1717 Digital Answering Machine

Pros: takes up little space
Cons: muffled sounds at times

As long as I can remember all of my personal answering machines that I have had have all been from the AT&T product line. I have had some good answering machines and some ones that I really hated.


My current answering machine is the...

Pros: Small, Compact, Easy to Use
Cons: Recorded Time Audio sounds too Robotic

Everyone reading this review will agree with me that there are several things in a business person's life that is a requirement. Everyone needs a cellular phone, electronic organizer and last but not least an answering machine.

I never owned...

Pros: No tape, compact, easy to use
Cons: none yet

It's tiny, square, white and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. It does everything I ask it to do and never refuses to tell me just what I want to hear. That's its' job.

I purchased this machine after my long suffering Panasonic...

Pros: inexpensive, very easy to use, small, simple, good sound quality
Cons: nothing unique to this model

There are two appliances that I have never had any luck with. My toasters have a history of catching fire, mutilating innocent bread slices, and generally causing mayhem. And my answering machines either lose my messages or garble them so badly that it...

Pros: Easy To Use, Clear Message, Date/Time Stamp
Cons: None That We Have Found

I probably purchased this product for something totally different than most people. I am the administrative assistant to the Pastor of a very active Cumberland Presbyterian Church. We send daily e-mail messages to all of our members with reminders,...

Pros: Cheap With Great Performance
Cons: Lacks Advanced Features

Equipping Yourself for the Cosmopolitan Lifestyle

Life in D.C. for the young and employed. Flush with cash, we host dinner parties, attend nightly happy hours and generally live it up in the city. That means that we're out of the...

Pros: Time stamp, retrieving messages remotely
Cons: Constantly resetting the clock

In the past 6 years I've wasted more money then I care to mention on answering machines that didn't last--the little message tapes would break or the electronics would good haywire. About two years ago I found myself in the store yet again looking to...

Pros: easy features, cheap
Cons: TERRIBLE sound quality

What's the most important feature of your answering machine? The number of rings? The fact you can call and reprogram it to answer with a new message? Length of recording time?

While all of those are quite useful, let me suggest something else...

Pros: Extremely Easy to Use. No Tape!
Cons: Have to call people back that you may not want to!

I bought my AT&T Model 1717 Digital Answering Machine off Ebay about 1 year ago. I was tired of fighting with my previous AT&T answering machine that used those darn little tapes. We had a similar model machine (Lucent Technologies) at my place of...

Pros: Simple to use, reliable, great value
Cons: It can't make up excuses for you not calling back

"Hello, we are unable to come to the phone right now, but we'll know the minute that you called!" Of all the features that AT&T brings to this answering machine, my favorite has to be that you will know the exact time that each message was...

Pros: Inexpensive, no tapes to buy, remote message pick up, functional sometimes
Cons: trouble with keeping the outgoing message recorded and the time and date right

I needed an answering machine badly. So when I had an extra $17 I got me one. It wasn't anything special but that wasn't too important anyway. I just needed to make sure that I didn't miss calls from all the therapists and doctors that the children...

Pros: price, good basic features
Cons: bad sound, somewhat unreliable

I bought the 1717 because it was cheap, I confess, and have been using it for about 18 months. Most of its operation is satisfactory. There are several good things about it, although none of them is anything out of the ordinary for an answering...

Pros: small footprint, well-designed, efficient and reliable
Cons: not a lot of added features, but c'mon, it's a bargain anyway!

Well, I had no idea I'd be writing an epinion on this product tonight. I'd never thought of reviewing it before, and just randomly came across it while trying to decide to add someone to my WOT.

They were right in all they said, but I noticed...

Pros: Easy to use, Easy to remote retrieve messages
Cons: Does not withstand lightening strikes very well.

Well, you know what they say, you don't know how good you've got it till you don't have it any more....That was definitely the case for me with this AT&T answering machine! I'm not a big fan of AT&T, or their products, but when I shopped for an...

Pros: No tape, Date and time Stamp
Cons: Only works half the time

ello this s eni I an't ome o the hone ight oww please lea a messe at the eep and I ill et ight back to ou

ey it's me his ive me a all at 8**-342* anks

No I'm not drunk as I write this that is actually what my answering...

Pros: Small, Simple, clear, good amount of space.
Cons: needs more buttons, thats all I know of

I personally bought this because it was cheap and I didn't need anything fancy. My wife suggested to just get the phone company voice mail service. But I want to be able to look at a machine and see if I have a message or two, not pick up the phone to...

Pros: At last, a real quality answering machine!
Cons: The time and date settings are hard to figure out

The AT&T 1717 is an answering machine that is an absolute joy to use. I was visiting one of my friends at her apartment when one of her girlfriends called and left a message (we were screening calls due to a scary stalking incident at college). The...

Pros: Friendly set-up and use, small size, inexpensive, many features
Cons: Occasionally robotic sounding messages

I bought the AT&T 1717 Tapeless Digital Answering System after our four-year-old model 1715, which was slightly larger had had more memory, fried its chips this week. I was surprised how inexpensive (under $30) this one was, and I knew I wanted to stick...

Pros: Tapeless, Time/Date Stamp, Easy to Program
Cons: None Yet

Working in the Electronics department of Wal-Mart for over a year, I learned something important-----what not to get for an answering machine.

Day after day I would see customers enticed by the lower priced model answering machines and...

Pros: lots of options, no tapes to buy, clear messages
Cons: 12 minutes or so of tape time

We bought this machine for the times that nobody is home, or when you just don't feel like picking up the call, but don't want to miss whos calling.

