Thanks for the info. I’m definitely going to have to look into this. Glad to know you can use it either way.
Let’s see 28 minutes divided by 4 boxes, hmmmm…I wish they’d upgrade it a little & allow more time. I suppose that’s coming though. But 28 minutes should be enough time to at least work something out.
I was using a company out of California that was charging $20/mo plus 7 cents a minute, but the time was unlimited. I’d rather buy the machine & do it myself, as those minutes can add up quick.
Posted by WilliamGA on March 10, 2001 at 22:21:34:
…know of a good answering machine that has at least 4 (more would be good too) mailboxes that will allow you to have a greeting on every mailbox?
I have searched all over this town for one that will allow me to have a greeting on each of the mailboxes but none seem to exist. All of the ones I find will only allow you to have the announcement at the beginning of the call.
I have a couple of houses available now and if I tell one more person about the 3 bedroom 2 bath on Sweetwater Drive I am going to lose my mind.
So if any of you have found an answering machine that will let you do something like…
When the phone picks up the greeting thanks them for calling and says if they would like to hear about the 3/2 in Warner Robins, press 1. If they would like to hear about the 2/1 in macon, press 2. Then when they press the number they will hear a discription of the property. The message would have to be at least 30 seconds or longer.
If you know of one, please give me the name, model #, etc. and where I might find it.
As promised, I would return with an answer if was able to find out the information for you.
I will not dupicate a prior post, but the closest I came up with in regards to what you were seeking is the same product that (Alan-Baltimore) had posted earlier today. They gave me a demo on it and it really seems to be what you’re looking for. (Check it out)!
I recently bought the Casio PhoneMate (Model SI-460). It’s got almost all the bells and whistles you could ask for: 4 lines, 6 mailboxes (each with its own message), Caller ID, speakersphone, headset compatible, and it’s expandable so you can link up a whole office of similar phones (each of which can have its own 6 messages). One big plus is that the manual is well designed and easy to follow. It’s all digital and can store up to about 25 minutes of sound. I bought it at Staples for about $200 and it’s worked great.
I have it set up with one mailbox for buyers, one for sellers, one for renters, and one for all other messages.
The only problem that I’ve run into is that each message, other than the initial greeting, is accessed by pressing *0x (star, zero, x= numbers 1-6). I’ve found that some people are confused by having to remember and press this type of combination. It’s a very small minority but I’m certain that I’ve missed a few potential buyers or sellers because of this.
Full disclosure: I don’t have any financial interest in Casio or Staples.
Feel free to e-mail me with any specific questions.
I second whoever recommended the phone company’s voicemail. It’s a bit pricey in my area ($6.95/mo) but you get up to 9 mailboxes each with their own message.
A couple of ways to do this. I use a voice modem and software. This allows an almost unlimited number of mailboxes. One advantage is you can see the time/date stamp/caller ID, length of call, etc. on your computer.
Disadvantage is, you have to leave your computer on 24hrs a day. But I’ve been doing this for years with no problem. I also use the phone company’s voice mail ($3.95 month) as a back up. Just in case the computer locks up or the power is out.
Second, do a search for “answering machine multiple mail boxes” on yahoo or something and you can find all kinds of equipment, from cheap home use up to proffesional equipment costing thousands.
William,
My computer at home has a phone answering machine program which does what you are asking. It works well, and does faxes as well. Sorry I am overseas at the moment so I can’t tell you the name of the program, but Best Buy or any computer software place should have this type of program. Have enjoyed your posts in the past. Buy the way I am from Savannah. I am trying to attend the workshop in Atlanta on “How to get lenders fighting to give you money” in June. Being in the military makes it hard to set my schedule, but would enjoy talking to you there if you attend.
Good Luck,
Judd
Posted by B.L.Renfrow on March 10, 2001 at 23:51:33:
Can’t comment on this product since I haven’t used it personally, but Merle Woolley recommended this item in response to the same question earlier this week:
AT&T Model 1872 (2 lines, 4 mailboxes, 4 outgoing messages)
Try calling one of the office supply stores in your area. I would think that if anyone knew that answer, it would surely be those folks! If you don’t have an answer by tomorrow, I’ll tell you what, I’m heading to my local Office Max in the morning. I’ll get you the answer you’re looking for.
SWB Call Notes? That’s what we’ve used for the last year and it seems to work well for about $10 per month. You can have each separate box page or ring a different phone number for notification purposes.
Posted by Tim Jensen on March 11, 2001 at 11:40:13:
Alan,
I have two questions.
You say that you have it set up with three mailboxes.
Do you only have one line going into the house?
If you have only one line then does your greeting go like this: thank you for calling…press *01 if you have a house to sell press *02 if you want to buy the house on elm press *03 for alan. Then after they press the coresponding number, are they greeted by another message?
The total time for audio storage is 28 minutes. That time can be divided any way you want between outgoing information and incoming messages. Since most incoming messages consist of name, address and telephone number, they tend to be well under a minute each. At this point, I’ve had as many as 21 incoming messages saved at one time before erasing them.
It just occurred to me that probably the only feature missing from this phone is a counter that would keep track of the time used or the time remaining for storage. So far, this has not been a problem. I suppose if it ever got to the point of running out of time for incoming calls, I could buy another one or two of these phones and route buyers and sellers to separate phones with 28 minutes each
I guess the next step in phone evolution will be for this type of phone to use flash memory like that used in digital cameras so you could add more storage as necessary.
Yes, that’s almost exactly how it goes. There is only one phone line for my real estate business. I also have my private home line and another line for a home-based computer business that I operate.
The initial greeting is acutally located at *01 so and it can be repeated by pressing that code. Also I have some multi-family rentals and they take up another mailbox.
