Answering Machine That Will Call Out With Message - Help Find!

We have an answering machine at work that will call us when a message is left on it. It quit dialing out. This has resulted in my co-worker and I having to call in and retrieve messages at least every hour - from 8 am to 1 am. That's seventeen hours a day! And that time extends longer on the weekend, as we are on on call 24/7 every other week.

The bosses are willing to buy another machine. Problem is none of us can find one that will call a number with messages! We've checked BestBuy, Circuit City, Office Max, Staples, Office Depot, etc., all to no avail.

I'm going nuts from this. It's taxing me with stress and a lack of sleep (can't even catch naps during those times, at least for not more than an hour). Watching the clock is a real drag, too. Apparently Call Notes (which I'm told would do this) is not an option from the company's phone provider.

I don't know the brand of the existing machine, but am going to find out and contact the manufacturer. I may call all major manufacturers soon. Google searches are not helping, might be my poor search technique, or perhaps fatigue or both.

This has been going on for quite some time, and I can't take much more. I'll probaby get serious and change jobs if no resolution is found. It's bad enough being on call 24/7 every other week with no additional compensation, but calling in this way is like Chinese water torture.

Sorry to vent/whine/moan/b*tch/boo hoo poor little me. To cut to the chase: Anyone know where I should look to find one that will do this?

Do you have a computer? Telephony programs will call you, page you, forward, etc. just about anything you want. So hook up your phone line to the computer and run the software.

Don't know what's current, but Panasonic has the feature on some older machines. KXFP121 fax with answering has it. (BTW, it called "Pager Call") and PQQT17195 cordless phone w/answer system has it.

I use both in my office. Good luck. If you find a newer system, please post. I'd like to upgrade mine.

Looks like this one may do it. What a cool feature!

That's the exact phone I have (per the picture). Mine has worked flawlessly for several years. I wouldn't be surprised if those are refurbs. But anyway, if you can live without multiline and caller ID, it would be a great find at the price.

The fax system I have has caller ID and will show that on the page as well as whether it is a call or a fax.

I really need multiline capability.

BIGIRON said:

...I really need multiline capability.

Click to expand...

Maybe one of these.

Yes, I found that one when I looked about a year ago. The cheapest I found it then was $650 (if I remember??).
Didn't want one that badly.

I might reconsider at $350.

Thanks.

BTW, I did "cover" my original two machines with the Pana KXtg6500, a 2 line remote system without the pager call so that I have the one handset/2line capability. The original two machines with pager call answer their individual line. Now if I could just find something else to put on my desk.

Thanks everyone! I'll check into this.

I did the exact same search a couple weeks ago when I thought my PhoneMate "ADAM" (all digital answering machine) was broken (called Phonemate, they say; "we don't fix those anymore because as you must know they are very old.." -- real good reason to not fix em -- pft!)
..maybe you can find one of those..?

anyway the cheapest call forwarder i could find online was $800 and the next was $1500 -- I got the old one working again! (it was just the lcd screen, it had gone a bit dark, but still works).

just checked that Panasonic pager call model in link above and got: *
PRODUCT INFORMATION UNAVAILABLE *
Product not in our database, sorry!*

Any other sources for that phone any one?

btw i have had that Panasonic type of phone (with answer machine) -- and it has worked great for over ten years -- the handset just now seems to have finally conked out..the touch pad always goes first.. it has no pager call, but does have the feature of being able to check for and hear messages from the handset..

The A.D.A.M. Phonemate is great. I have it call the cell phone when I out...
have you tried re programming the call-out number and making sure it is set ("message transfer ON") to do that?

I guess the manufacturers don't feel there is a market for the call out devices with the huge tech strides in cell phones, voice mail, email devices, etc.

But some of us like simple, straight forward stand alone devices that function well in the real world. I tried a number of telephony programs and they were fine for a geek who wanted to play with them everyday, but they weren't worth a darn as "set and forget" tools.

