Return-Path: Received: from H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU by K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU; 26 May 88 13:29:51 EDT Date: Thursday, 26 May 1988 13:29:14 EDT From: Roy.Taylor@h.gp.cs.cmu.edu To: bovik@k.gp.cs.cmu.edu cc: Lori.Rosen@cive.ri.cmu.edu Subject: Answering machines Message-ID: <1988.5.26.16.52.38.Roy.Taylor@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU> Harry -- Here are the responses to my query. Phonemate garnered the most votes but emerged almost neutral. Personally, I'm interested in a Cobra model with timestamp and digital outgoing message. I can get a good price from a NYC mailorder place. However, I want to examine one first. Tape transports have not been their forte and some earlier models apparently used failure-prone mechanisms. Maybe they've learned their lesson. -- Roy ---------------- Tally ---------------- Pro Con CodeAPhone 1 General Electric 3 Panasonic 3 PhoneMate 2-1/2 2 CU favorite Radio Shack 1 ---------------- Message 1 (1157 chars) is ---------------- Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1988 17:05-EDT From: Dionysis.Rigopoulos@CIVE.RI.CMU.EDU My Panasonic is nice. It is better in remote control than from close (you cannot listen only to the new messages when you are home, although you can do that when you call in). It has a message forwarding feature which I found amusing and useful. I would like to see a machine to have message transfer AND date-time stamp. Till now I've seen them having the one or the other. It seems Panasonic has a new model that keeps the outgoing message digitally recorded on a chip. I expect this to be in all senses better than what I have with the two tapes (regular incoming and endless outgoing). The performance of the outgoing message deteriorates with time (although very very slowly...) Another thing that I found useful, is remote change of the outgoing message. Dionysis ---------------- Message 2 (1374 chars) is ---------------- Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1988 17:27-EDT From: Marcella.Zaragoza@ISL1.RI.CMU.EDU Hi! We bought a PhoneMate (2000, I think?) about 1 1/2 - 2 years ago. We have been very happy with it. We decided on this model because it was top rated by Consumer Reports, and because it is very easy to use. It talks you through everything, so it is very hard to make a mistake. For instance, when you check your messages, it will say "Hello, you have no (or the # of) messages.", and will proceed to play them. It will also indicate at the end of the messages "That was your last message." so you don't have to stand at the machine to watch a counter or count how many messages have played to know that they are finished. If checking your messages by phone (no remote unit needed), it will give you an opportunity to record a new greeting, play messages again, etc. Another nice feature is that if it is not working, it will say "I detect a malfunction.", which in our case turned out to be a worn out (microcassette) tape. All in all, we would buy the same model again, which I guess is enough proof of our satisfaction! --Marce Zaragoza ---------------- Message 3 (1094 chars) is ---------------- Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1988 18:31-EDT From: Roni.Rosenfeld@B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU I don't recall right now the brand we have, so I can't recommend it, even though I do (got that?). Features that I found extremely useful, in decreasing order, are: - (Preferably beeperless) remote control, very preferably with the ability to fast-forward remotely (unfortunately ours can only rewind remotely). - Toll-saving Mode: Answers after 4 rings if there are no messages yet, after 1 ring otherwise --> allows for quick and toll-free checking of messages remotely. - Unlimited messages length, voice activated (turns itself off if there are no nonmonotonous sounds for a period of time). - Counter showing number of messages left (ours can show 0/1/2/3/4/5/6-or-more). Good luck. -- Roni ---------------- Message 4 (1292 chars) is ---------------- Date: Wed, 20 Apr 88 08:49:51 EDT From: Karen.York.Kietzke@KY.AVALON.CS.CMU.EDU You should avoid any answering machine that doesn't do something intelligent when it loses power. My (former) PhoneMate used to lose the outgoing message whenever the power flickered; my parents have a different PhoneMate which also does this. Most people get confused when something answers the phone and beeps at them without further explanation. You should also find out what the answering machine will do if you pulse-dial on the same line. My PhoneMate would think that the phone was ringing and answer it while I was in the middle of dialing. Fortunately, the pulse phone wasn't the one that I usually used, but if I wanted to