Priced too High for What You Get

Considering that I just bought a new DVD player for $7 more, this answering machine is a little disappointing. I paid around $20 for it at Walmart.

For the price, I expected a little more.

Now, price not factored in, it isn't bad. It took a bit to figure out the controls on it. I'm not any more of a fan at reading manuals than the next guy.

You can change your message on this thing, although how to do it is not obvious. You have to press and hold the message button. If you don't, you just hear the message played back to you. Nowhere is this indicated on the machine itself, so that was disappointing. I imagine people get stuck with the prerecorded message a lot.

It comes with the two standard recordings. You can chooses from male or female voice. Female is the one it comes set to. Both messages are pleasant, but bland.

There is one thing I find terribly frustrating with the thing. I have a habit of letting messages accumulate. It insists on playing ALL the messages, not just the new ones. When you try to skip the old ones, it gets to the end of the messages and starts right over from the beginning to bore you with them again. That's annoying.

The erase button also happens to be the on/off button. That's also annoying. It apparently doesn't shut off while messages are playing, but it seems like that idea is a problem waiting to happen. Also if you don't catch the message immediately (while playing, which is a challenge on hang up calls) you get the joy of deleting the next message without even hearing it. I'm sure there is some trick to it I haven't caught on to yet.

When playing back messages, time and date are given. I'm not sure yet if this belongs to the previous message or the proceeding one. It would be great to know this due to the deleting problem mentioned above.

Also, the time on this does not set itself. On many machines, it's automatic. There is, however, a button to do that.

On/off is pretty easy. I appreciate that. So is the volume. The speakers are very good in it. Even at a high or low level, you can hear messages clearly.

It's sturdy. It's fallen on the floor a few times. No apparent damage was done. Same with the few times it was splattered with water by the dog. Seems to have not effected it at all.

No rewind feature. That would have been handy.

The mic for leaving a message is very good and so is the message quality to your caller. If you put your face up next to the machine like you're supposed to (and I did the first time). The message comes out clear and perfect. My second message was made from 4 feet away because I was busy. That's a little more faded, but still very clear and understandable. My voice is soft and pleasant. I've made many recordings for businesses. I only mention this to tell you that you don't have to have the sharp tones of a drill seargent to make yourself understood.

Overall, it's a good machine that did what I bought it to do well. I only felt the price was a little high compared to other electronics and what I got for my money. It's made in the same places with the same resources as nearly all other technical gadgets.

The price and lack of rewind (which had the price been lower I would have understood) were really the only failings of the machine. For what it offers, I would think around $15 is more appropriate. Other than that, I'm content with it.

Maybe answering machines contain something expensive that these other technologies don't. I admittedly have not spent a great deal of time price shopping on answering machines.