom's enhanced calling package that includes voice mail.

I used to have an answering machine but one thing about it is that if you're on the line and you cannot take that incoming call, that caller is out of luck and so are you if that was an important call.

With voice mail, if you so choose you can ignore the incoming call (call waiting) and let it go to the voice mail system.

Also with voice mail, if the power or telephone lines goes down at your home, your incoming calls get sent to your voice mailbox. With an answering machine if the power or the telephone lines go down, so does that incoming call. Never mind the occasional answering machine breakdown.

When I had my farm business, faxes were an important part in my ordering. I had a fax machine with a dedicated phone line. When the power went out I never received several orders for product (amounting to tens of thousands of dollars). I had the forsight to notice the lack of ordering and the blinking time on my fax so I called in and inquired and completed the orders.

That day I hooked up with Efax.com and had all of my faxes directed to there online service. The faxes came to me via email attachments and outbound faxes went thru my email and converted to outbound faxes.

With online faxing I could check for faxes anywhere I could get an internet connection instead of driving 25-miles to my office to retrieve faxes only to find out the humidy caused a major paper jam and lost fax orders.

[shaveice]

Re: external answering machine recommendation?

hmmmm. interesting options. i'll check it out. thanks!