use it, I had to pause after every number. I currently have a General Electric answering machine (model 2-9880b). It doesn't have the previously mentioned problems and I have been satisfied with it. Data Communications also has one of these; they haven't had any problems with theirs either. ---------------- Message 5 (879 chars) is ---------------- Date: Wednesday, 20 April 1988 08:27:02 EST From: Alan.Houser@vega.fac.cs.cmu.edu Myself and several of my friends have had good experiences with General Electric's dual-microcassette model. It retails for approximately $90 at David Weiss. It has some really nice features (like remote message checking), and I've never heard of any problems with the machine's reliability. If you want to spend that much money on an answering machine, I'd highly recommend this one. If you would like more specifics, let me know. Also, you may want to look at the owner's manual. I'll bring it in for you if you would like. -Alan ---------------- Message 6 (1101 chars) is ---------------- Date: Tue, 19 Apr 88 17:52:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Koenigsberg I have a Realistic (Radio Shack) answering machine and it sucks. It's clumsy, my outgoing message sometimes plays back fast, it records the outgoing message internally rather than on a cassette, so it's a fixed length, it was around $99 or so. Out in California I got one for my sister that we both liked a lot - a "Code-A-Phone" (they have several models) which uses the tiny microcassettes, has all kinds of neat features, uses a microprocessor, is small, neat white color, can be accessed over the phone (to play back messages, rewind itself, etc.), and cost much less than my big clumsy Radio Shack one. They had them on sale in the San Francisco area for as little as $49, depending on which model you chose - we got the one for $69. I saw a recent ad in a Pgh. newspaper for either the Appliance Store or Kelly & Cohen, I forget which, that mentioned Code-A-Phone, so I recommend you check one out if you can. Chris Koenigsberg ---------------- Message 7 (1403 chars) is ---------------- Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1988 10:54-EDT From: David.Douglas@ME.RI.CMU.EDU One year ago I purchased an answering machine. I wanted a mega machine that used a Phillips outgoing message tape (the endless loop) and a regular cassette as the incomming tape. I only found two machines that had the features I desired: the Panasonic KX-T1426 and the PhoneMate 2000. I used each for a month and settled on the Panasonic. They were both fine machines with the following features: Beeperless remote with adjustable code. Phillips outgoing cassette. Standard size incomming cassette. Time stamp. VOX (used to make sure messages are message and not people hanging up on you.) Toll saver selection for number of rings. For me the Panasonic was better because it was easier to permanently save messages. The PhoneMate had a date stamp that I really wish my machine had but... If you discover a machine that has improved on these models in the last year let me know. I depend strongly on my answering machine. It saves me from hiring a secretary. David. ---------------- Message 9 (2844 chars) is ---------------- Date: Wed 20 Apr 88 13:19:40-EDT From: Kathryn.Porsche@C.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Tried & true algorithm for answering machines! Last year David & I did a perusal of answering machine & here's what we came up with: 1) First we looked up Consumer Report & see what they had to say. Their most recent evaluations were in May'86, p.295; Jul'86, p.488; Sep'86, p.556 2) Next we visited several stores in Monroeville & took notes on available options & prices. The stores we visited we The Appliance Store, Sears, David Weiss, & Dahlkemper's. We figured that these stores would give us a very good indication of what was available without going overboard. We also made a point to look at year-old models as stores are often put "old" technology/last years models on sale. We also made it a point not to buy the "latest & greatest" in communication devices. We figured that the degree to which we did not "keep up with the Jones" would be more than offset by beating the Jones with our bank account! 3) Then we took a break & reviewed the available options, how important each one was to us, & how much they cost. Some of the options we considered important that did not seem to be extravegantly priced were variable message length, the ability to call in from a phone & hear our messages, the ability to leave each other private messages (by using another special code), & for safety's sake, the ability to set the phone to receive one of two different codes when we wanted to check our messages. There was one machine that had a dozen different codes & I think one that allowed you to formulate your own, but this option came on an expensive machine with a lot of extras. Two other features that we wanted, but deemed to expensive were voice activation (which I now wish we had gotten.... listening to all those dial tone hang-up calls is really thrilling) and microcassettes instead of the reagular tapes. As long as we got a major brand name (we have a G.E. from David Weiss for either $60 or $90-- it was last year's model on sale. We've been quite satisfied with it.) that met our criterion we weren't too worried. 