Landline telephone messages

[Lisa in California]

We have a landline telephone.  It is connected to a separate answering machine.  We recently found out that some messages are solely recorded to the machine, and some are solely recorded “elsewhere”.  (We have to call our phone to retrieve those messages.)

The messages that are recorded on the machine appear to be from cell phones and landlines. The messages that are recorded “elsewhere” may be from other landline phones as the messages are from doctor’s offices, the vet, our appliance repair person, etc.

Are there any suggestions, short of getting a new answering machine, that we could try to make sure all messages go to the answering machine, please?  Three years ago we bought a reproduction 1930’s phone, to fit in with our farmhouse.  Unfortunately, the phone does not have any lights to indicate that there are waiting messages.  Our phone provider is through our cable provider and I dread calling them for advice as they haven’t fixed the last couple of issues that we have with unrelated television issues.

Any suggestions most welcomed.  Thank you, Lisa

[Calverley Lad]

I would suggest answer machine, read through the handbook for your answering machine.
I would have thought all incoming calls would be monitored via answering machine, such as:
a) After say 6rings message recorded with an indication of message left.
b) If on picking up a call and no message left an indication of a missed call is indicated.
 Brian

[Lisa in California]

What an obvious thing to check; I’m embarrassed to admit that it never occurred to me.  I searched a bit on the internet for answers but I didn’t give the actual device a thought (I was so focused on the phone). Thank you very much, Brian. I don’t think I ever would have checked the manual.     Off to read for a bit.

[Lisa in California]

The manual didn’t provide answers but I looked at internet troubleshooting for the brand and “answering system”…

Messages may be going into voicemail before the answering system picks up the call. The suggestion is to program voicemail at least two rings after the answering system is programmed to answer.  So, tomorrow we will program voicemail for 6 rings.

Again, thank you Brian.  It looks like our problem may get resolved.  We’ll also be sure to check voicemail once a week or so.