Customer Reviews

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I have had three AT&T 1740 answerers fail over the years with the problem of it getting stuck with the number of messages blinking and there being no way to clear the messages or continue to use the device. This problem has been reported for years in customer reviews, but it appears that AT&T does not want to fix it. There is nothing that the user can do to reset the unit. There is no Reset or Clear button and unplugging it, then plugging it back in, does not reset it. My next to last unit failed in less than a year. AT&T replaced it under warranty (costing me $11 to mail the old unit), but then within a year the replacement unit failed.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I wanted an answer machine to avoid using the phone companies, and I didn't want to replace my 4 wireless phones. I've had this for nearly 2 months and it has worked fine. It is cheap in quality though and a bit funny. You can set the "day of the week" and the year but you can not set a date. I.E. You can set it as Monday at 1PM but you can't give it a date. Very strange but as I won't be going weeks without picking up my messages it doesn't matter to me. As for the feature that reads out the telephone number for incoming calls I found that annoying and turned the feature off. It is easier, quieter/more private, and nicer just to look at the caller ID.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This is a nice unit, easy to set up, but it had one feature that wouldn't suit our needs. Even when the volume is on it's lowest setting, when a call comes in and the machine picks up you still can hear it. Normally not an issue, but we keep the answering machine in our bedroom mainly to weed out telemarketer calls on our land line. We turn the volume down all the way overnight. Our old AT&T model 1717 would allow the volume to be turned all the way down for incoming calls. Family members use our cell phones to contact us in the event of an emergency. Probably time to eliminate the land line altogether anyway.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Our 30 year-old AT&T standalone answering machine began to malfunction and after trying to fix it, we decided to buy a replacement. There weren't many choices. The AT&T model 1740 is a simple and foolproof answering machine for our landline phone. At first glance, my wife said it was too small, that it looked more like a toy, but it is one of the few standalone answering machines on the market. Once we installed it, adjusted the settings and started using it , we felt it does the job very well. So, If you want a standalone unit, this is one of the few left on the market. It works.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Works great, just announcements of phone numbers is a little fast Would definitely purchase again, if anything happened to this one

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] My mom or your grandmother or father may or may not be up on the voicemail game. Somedays I long for the times when I could just look at the machine and see what number of messages I have after I have been away from the phone...with ease on my eyes and just push play. No dialing in, no codes to push- straight forward play rewind/repeat or fast-forward skip. So easy and I made my mother very happy again for 15 dollars. Come on now, why put them through the nonsense, give them the ease of love. Let them come home and see" oh someone loves me I have 4 calls!"

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I was disappointed with this answering machine. I had read a few dozen reviews which stated it was a great value but the sound quality from both my recorded outgoing message and the recorded incoming calls was awful, and it's no exaggeration to say I couldn't understand a word of either when I played-back. It was so bad that the outgoing message sounded like I recorded it with my head in an empty 5-gallon bucket. Not what I was looking for at all. The good news is that BB took it back and refunded my money on the spot, no questions asked. As it should be.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] In this day and age of voicemail, and answering services, sometimes, a simple way of doing things can be all one needs. My father, who still has hard wired phones in his house, (yes, even the old rotary style,) needed a new answering machine for one that I gave him many years ago. He doesn't use cell phones, and really doesn't like answering the house phone. This answering machine was easy to connect, easy to program, and picked up any...as in frequent, missed phone calls. Problem solved! Now if we could only get him to return calls that he missed!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Not too may stand alone answering machines out there anymore so this has very little competition. Back in the day this would have been below average, few features, poor sound quality, antiquated controls, a real blast from the past. But for $20 you can’t go wrong, it does the job, is solid mechanically and simple to use. As I said the record voice quality isn’t great, I had to have my mouth on top of the microphone to make the recording and it wasn’t clear at that. I researched the few available and this seemed best, hasn’t given me any trouble.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I bought this answering machine to replace an old one I had from Radio Shack that died. This one is SO much better and has so many more features than the one it replaced. The set-up is so much easier because it talks you through it and I like that it has a volume control that I can set to be loud enough to screen calls from across the room. I've kept my landline all these years because it was the only thing in my house that worked when my power was out for 7 days after Hurricane Sandy.