AT&T 1739 - Corded Digital Answering System

This unit does come with a phone cord. Although it's hardwired to the unit itself, if I ever need a longer line, I would purchase an inexpensive extension. I owned an older mode of this unit about eight years ago and like this one better in a number of respects. It comes with simple to understand directions, set-up is hassle-free and extremely easy.

I have no problem setting the volume to "no volume" and having it take messages silently if I don't want bothered at a particular time. The directions specify that after you play a message however, that you must re-set the volume to low again to place it in the silent (or less volume) mode. Not a hard thing to remember, and certainly not an issue. It only entails pushing a button a few times.

There is some crackling at times in the playback (why it did not get five stars from me), however I found that if the volume is increased, the crackling (or break-up) disappears. I have had no problem understanding any of the messages left and feel that at times, people do not speak clearly, loydly enough, etc. (as was the case with my older unit) so cannot fault the unit for this. However, I have had callers with both booming voices and people who talk softly by nature (and everyine in between) leave messages, and again, have had no problem understanding any of them.

A plus my older unit did not have it that this unit does not record messages that are hang-up calls (typical telemarketer ploy), which was always a nusiance on the older unit. A royal time-waster. No problem in that regard with this unit.

We have several different phones and have gotten no interference. We have this unit set up with no phone attached to it (it does have a plug in it for a phone jack, so you can plug this unit into the wall jack and then plug a phone directly into the unit, by the way ~ a feature I wondered about as it is not in the product description and no one mentioned it in any of the reviews). But yoe do not need to plug a phone into it for it to work. A nice option, for us, anyway.

You can't beat it for the money, it is nearly pure simplicity. Much less than phone company voice mail, much easier to access. Just go through the instructions step-by-step and keep them handy in case you want to change the setting on any feature. It has a smaller footprint than my older unit also, so was easy to place where we wanted it to be.

If you are looking for an easy-to-use, easy-to-set-up, few-frills unit, you will have a hard time beating this deal on Amazon anywhere ~ less than $18 with SuperSaver Shipping thrown in. I would have spent twice that much running around looking for one. Stay away from the GE units, the AT&T units are hardworking and durable.

And yes, it is made in China. Show me one made in the USA and I will gladly buy it!

This A&T answering machine works very well and picks up messages easily. It is lightweight and does not take up space. The only problem is having to reset the time and date which even includes the year. AT&T 1739 - Corded Digital Answering System

Very pleased so far. Easy to set up and use. I like the auto outgoing msg. I've owned a number of anwsering machines over the years. This is the best so far. Price was very reasonable. I would recommend it.

I've purchased this answering machine at my local WalMart for only $14.27 I set it up in a jiffy and found
it very easy to operate. I am Hungarian and even I could understand everything in the User's Manual.
Although the sound quality deserves only 4 stars everything else works great. I like the little unit.

A nice, simple, inexpensive answering box for the old phone line. It works. Simple to setup. The sound isn't great, but good enough to do the job. I didn't need three "mailboxes" and a heavyweight feature set, just a box to take the occasional message. It doesn't have a battery backup, so if power is lost the clock must be reset, but it still keeps all recorded messages. All in all, a lot of bang for the buck.

The main display tells the number of messages. It will be normally a zero most of the time since I do not get many messages. The zero is supposed to be made of of 4 lit-up lines, but my machine only has 3 and looks like an upside-down U. I have never seen the bottom line light up, so it must have left the factory that way. I have wondered whether I was sent a machine that had been returned to the seller as defective.

Our third AT&T answering machine in over 30 years. More recording time and more features and a price that makes this a great bargain. Very easy to setup and use.

Being inept in communication products more advanced than corded telephones, I was pleasantly surprised to set up the answering machine without pain and suffering.

