I just moved my office to my house and need voice mail, but don't want to pay $40/month to the phone company to do it. Rather spend a few hundred if needed and just have it. But, my needs are specific. I went to Fry's electronics to browse their phone/answering machines and stand alone answering machines and they don't seem to do what I want:
I need three or four mailboxes. That's easy - any answering machine will do that. But I need it to work in a specific way. I want a main greeting when the phone rings, plus individual greetings for each mailbox.
The answering machines that have 3 mailboxes allow the main greeting - "Hi, if you want John, press 1, Leroy, press 2, or Ed, press 3." Then you get the beep and the message gets stored in that mailbox.
I need one that will give the main greeting, but when the client presses 1, he gets another greeting, "Hi this is John, and here is my schedule for the next week....(blah, blah, blah)...you can leave a message now" and so on for pressing 2 and 3. Off the shelf devices don't seem to do this.
1. Do you know of a simple answering machine that will do what I need it to?
2. If the answer to #1 is no, is there a voice mail device that is affordable and reasonably easy to use without having a phone system to accompany it (a la Panasonic, etc...I won't have a KSU and don't want to install one.)
3. Thanks as always for the great advice!
=Tom
There is no truth anymore. Only assertions. The internet world has no interest in truth, only vindication for preconceived assumptions.
