Motorola MD761 5.8 GHz Digital Expandable Cordless Phone with Answering Machine and Caller ID (Black/Silver)

Reviews of Motorola MD761 5.8 GHz Digital Expandable Cordless Phone with Answering Machine and Caller ID (Black/Silver)

1.) Love this phone!
Reviewed by: M. Story
Rating:

We love this phone. I didn't really know much about it before I bought it, I just needed a new phone. When I unpacked it and starting reading about the features, I have been amazed ever since. My favorite feature of the phone is that you can use it as an intercom. I can talk to my sone when he is in the basement or he can call me. The kids like to use this as a walkie talkie.
We like the different rings. They are fun and different than a regular ring. Also, There is a great feature where the ringer automatically will turn off after 9:00 at night and come back on in the morning. This has been great for telemarketers who like to disturb us late at night.
We have never had a problem with the battery. It charges great for us, and we leave the phone off the charger all day long most of the time.
I can't say enough great things about this phone. We are buying more handsets, mainly because of the intercom feature which is so convenient. I think that you will love this phone!

2.) THE BEST!
Reviewed by: ROSE TEXAS
Rating:

EASY TO USE, RELIABLE, CLEAR, NICE FEATURES.
I LOVE IT!

3.) Great Cordless Phone
Reviewed by: Andre J. Perrin
Rating:

Approximately foure months ago I purchased my first MD761 Cell.
We were so impressed with it we purchased a second one.

4.) Great Phone
Reviewed by: Richard Moller
Rating:

Finally, a cordless phone that sounds like a "good old" phone. ... meaning the calls sound better than any I've heard from a cordless. We like the handset grip and find it appealing.

5.) some of the convenience of a cellphone, BUT...
Reviewed by: Eduardo Nietzsche Houston
Rating:

...BUT substandard battery life and range-to-volume performance. Yep, my 900Hz Uniden had far better range, reception and battery life at a fraction of the cost. This was still a little better than the 2.4Ghz phones I've had in the past though. Ergonomics of the handset was lousy, and the user interface only made sense to me because I already have a Motorola V300 cellphone, otherwise it would require a definite learning curve.

The best thing about this phone is that if you have caller ID, you can assign 2-3 dozen different ringtones to different phone numbers that you have stored in the phone's memory like you would on a cellphone. That way without even having to look at the caller ID readout, you can immediately know whether the call is from a family member, friend, family friend, boss/co-worker, etc. Very very helpful if you want to screen out those annoying telemarketing calls (the "do not call" registry does not always work) or happen to not want to speak to someone sometimes.

However the phone still does not have all the basic features of a cellphone, for instance when entering names into the phone's memory you have much fewer formatting options, it's like a crude stripped down version. Maybe that just goes to show how much cell phone companies make in profit from their montly fees so that they can afford to give away those cellphones so cheap!

Anyways, if it were not for the caller ID ringtones, I would have given this product 3 rather than 4 stars.

6.) Great display, good phone
Reviewed by: BEDO San Diego
Rating:

Despite most of the reviews here, I find this phone to be a great performer. I have had no issues with the quality of reception or battery (we are prone to talk for over an hour at our home). The best feature and why I bought it is the display including the lighted dial making it easy to read and dial in the dark. I do not have the answering machine unit as I have a two line AT&T 2.4 gHz (Panasonic) in my home for this, so I cannot speak to its function. I did however change out my bedroom unit from the two line to the Motorola because of the Motorola's superior function.

7.) MOTOROLA MD761 ANSWERING MACHINE REVIEW
Reviewed by: Kenneth M. Italiano
Rating:

THE MOTOROLA MD761 ANSWERING MACHINE IS A QIUCK AN EASY initial setup with custom settings such as ringertype and caller id. I was told that the system eats through batteries on the handset but i haven't owned it long enough to review this critique for my own. i like the system so far and reccomend both by seller and her product that she sold!

8.) Okay, but inferior to competitors...
Reviewed by: Addison Phillips San Jose, CA United States
Rating:

I bought this phone for my second (business) line at home. I have an AT&T (VTech) phone for the house phone and this product suffers in comparison.