For 17 bucks this is about the best purchase I have made in a long while. We finally gave up our answering machine with a magnetic tape for data storage. Instead of paying $5 a month for voice mail with the phone company, I found this item on Amazon. I guess it's not the latest and greatest technology-wise. But, for the price it does everything we need, and came with free shipping to boot. I highly recommend it if you just want a basic machine that's easy to set up and works fine.

This machine is perfect for home and simple to set up and use with great features.

This little machine is unbelievable for the money. It does everything an expensive machine does and more. Some reviews stated the sound was very bad, I was afraid to order it, but for the price I figured I had nothing to lose. This machine has as good a sound quality as my expensive machine has. I really do give this machine a 5 star rating.

Excellent Answering Machine. Easy to set up, as well as retrieve calls. No tapes to mess with. I would highly recommend this answerintg machine to anyone in the market for purchasing a new answering machine.

This old fashioned machine will save you a ton of money on the "answering services" offered by most providers. This thing is so easy to set up, I did it without even reading the directions. There is a number announce feature that is wonderful, as I purchased this for my elderly mother...and then for myself. It's nice to hear the number announced. If you're busy, you can decide whether or not to "run" to the phone. Even if this thing only lasts for a year or two (first time I've had one of these particular models) it will be well worth the price. I bought an extra for a backup.

Works as advertised. Setup was simple and quick. No complaints as long as it lasts for the next 2 or three years.

the machine works fine; easy to set up for usage; simple and effective; deent value.

There is nothing fancy about this answering machine. You can't record a personalized message for example. It is is straight up answering machine that is dead simple to use. Plug it in, set the time and date, number of rings before answering, language (Eng or Spanish) and you are done. It just works. If you are looking for robust features, this is not the product. But, if you just want a inexpensive, straightforward device, you can't beat the price. One thing that bugged me is the phone cord is hard wired. Meaning you can't put a short cord on or replace it (not that I would think it would go bad). For me, I wanted to put a shorter cord on and couldn't.

My old answering machine was really a pain to setup, so when it finally bit the dust I looked for another only better one. I found this one to replace it and it is great. The setup for it is great as it tells you, yes it tells you how to set it up, what to press and so on. I think anyone who needs an answering machine without any other wireless phones that come with it, this is the machine for you. Who needs 3 or 5 extra phones, I sure don't so not only the price is great but the machine is. You won't go wrong if you buy this one.

It is a simple answering machine for home use that effectively does the job I needed to be done. It is easy to use. It sounds good. It takes up a smaller space than my older machine. You can remotely check your messages I agree that it is weird that it announces the time, day of the week and year but not the month or day of the month. It has some features that are only available if you pay for extra services from AT&T like caller ID. If you have caller ID, which I do not, it is supposed to reset the time automatically after a power failure. This would be nice but I can do without it. If you need a answering machine for home use, this is good.

This machine simply has poor quality recordings. I find myself replaying the messages several times in order to hear what the person said. It is especially bad when a person calls from a cell phone. Oftentimes I cannot understand many words at all.

To those who have left a negative review about the sound or build quality of this device: what do you expect for such a low price??? Surely you cannot expect real high quality for something that has so many features for so little a price. Be realistic.

This answering machine was very easy to set up. The instructions that come with it are clear, in large print and with pictures and I feel the average person should have no problem doing the setup. You can set the number of rings before it answers; if you have caller ID it verbally announces the number of the party who is calling; it is very easy to record a greeting. In fact, everything is very easy about this machine.

As for the sound quality - it is not the best, but then neither is it unintelligible, either. It sounds "electronic." Unless you are an obsessed audiophile who must have realistic sound even from your answering machine, I don't think there is a reason to complain about the quality. The machine is also a nice, compact size if you have space considerations.

Granted, I have only used this for a few weeks so I can't comment on the durability but out of the box this machine is easy to set up and does what it is supposed to do. The only negative I have is that there is no display screen for the incoming call when using caller ID; it is purely a verbal announcement so if you miss it then you don't really know who is calling you.

I am satisfied with this unit and would recommend it.

