... I used to rent it from BT for about £11 a quarter and the phone would last about a year and then start to have problems and I'd order a new one which would be delivered free and then that one would last another year or so too.
I actually purchased one eventually thinking it would make ... Read review
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Advantages: Handy telephone with remote access answering machine Disadvantages: Was quite expensive compared to models available these days
...used to rent it from BT for about £11 a quarter and the phone would last about a year and then start to have problems and I'd order a new one which would be delivered free and then that one would last another year or so too.
I actually purchased one eventually thinking it would make more sense (thinking about it now it was probably a stupid idea considering the first 3 units I had stopped working and had to be replaced). So I rang ... ...Decor 310 which retails from BT at around £25.
ABOUT THE UNIT ITSELF
The phone has 3 different ring settings: loud (be warned this is really quite loud), medium and silent (for when you want to ignore the world). There's a 15 number memory facility where you can programme in your most used numbers. There's a cool digital answering machine, i.e. no tape required, which is probably not so cool these days as it's ... more
HISTORY BEHIND MY PURCHASE
I've been using the Response 310 for about 7 or 8 years now. I used to rent it from BT for about £11 a quarter and the phone would last about a year and then start to have problems and I'd order a new one which would be delivered free and then that one would last another year or so too.
I actually purchased one eventually thinking it would make more sense (thinking about it now it was probably a stupid idea considering the first 3 units I had stopped working and had to be replaced). So I rang up BT about 4 years ago and asked them how much to buy one and they quoted me £99 (which was quite steep considering the phones available now). Anyway I told them to whack the charge onto my phone bill and get a unit out to me. Now I returned the rental unit to them once I'd received my new phone and started to use it (praying that it would last longer than a year). I've searched high and low on the net but couldn't find this model for sale anymore which leads me to believe that it's not obsolete, I have a feeling (but am not 100% sure so please don't shoot me if I'm wrong) that it's been renamed from Response 310 to Decor 310 which retails from BT at around £25.
ABOUT THE UNIT ITSELF
The phone has 3 different ring settings: loud (be warned this is really quite loud), medium and silent (for when you want to ignore the world). There's a 15 number memory facility where you can programme in your most used numbers. There's a cool digital answering machine, i.e. no tape required, which is probably not so cool these days as it's quite commonplace.
You can record and save your own outgoing message (which is a nightmare for me as I record and playback, hate the message when it plays it back, so I start again… and again…) and there's even a memo facility so you can leave a particular message for someone else to dial in and retrieve the memo (as long as they have the passcode). This was pretty cool way back when but nowadays pretty much anyone you'd want to leave a memo for has a mobile phone anyway haven't they?
The remote access answering machine means you have the ability to dial in from outside to retrieve your voice messages by tapping in a 3 digit passcode and save or delete the messages once you've heard them.
There's a voicemail indicator which flashes to let you know you have messages as well as how many messages you have (up to 10). The Response 310 also has a nice handsfree dialling feature, but not a speak facility, which is rather useless nowadays, but I'd say that this particular feature is handy if you're calling one of those really annoying automated services (like the credit card, phone or utility company, etc) where you can just press the digit and wait and wait and wait… "Your call is important to us and will be answered shortly" YEAH YEAH YEAH. But that's another review!
MY RESPONSE TO THE RESPONSE 310?
Overall I'd rate this phone/answerphone unit as 5 out of 10. Maybe a few years ago I'd have given it an 8 out of 10 but having seen various newer, more functional and far cheaper units at various relatives and friends' houses I'm not as satisfied with my Response 310 as I once was.
Strangely enough although my rental units used to give up working after a year or so almost as regularly as clockwork, the one I actually purchased has been working fine most of the time for 4 years or so now. I would add though that the number buttons stop working once in a while possibly due to dust but i give the phone a sharp tap (or hard slap) and it always starts working again!
After using this unit for so many years, I'm giving in to the idea of newer technology and am planning to upgrade to maybe a cordless handset soon. Watch this space for a review when I eventually get around to buying something cool to look at and practical to use.
p.s. someone mentioned recently that my reviews were rather wordy so I've tried to keep this one fairly brief and to the point.
