1726 Digital Answering Machine

Pros: Small, cheap
Cons: Flimsy, cheap

The original one I ordered didn't work on arrival. Everything appeared to be functional except the sound, which I couldn't hear, making it impossible to program. I emailed the company who sold it (it was bought through Amazon, but came from somewhere else) and received no response until after I gave lousy feedback on Amazon.
They replaced it at no additional charge and in spite of it being confusing to program, as other reviews also say, I was satisfied for about 6 months. Then I accidentally pulled it off the 2-foot high table it is on and the sound disappeared.
The main issue is, god forbid it should ever accidentally fall, even only 2 feet onto a wood floor. I now have a good idea why the first one was broken on arrival since the PO probably threw it around a bit in the truck.

Pros: Inexpensive - but you get what you pay for.
Cons: Unacceptable audio. Convoluted UI. Bad documentation.

The audio quality is just pitiful and unacceptable. At times there is so much distortion in the announcement it is practically incomprehensible. I tried several different methods to fix the problem, but no matter how close or how far or how loud or how softly I spoke into the microphone, I couldn't get this piece of crap to sound acceptable (sounding "good" wasn't even a goal.)

I have another telephone line that's had a Lucent 1715 for several years that sounds superior in every way.

It's the year 2004. You can't tell me AT&T can't figure out how to make a decent sounding digital recorder for $30 can you?

By the way, the only reason I purchased this is because the AT&T 1717 I bought only two years ago died this week. Maybe I should just dump AT&T altogether. I am not impressed with their quality control.


Crap. Absolute crap.