DON'T BUY IT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

I remember when this phone first was available to the public. It was exclusively listed in a 1995 issue of the Hammacher Schlemer catalog at $399.00 (US). I bought mine in 1997 at a Radio Shack Clearance sale for $149.00. The phone features an automated voice that guides you through menus when retrieving your messages remotely. It also announces the telephone number of the calling party through its built in speaker (with caller ID). One month after having this phone the automated voice burned out. I mean, if you pressed * to access the menu the phone would hang up on you and then reset itself. This forced me to record my own outgoing message and stop the phone from attempting to announce callers. For whenever the phone would attempt to perform a function requiring the "voice", the phone would malfunction and reset. This made the "caller announce", "remote message notification", "automated menu" and "auto attendant" features useless and voided. Even the page function (which lets you connect multiple phones to create a paging system) did not work properly. Once you set up the page system, every phone remained stuck in page mode. Sometimes the phone randomly resets itself and loses the time. I sent the phone in for warranty after the first month, Nortel Home Consumer Division (now Aastra Telecom) sent me two replacements which also had the same defects. Nortel has long stopped making "house phones" and continued just making Meridian business phones. In a nutshell, the Meridian house phones are knock-offs of the business phone systems. They were made in various models, some of which were plagued with defects. This is the reason why Nortel stopped making these phones and Radioshacks where having clearances on the various models. However, the models without an answering machine and automated voice features were never clearance priced. Go figure...these phones don't seem to have any major defects. I even saw some of these 2-Line Meridian Analog Phones in use at a hospital recently. My recommendation? Don't buy any Meridian "House line" Phones. Watch out for similar models that have the Sprint, AT&T, Verizon or even Aastra Telecomm logos slapped on them, there are the same shoddy phones built by Nortel (if its Aastra, it's even worse and made with cheap parts). Ever heard of the Nortel Venture phones? Very expensive 3-Line Answerer Phones w/intercom (also sold in BellSouth knock-offs with a similar appearance but different features). Don't make that mistake! If you must buy a Meridian House phone you can try those 2 or 1 line speaker phones with no answerer or auto attendant...a Nortel Meridian 9216 Corded Phone for example. But make sure you shop around for the cheapest price because this and all other Meridian "house" phones have been discontinued years ago(even though you will find many trying to charge an expensive price because the phones are rare and in short supply).