Tried to buy a flatbed scanner recently?

Panasonic web site indicated the fax/answerer KXFPG379 is available and has pager call. Mine is similar. I've probably had it 5 or 6 years w/no problems. The Office Depot film cartridge is relatively inexpensive.

We used equipment like this to monitor our labs and such...

Sensaphone

If you can fit a sensor of some sort to the phone/answering machine (like a light sensor over the message waiting light), you could probably get it to call out.

Does your company have voice mail system? Should be able to call out if message... (probably extra cost adder).

Does your company allow fowarding of calls? Send that to your cell phone (or the "on-call" cell phone)... Or send them to a phone covered by a good voice mail plan that offers paging, automated attendent (if this is an emergency press 1), etc...

Get something like www.vonage.com and forward your service calls to a Vonage number and use their functions (call forwarding, call hunt, check voice mail online--perhaps other options)...

I am suprised that there are no outcalling answering machines out there anymore...

-Bill

BB,

It's not been easy to find any that make outgoing calls (pager call), at least not for us. When checking the Froogle links kindly provided by a fellow member, many of them are indeed discontinued and many refurbished sales sites are sold out. I have some prospects from the list though.

I'm not sure about the forwarding of calls. We only have the answering machine. I've been told through a former employee that the company that provides our phone service has no Call Notes. Have not been able to get a hold of the boss for several days.

This company I work for has had this number about thirty years. I do believe if they wanted another phone provider they could take the number with them.

Thanks for the reply. I hope to solve this issue the easy way rather than take the other route, and am being careful what I wish for.

BigIron,

Appreciate the help, keep it comin'. I'm not sure how they are going to feel about a fax as well, as they already have one that uses another line.

To be even more blunt, they may well feel that it's easy for us to just call in this way. The machine the have now was donated to us by a former employee about 16 months ago. He donated it because the other machine that did this was broken, and the bosses had this same "can't find one" problem. The bosses were making us call in every half hour in that instance, which was 34 times a day. I'll take my chances on being terminated before I ever do that again without additional compensation. As I stated above, I say this being careful what I wish for, because it not the route I want to go.

After receiving the donated machine the bosses took several weeks to hook it up, despite the fact that the office is attached to their home. Finally after some prodding (nicest term for it) by my co-worker they hooked it up. Sort of a "let them eat cake" mentality going on.

I have benefits and some flexibility with this job. I've learned a great deal about the greater area around the city from it. Many of the job tasks are not difficult. Most time is spent driving through the horrible traffic and construction. There is the risk of robbery, and many locations are in bad areas (people smoking crack across the street from a convenience store I've gone to at night, which has been robbed four times I know of since starting this job, another store robbed just last week as well). In short it has ups and downs.

Am I expecting too much not to have to call in every hour from eight a.m. to one a.m. during the on call weeks, which are every other one? Does this make me a malcontent? No one I know can believe what they expect out of us. No one I know with an on call job even comes close to this situation, and they have additonal compensation.

go to ringcentral.com - get yourself either a 1800 number, or regular number. Then you can set it up the way you want what should be forwarded to what- set up a menu like press 1 for x, press 2 for y...etc.... costs like $120 per year (plus $/min. above what you are allowed - but I don't assume that many messages are left anyway). You can even set it up that they email the message to you - and you get a text message to check your email... etc etc.. many options...

If you've got the space, you and your bud kick in and buy the fax. Install it. Use it. If you like your job, $75 apeice ain't too much.

The machine I'm referring to can call your pager, give you the number as picked up by the caller id and then a code (that you program) indicating if the call is voice or fax. You can remotely receive a fax (i.e. pick up the fax from another machine - I've done it a couple of times). Your can call in and pick up a voice message or just call the number on the page (which I always do if it's a familiar number).

And you don't have to have paper or film for the answering system to work.

You'll also have a backup fax and copier.