VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[NorthEndVoice]

Friend of mine is trying to find a way to use a custom greeting for his contracting business answering machine rather than using the built in mic. He's tried recording the greeting by using the remote message change option and playing the greeting down the line and recording that way but sound quality isn't there. Due, I'm sure, to the machine itself.

This isn't an IVR system. Just needs a solution for a quality custom greeting from either a physical machine that can accept a greeting file as an upload...or something to tie into his existing phone system. This is a regular POTS line...not voip. The provider doesn't provide an option for uploading a custom greeting either.

I have zero experience with these systems so I was wondering if anyone has or had a similar situation.

[vkuehn]

I hope someone comes up with a good product suggestion. I have watched for one for years. I once considered taking an old PC and installing a modem that would also function as an answering machine but that is over kill.

My ATT U-verse account will let me download the received messages, but will not allow me up UPLOAD an outgoing message.

Do any of the carriers make it possible to upload an outgoing-greeting on a cell-phone account?

While we are on a rabbit chase, there is one other option I would like to have: on my cell phone I have a CALL BLOCKER. If you are a known producer of junk calls, I put your number in the CALL BLOCKER and my phone immediately hangs up on you. Those are crafty people, so they sometimes block any identification of their phone: no name, no calling number. So I set up my phone to block all such calls. Then I learned the hard way that some people you do want to hear from block their caller information. Like your doctor. When my doctor called to discuss with me that my wife was about to die, my phone kept hanging up on him.

That was not what you call "A Hallmark Moment".

What I want on my cell phone is a normal outgoing message, and an alternate explanatory outgoing message when the caller blacks all identification. Doctors, Psychiatrists, Probation Officers, Social Workers... there are people who have a legitimate need to make outgoing calls without ID info being transmitted.

[Lee Gordon]

[NorthEndVoice]

It's a brand new AT&T machine that he's using. When I mentioned the fault of the machine itself, I was really referring more to the inherently bad audio qualities of stand alone answering machines as a whole. I believe I'm going to suggest he use the voicemail service from the telco and I'll "upload" the greeting file from my Xstream in phone mode. Not perfect but I would imagine that the quality would be a bit better than the answering machine.