I bought the AT&T 1739 digital answering machine and returned it the same day that I recieved it. The AT&T 1739 was easy to setup and operate and has the same basic features of various other digital answering machines that I have owned and that friends have owned. I have experience with about 4 or 5 digital answering machines.

I own a small business. My biggest problem with the AT&T 1739 is that the call screening feature automatically adjust the volume up to a level that can be herd when a call is answered. When in a meeting and a call comes in the AT&T 1739 adjusts the volume level up so that everyone in the room can hear private incomming calls. The feature is not adjustable and you cannot turn it off. Everyone in the room can hear all incomming calls. The volume adjustment is useless as the machine overrides the volume setting to a audible level when a call comes in. When I adjust the volume level to the lowest level, I would like it to stay there until I decide to turn it up.

In general, digital answering machines have low sound quality and limited fexibility with respect to recording time and limited flexibility with respect to transferring recorded messages off of the machine for future reference.

With tape answering machines the tapes are removable and can be saved indefinetly by removing them and inserting a new tape. The cassettes can be played on any tape player. Cassette tapes are cheap, easy to find and provide great flexibility.

I bought a cassette tape answering machine (Panasonic KX-T5100) and it has all of the features and flexibility I require. They are hard to find new but I was able to find a refurbished one on ebay.

Digital answering machines are low quality and have limited flexibility. In the case of answering machines the older tape/analog machines are of higher quality and have more flexibility than the digital answering machines.

I am sure digital machines could be made with higher quality but with the telephone company answering service, the demand may not be great enough to force manufacturers to make quality answering machines. Before cancelling the phone companies answering service, the cost of the phone companies answering service was $10/month. I bought my answering machine for $50. Therefore, the machine will pay for itself in 5 months and I have full control over my messages.

I found this unit easy to set-up. I like the feature that as soon as the phone rings, the number is announced.

I bought this needing a basic answering machine that I could figure out how to set up. I had returned a store brand from a local retailer, who said it would be easy, but I couldn't even get the date set up.

This machine's instructions are easy enough to follow. Nice feature is that you can delete individual messages. There is also an audio verification of your settings. Only downside to this model is the sound quality. Your own voice recording will not sound like yourself, so I made use of that, and did a little skit of a celebrity in rehab. (I have since changed that to a basic message.) The sound quality of recorded incoming messages is okay. The old cassette answering machine I owned had excellent recording, but after ten years, it finally jammed after serving me well.

So for the low price and ease of use, I could recommend this to others if you are okay with a bit of distortion in your voice. You can play with that and it will sound better than the pre-recorded announcement that sounds like a game show voiceover.

This answering machine would be great if only it had any sound quality. Messages sound as though they were recorded underwater, impossible to decipher until you play them several times and even then you are guessing at half the words! Too bad because it is a great little machine otherwise. However, since the purpose of an answering machine is to receive your messages, don't waste your money on this product.

Stand alone answering machines are hard to find these days. I didn't see a lot of choices either online or at the stores. I'd had an older AT&T machine that was very good and lasted for many years. This model 1739 is nicely designed and simple to use. The sound quality of the outgoing message could be better. I also wish that it was capable of recording a second outgoing message to use when you go on vacation, as was available on my older model. But all in all I am satisfied with the machine.

I bought this yesterday at Walmart for $14.97. I had a digital one previously that lasted for about 14 years and broke about 6 months ago. I get all my important calls on my cell phone, so we went without an answering service at home for a while. But with kids back in school and so many important places having our home number we want to have something just in case we get an important call, but we don't want to pay $10/month to the phone company for voicemail service. Well I hooked this up last night and tested it out. The quality is VERY GOOD for $15! It will get the job done, esp. since we depend more on our cell phones than our home phone. The features are very advanced over the last machine we had, and you just couldn't ask for more to meet the needs we have. This HANDS DOWN beats paying $120/year to the phone company for voicemail!!!!