4) One last very important thing. You might want to "field test" it in the store to make sure that it has a reasonable recording tone quality. We had gotten one state of the art machine that was lovely except for one problem: no matter in what fashion David & I sqeaked & squawed, the message that the machine recorded was unintelligable. So back it went! Well, good luck! --Kathie ---------------- Message 10 (2191 chars) is ---------------- Date: Wednesday, 20 April 1988 17:52:16 EST From: Carol.Novak@ius1.cs.cmu.edu We have a PhoneMate telephone answering machine and based on our experiences we cannot recommend it. It broke after the first two months. Since it was still under warranty we sent it back to the company to be fixed. It took 2 months for them to send it back. Part of the delay involved a hassle with them claiming it wasn't under warranty and asking us to pay for the repair, and then us having to send documentation to prove it was still under warranty. Perhaps you can imagine our anger when we finally got it back and found that it still had exactly the same problem!!!! (The mechanism for driving the incoming message tape didn't work). So we sent it back yet again and it come back fixed 3 weeks later and has been working ever since (almost 3 whole months now!) On the other hand, Consumer Reports recommends PhoneMate, so maybe we were just unlucky. The first time we sent it back, it just went to the repair address where nameless people failed their responsibility. The second time we got the name of and talked with someone at customer service, got him to promise to take responsibility for getting it fixed, and sent it directly to him. Ours has all kinds of bells and whistles like allowing you to record personal memos and phone conversations. As far as I'm concerned these things are just fun to play with and not terribly useful. The things I like best are date/time stamp and remote retrieval of messages. I think that perhaps machines with tapes are naturally prone to failure because they have so many moving parts. My sister-in-law has gone through 3 or 4 machines (I have no idea what brands); she says answering machines ALWAYS break in a year or less. Lately they have come out with machines that record outgoing and/or incoming messages on microchips. I wonder if these might be more reliable? Good luck, Carol Novak ---------------- Message 11 (859 chars) is ---------------- Date: Thu, 21 Apr 88 08:44:57 EDT From: J.S.Singh@CIVE.RI.CMU.EDU >From my experience with answering machines, i definitely reccomend Panasonic. I have had a KX-T1421 for almost 3 years now and I just love it. When I bought it, it cost $99 and since then, it has come down a little more. One of the most useful features I find is beeperless remote. Ths way you can call your answering machine from any touchtone phone to get your messages without having to worry about carrying anything with you. Also,VOX (voice activated operation) is essential. Your callers never get cut off and you don't have to listen to 30 seconds of dial tone when some one hangs up on your machine. Jeff ---------------- Message 12 (1356 chars) is ---------------- Date: Thu, 21 Apr 88 17:23:05 EDT From: Amy.Moormann@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU I bought a PhoneMate answering machine about a year and a half ago -- I don't know the model name, but it's small and white and about the cheapest model. I haven't got any major complaints -- it works well 99% of the time, and it has all the features I need. Occasionally, it will act strangely -- it gets mixed up about where the messages start or something. But I think that's probably because of a couple of parties last year, where the machine took some abuse (see how many buttons you can push at a time, etc.)... Also, one thing that people who leave messages complain about is that the more messages there are already, the longer the beep is before you can leave a message; I don't think all machines do that. One other thing some other machines do that mine doesn't is put a date and time stamp on the messages, so you can know when the calls were. So it depends on how fancy you want to get. If you're looking for something relatively inexpensive and functional, this one's OK. -Amy