voice mail or answering machine?

[kristilew]

It seems like everyone I know has the voicemail with the phone company on their home phone. So how come when I am shopping for a new cordless phone, they all come with a digital answering system? Is the voicemail unique to my town? Just curious what everyone else has working!

 

[DawnCt1]

I have both, which is only helpful if someone forgets to hang up the phone. I would rather have an answering machine. It beeps and I can just press a button to listen to messages, not have to dial into it. I don't like picking up messages from my cell phone either. If its important, text me. My voice mail message on my cell says, "You have reached my cell, if you leave me a message, sometimes I listen to my messages, and sometimes I don't".
I hate to mislead anyone to think that I will actually listen to them.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

We have both...why? I'm not really sure

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

I have both, but keep the answering machine turned off. I prefer voicemail. With that said, I really hate getting voicemail on my cell. I prefer to let the "missed calls" notifcation do the talking. My mom is the only one who ever leaves me voicemail...everyone else knows better! lol

 

[DMickey28]

I have both as well. I never check the automated one. Same with my cell ... it's been full for I don't know how long. I actually just delete the messages without listening. Anyone important I talk to on a bi-daily basis anyway.

 

[JVL1018]

I only have the answering machine that came as part of the phone.
Voicemail only on my cell.

 

[SplshMtn99]

No need to pay a monthly fee for voicemail when we already own & use an answering machine. Its just another monthly expense that never goes away.

We aren't THAT important that if someone misses us at home, that it can't wait until we get back. lol

 

[KikiFan]

I prefer voicemail. I don't want to have to switch over when I'm on the line and I don't like listening to the click click sound when a call comes in that I don't want to answer.

 

[Charade]

We have both but only use the answering machine. The other is turned off. It does have a nice feature though where you can get your voicemail emailed to you and play it on your computer. The enhanced version will convert it to text so you can read it.

We use Vonage.

We don't even have our own voice on the answering machine. We use the computerized one that's built in.

 

[JimmyPicker]

I had the phone company disable my voice mail. We only use an answering machine. So much easier. Just press play.

I have never set up voice mail on my cell phone either. I live way in the boonies, and it's difficult to get a signal on my cell. Since I don't leave the boonies too often, it could be too late by the time I get the message.

For example, I do my shopping in town on Fridays. On my old phone that had voice mail set up, I'd go in town, finally get a signal, and there would be a message from Monday to let me know there was a meeting at church on Wednesday. Um, it's Friday and I'm just getting the message.

So, when I switched companies, I just never set up my voice mailbox. Now no one can say they left me a message on my cell.

 

[lisah0711]

No need to pay a monthly fee for voicemail when we already own & use an answering machine. Its just another monthly expense that never goes away.

Another answering machine person here. Just got rid of our call waiting and voice mail -- savings $15 a month!

 

[scrump]

We don't have a landline, so we only have the voicemail on our cell phones.

 

[GeorgeG]

We have an answering machine built into the house phone and voice mail on the cells.

 

[mjkacmom]

Even with caller ID, I screen my calls. I need a machine.

 

[SplshMtn99]

Another answering machine person here. Just got rid of our call waiting and voice mail -- savings $15 a month!

Is it that much? That's crazy when the answering machine is a one time cost & so cheap.

 

[Imzadi]

i liked the ability to screen calls with an answering machine by listening as the message comes in. Even with Caller ID, sometimes you don't want to answer even if you know who it is and you hear them whining on the machine. Other times, you wouldn't have picked up, except the call sounds urgent.

I HATE having to call my voice mail to listen to messages.

And Caller ID is an extra fee along with call waiting and voice mail.

I just got rid of my landline. I had the most basic service available in this area. Even with no long distance (I use my cell for that,) and no extra features, it had cost me an extra $35/mo. I am sooo glad I got rid of it.