If you're looking for an affordable answering machine, then this one is the way to go. It's simple to use. Nothing real fancy about. I read others complaining about the audio not playing back at a high enough volume. Sometimes that may be true but, it's most likely not because of the unit itself; It's because the person on the other end of the phone didn't speak loud enough into the telephone for the answering machine to pick up clearly. Most of my recordings played back just fine and if they were low, I could still make out what was said if I listened closely.

Our old AT&T answering machine past away after ten years of good service. Bought this one to replace it. Received it quickly from Amazon. Read the directions and plugged it in. The unit lit up but would not let me set it up as described in the manual. None of the buttons responded. So I gently unplugged it and plugged in the machine again. It never lit up again. It is dead. Used this new answering machine's power adaptor on the old machine and it saw that the power is working so it's not the adaptor. I know it is only $18 but it should work. I guess I'm lucky that it never worked from day one (or in this case, minute one) so that I can get a full refund (at least I hope I can) instead of dying after 3 months. Then you are really out of luck. This is the disappointing part about shopping on the internet. I prob would not have bought the unit at the store. It looks flimsy especially compared side to side w/my older sturdier and better looking AT&T unit. Buyer Beware.

I really love the product. It made very well and once you know how to operate it great. I have nothing negative to say about the product itself. The only issue was the instructions. I purchased the product with the understanding it was new and never used, but the lanuage was in spanish and all the messages on the machine were in spanish--they lied it was used.

The instruction did not give detailed information on how to change the lanuage. I had to call the 800 number twice one to change the lanuage and then to change the number of rings.

If the instruction written correctly, I would have had to wait over the weekend to get the information inorder to use the machine. They need to redo the instructions.

About a decade ago, I had an tape-based answering machine die. It was a pain to use AND you could almost always clearly hear the message that was left. I replaced it with a combination telephone/answering machine/speaker phone -- which was really easy to use AND you could rely on it garbling the message at important points (such as in the middle of phone numbers). After nine years, I gave up on that machine when it recorded one message so poorly that the only words I could make out were, "and this is really important".

So, I purchased this machine. It has all of what you'd expect an answering machine to have: remote-access, choice on how many rings to answer after, detection and shut-off on a handset pickup, a readout showing how many messages are on the machine, playback, individual message deletion, and a day/time stamp. I've been using it for a little over a month and truly appreciate being able to hear message again -- albeit with the distortion that comes from either not using a high enough sampling rate or using too high a compression setting. The words can be heard and distinguished easily enough, but no one ever sounds quite like themself.

Overall I'm content with the machine: it does the job even as the sound is a touch garbled.

The only thing that worked about this thing was that I got to open the box. The digital messages are indecipherable, just static, static, static. How is THAT any kind of message? Do NOT purchase this item if you think you are getting something that will actually answer your telephone and get a message!!!

Needed simple divice at my vacation property. This one worked well for 3 days until it litteraly got smoked by a lightening strike. As about as expensive as a Surge Protector so I bought two of these. Will put next one in service next time I'm on vacation. Simple, low cost, but yet functional. No frills, just the basic functions.

This is a decent machine. Does what it should. Simple set up, and works. Our voice greeting/announcement (out to the people that call in) is SLIGHTLY slower sounding than it should be. Not sure how this can be, since it is digital, with no tapes. But it really is a decent machine for the price - we got it because everything else had poor reviews. I'd get this one for sure, if you are in need of a new machine!

Works great, wonderful clarity, you can leave messages up to 3 minutes. Only thing I'd like different is the outgoing voicemail voice, if I don't want my voice on the outgoing message I'd like a different option then the one that comes with it!

The machine often stopped working, and I would have to come into my office to fix it by unplugging it and then plugging it in again. Then it totally stopped working. All this in less than a year and a half of ownership.

This does what it should. Answers the phone when my kids are to slow/busy.

