AT&T - 1740 Digital Answering Machine with Time/Day Stamp

I wanted an answer machine to avoid using the phone companies, and I didn't want to replace my 4 wireless phones. I've had this for nearly 2 months and it has worked fine. It is cheap in quality though and a bit funny. You can set the "day of the week" and the year but you can not set a date. I.E. You can set it as Monday at 1PM but you can't give it a date. Very strange but as I won't be going weeks without picking up my messages it doesn't matter to me. As for the feature that reads out the telephone number for incoming calls I found that annoying and turned the feature off. It is easier, quieter/more private, and nicer just to look at the caller ID.

I was disappointed with this answering machine. I had read a few dozen reviews which stated it was a great value but the sound quality from both my recorded outgoing message and the recorded incoming calls was awful, and it's no exaggeration to say I couldn't understand a word of either when I played-back. It was so bad that the outgoing message sounded like I recorded it with my head in an empty 5-gallon bucket. Not what I was looking for at all. The good news is that BB took it back and refunded my money on the spot, no questions asked. As it should be.

Answering machines can be hard to find unless they are attached to a cordless phone. This is the second one of this style from AT&T that I've owned. First one lasted about 10 years. I love the idea of being able to choose from many choices in setting this up. My favorite is having it announce the incoming number. For a very basic answering machine, I have found this to be one of the best.

Even with cell phones and text messaging its still nice to be able put an answering machine in the landline. There aren't many from which to choose so we took our chances. This one was great. Easy to set up and easy to use. When you don't want to be constantly checking your ringing cellphone its nice to be able to use the landline to take care of business.

For those who just need a basic answering machine, this is the one you want to get. My Mom needed a new answering maching only not one with a phone attached. I got this one for her. It was an easy set up and is easy to work and understand.

This ATT answer machine is a superb item but is priced low to purchase. I had its previous version for about 20 years and never had a problem except when it life came to an end. I had no reluctance to purchase the current version, and its even better than the previous version.

Set up was mostly trouble free. The instructions indicated that the machine didn't have to have a phone connected to it in order to work. I found this to be untrue. A phone connection was necessary. Programming was easy.

It has a small footprint. The tone has not been an issue for me. The only issue that I have is you can't stop the answer message once it starts. You just have to hope that they other person waits until the message is over.