I was very surprised when I bought my last answering machine because it came with a talking caller ID. I had no idea until the first time someone called after I had plugged it in. When the phone rang, a voice suddenly started to talk, saying the number of the person calling. As you can imagine, I was quite startled. It took me a few days to get used to it after the first time, but I suddenly found that it wasn’t as scary as I thought it was. In fact, it became very useful.
When your phone rings off the hook, and there is no extension on your desk or in the room where you spend a lot of time, it can get really annoying to get up and check who is calling each time the phone rings. If you get talking caller ID, you won’t have to worry about this any more. I know I have to work at my desk a lot and the talking caller ID on my answer machine saves me a lot of wasted trips to see who is calling. I love it, and I don’t know what I would do without it some days when I am particularly stressed.
The only problem I have with my talking caller ID is that there are times when someone may call at night and the voice does scare me. For some reason the ringing of the phone blends into my dreams and doesn’t startle me awake, the sound of the talking caller ID on the answering machine jolts me awake every time. Perhaps this is a good thing, because most calls in the middle of the night are not good news or an emergency, I guess I should be waking up to answer the call anyway.
If you want talking caller ID, you can find a stand-alone unit or you can find some that come with an answering machine like mine does. You may not even know you are getting it when you buy a new machine, or you may have to look long and hard to find one. That will depend on the selection in the store where you shop. If you can’t find something in your regular store, trying going to a store like Best Buy or perhaps Radio Shack to find what you are looking for. Ask the salesperson for talking caller ID. If they don’t know what you are talking about you are probably in the wrong store.
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