Loved the features of:
- Big Play button - my old one had all small buttons size

- Can display up 98 unique messages
(too bad they didn't use a 2 digit display)

- 40 Min of record time - my old one only had about 10 mi.

- Can slow mode playback for those very fast talkers who leave
there number

- Allows a wide range of ring counts 2-7 before answering

- Has many features that rely on having caller-in service from telco
I'm to cheap to get caller-id for an extra $10/mon.

- Remote access (call machine from work) - prompts where descriptive.

Cons:
- Setup is a bit weird. Had to get the manual out to understand what
all the options meant.
- Remote access code limited - first digit must start 5-7
I wanted something like 123 same code for TV remote access.
Now I have to remember something else that begins with a 5.

Sound quality is ok for me. I guess it depends on telephone company volume signal strength.

This was bought to replace an aging (over 10 years old) micro-cassette BellSouth machine. I wanted something simple that was free-standing to fit in what I refer to as my communications center (with DSL modem, wired/wireless router, answering machine, etc.). I like the overall design of the unit and the bright display and clearly labeled buttons. Setup and programming was very easy, thanks to the built in voice prompts. It's plugged into a DSL filter. The permanently attached phone line was a little short, and I would have preferred to set my own access code. Performance is very good, and I (and a musician friend who has perfect pitch) thought the voice/audio quality very acceptable, better than the unit it replaced and better than a wired telephone or maybe even an MP3, tho I don't have the volume turned up really high. I even found I preferred to use the built in answer message. Also like this much better than a very disappointing GE digital answering machine I once tried that was so bad I threw it out. Overall, I think this is a very good answering machine and a good value.

This machine works great! I was looking for an inexpensive answering machine for our Comcast phone that we are using at camp this summer. Since our cell phones do not work, we also forward our cell calls to this phone. The answering machine has worked flawlessly. It was easy to setup with an easy to use instruction manual. We used the system generated message, which I prefer for answering the calls. It has done exactly what we needed it to do for a very reasonalbe price. This is less expensive than paying a monthly fee for an on line answering service.

Good for the price. Got this one for my cousin... she likes it because it's easy to use.

AT&T 1739 - Corded Digital Answering System
My old machine bit the dust and I desperately needed to replace it. This answering system fit the bill perfectly for me. It is compact, easy to operate and messages are voice activated. I'm very happy with this system.

I order by mistake this product. Gave it away since I have a combined cordless phone and digital answering machine.

on time. Good product. One flaw. WE do not have caller ID, so when the power goes out, we loose our date time. If we had caller ID it would recover the dateime on the next call ( as per manual). Not everyone has caller id.

The product performs according to the specifications. We are very satisfied with the product.

I bought this to replace an older model. It was fairly easy to set up and has good sound quality. I am very pleased wth it.

I had read many review's on answering machines. Most of the review's talked about the sound quality of the machine they had purchased and many were not favorable. This AT&T is a great little machine, very compact with clearly marked options. It was so easy to set up, I had it working right away. The sound quality is great, very crisp and clear. I would highly recommend the AT&T answering machine to anyone needing this type of digital service. You won't regret it.

Basic answering machine, sets up easy, records messages very well, which was my #1 priority. I give it 4 stars only because my recorded message for incoming calls sounds muffled and a little low. I would recommend this unit for anyone looking for a no frills machine that performs well.

The only complaint I have is I wish it had a battery so that it would reset it's self after a power outage. It is easy to set up and works well.

This product is not worth two cents. Don't buy it. The sound is so garbled you can barely understand anything!

The price can't be beat and it does what it's supposed to.
The recorded voice quality is understandable but not great - sort of like a cell phone call.

The answering machine met all of my needs. The feature of changing the answering message remotely has worked very well. The device is easy to operate. The quality of the voice recording is a little tinny, but is not difficult to understand. I especially like the ability to change the answering message from any touch tone telephone (no need to carry a separate device to operate this feature). I am very pleased with my new answering machine, a very good value for the price. Thank you for making this available.