The thing that caught our eye about this is that you don't any tapes to buy. So once you buy...

Pros: easy to use, doesn't eat messages, memo function
Cons: doesn't have multiple mailboxes or other extras you might want for office use

This product was a big step forward for me- my last answering machine was an old fashioned one that used those miniature tapes. That thing ate messages almost daily. But I've never had a single problem with this answering machine.

When you...

Pros: EZ setup, Nice Generic greeting really throws unwanted callers off
Cons: Phone solicitors will stillleave a message!

If you are away from home a lot like I am or if you just don't like talking to just anybody on the phone without knowing who it is (without paying for caller ID), then this is the answering machine for you!

I needed a durable cheap...

Pros: easy to use, cheap, good sound quality
Cons: short record time

I love this answering machine. It has the best sound quality of any digital answering machine that I've ever tried, and I've tried quite a few. For the price, it's WONDERFUL!

It is extremely easy to use. I don't really know how they could...

Pros: Cheap, Digital Tape, Keeps the date
Cons: Don't drop it!

Its funny. I'm sitting here wading through the many opinions to determine which machine to get to replace my dead 1717. And the more I read, the more I realize I had a great little machine. Just don't drop it!!

The 1717 is a small answering...

Pros: small, easy to use, great volume control, no tapes
Cons: sometimes muffled sound, time and date setting difficult

I bought this machine at Wal-Mart for $12. I figured that even if it didn't work, I would only be out $12 so it was worth a try.

So far- we have had it for about 8 mos- it has worked just fine with few exceptions.

The main thing...

Pros: Sounds okay.
Cons: Poor design makes it frustrating to operate.

We've reached the point where we don't even check it for messages any more. It's just not worth the effort.

Why? An example:

I come home to see the number 1 blink and the number 7 blink. Okay, 17 messages. Are there any NEW...

Pros: Numeric LED message counter display; Time/day stamp; OG announcement monitor switchable-on/off.
Cons: Nine minutes of memory, otherwise not many

The latest AT&T model #1719 has re-instated the LED message counter feature which was removed from the 1718. The AT&T model #1719 should be very good. ------------------------------ -------- The AT&T #1717 has good features, including a ...

Pros: Reliability, Durability,
Cons: Sound isn't that great but will do the job

I purchase this answering machine in the early part of 2001 and now it is October 2004 and I'm still satisfied with it. For one thing it is still working just like it was before. Yes when the power goes out the clock is a pain to adjust and I need the ...

Pros: Easy to use
Cons: Doesn't turn off when I pick up the phone

I like this machine. Its easy to use. Its reliable. Its inexpensive. The sound quality is good.

But I'm getting rid of it. Once it starts to answer a call, if I pick up the phone, it doesn't turn off. I've had this problem with other machines....

Pros: Small & tapeless. Has a time & date stamp. Very easy to use
Cons: None

This machine was on my Christmas list last year. It was one of the best presents that I received. This is a great little machine. No fuss, easy to use, but still has all the features like time & date stamping & tapeless recording. The sound is really...

Pros: can listen to, skip, or delete individual messages
Cons: sound quality is marginal, setup is confusing, 12 minutes total recording time is too short.

THE reason I bought this machine was for it's ability to select individual messages to listen to or delete. That's probably it's only strong point. EVERY standalone digital answering machine I've EVER heard sounded really weird - The AT&T is yet...

Pros: Cheap, simple to operate
Cons: Poor sound quality

There it was, sitting on the clearance shelf at Walmart. All bright and shiny and full of empty promises. My wallet said yes, my heart said no. Foolishly, I listened to mly wallet and now I must pay.

Nice and cheap, the 1717 looks attractive....

Pros: compact size , easy to use , great basic features , excellent sound .
Cons: No battery back-up

I actually bought mine " gently used " . I have been very pleased , and I'm very fussy . I have seen the reviews regarding sound quality and can honestly say that's not the case with mine . I have had some digital machines and believe me I know what the bad ones sound like . It's true that there is no battery back-up ( would be nice ) but I can live with that . I got a deal ! If you need a great basic machine , this is it .

Pros: Easy to use and allows remote access.
Cons: 12 min max may not be suitable for "popular" folks needing more recording time.

I've had this answering machine for a couple of years now and I've not had any problems with it. I agree -- you don't need to read the manual to operate this machine's bare functions. But if you do read the manual, you won't be disappointed. I love being able to call home from anywhere and remotely access my messages and delete when done. I even have the manual in PDF format saved to my webpage so I always remember all the phone options. And I love being able to use the "listen" mode to hear around my house to ensure all is nice and quiet. Talk about peace of mind. It records 12 minutes of messages, and since most people leave 30 second messages, that comes out to about 24 messages of storage. When it's full, the phone just rings until the user hangs up. (The display shows "F" for full.) I definitely recommend this phone.

Pros: I thought this is going to work find.
Cons: Clock time is completely out. Cannot find technical support to do remedy.

I brought this to my country without checking at the point of buying and found that the clock time is completely out. I set the clock time according to the instruction in the manual and it was correct, at first. As time passed, even within a few hours later, the time drifted by an hour. After a day or two the clock time is completely out. Message stamp for incoming message is therefore completely out.

Pros: Sound quality is quite good on incoming and outgoing messages. Basic functions are good enough.
Cons: It could be easier to use. Limited recording time. No power failure memory back up.

We've had this one for a long time by my standards for cheaper electronics such as this. It does the basic job
recording shorter messages. Don't waste your time with the AT&T 1738 (newer model - horrible sound quality).