First the good stuff: this phone is attractive and easy to set up. The menus navigate easily and you program the base from the handset (none of this silly separate programming). The buttons and whatnot I think are better placed and the phone is nicer looking.

But...

This phone suffers from a number of limits that are annoying. The AT&T phone handsets work from throughout the house. This phone doesn't reach even half the distance before it produces noticeable static and weak reception and dies before I get to the backyard (yipes).

Battery life seems to deplete rapidly. Hour long conference calls are a test for the phone.

If you don't hold the phone directly over your ear, you can't hear it very well. The phone isn't shaped in a way to keep the earpiece centered naturally and I'm constantly having to shift the phone so I can still hear.

It does have a handset speakerphone, but the quality is fairly poor. I intend to try it with a headset.

The setup was easy, but it did take time for the programming to register with the base (confusing). Motorola's website can't seem to deal with this phone yet and it is nigh-on impossible to order accessories (like a headset) from it.

So overall an attractive phone, but you'd be much better off with the AT&T or V-Tech (they make the AT&T), which I highly recommend.

9.) Good product with frustrating flaws
Reviewed by: J.D. S.F. Bay Area, CA
Rating:

There's a lot to like about this phone, but some poor design choices in the user interface make it needlessly complicated and frustrating to use.

I'm looking for a multi-handset system for my parents. They need large, well-lit buttons, good handset volume and voice clarity, and a clear and uncluttered user interface. This system gets 1.5 out of three:

The handset styling is an overgrown version of the "candy bar" style cell phones (offered, ironically, by all manufacturers other than Motorola). That aside, the buttons are well laid out, feel crisp and easy to use, and are clearly marked. The backlighting is very effective.

Unfortunately the menu system and display are not well thought out. Some examples: After answering calls, the most frequent thing you do with a phone is (duh) make telephone calls, presumably most often to the people in your phone book. Cell phone designers figured out long ago that just pressing the up/down scroll keys should put you right into the phone book - you shouldn't have to navigate a bunch of menus to get there. Unfortunately on this phone getting to the phone book to make a call requires pressing "PHONEBOOK", then pressing "SHARED", after which you're presented with the option to put a new entry into the phonebook (something you almost never do, and which should not be in the way of placing a call!). You scroll down a couple of lines and finally (whew!) you're ready to select someone to call.

As another reviewer reported, despite the manual's incorrect claim to the contrary, there is no way to move or copy items from the shared phonebook to the private ones, or to sort the items in the shared phonebook. The designers of the phone make you manage the shared and private phone books explicitly and laboriously, rather than doing the obvious thing and just allowing any entry to be marked private, but showing one integrated list on any given handset of the shared and local entries.

One more example of the small design mistakes that mar a product that had real potential: The display is of necessity very small on any phone, and so display real-estate is precious. The display on this phone can show five short lines of text. Why Motorola wasted one of them to provide a clock and calendar is beyond me. A bigger font for information I can't get from my wristwatch or microwave oven would have been a much better choice.

Last but not least, voice quality. This phone does a lot of background-noise suppression during silent periods. This can lead to a small amount of clipping at the beginnings of utterances - A small annoyance, but one that makes conversation slightly harder to understand. There is audible static in the background, but in fairness it's *very* much quiter than my Vtech 2461 2.4 GHz DSS phone system - the background hiss on that phone is pretty objectionable. However, no one would mistake the Mot system for a wired handset. Also, the max handset volume is borderline for my needs.

Bottom line: This phone is going back to the store tomorrow. It would be fine for teenagers or anyone who doesn't mind lots of menu-navigation. But it's not a good choice for someone who places a lot of importance on ease of use.

10.) Its Ok but I am sure something else is better for this mommy!
Reviewed by: Two Little Chicks
Rating:

I purchased this phone about a year ago thinking that it would be better for my household because of the scrambling features it has on phone calls. We have neighbors that listen in on phone conversations and supposedly this has the technology to block that problem.

Anyway over all I like the phone but it is missing a big feature for me that my 10 year old phone had and I loved. When the phone rings and you don't want to answer the calls, it's missing a silencing button. You have to let it ring and ring till the machine picks up. Definitely not the phone to have around a sleeping baby.

Also, if you loose power the phone keeps the correct time and date but the answering machine has to be reprogrammed each and every time. It's a pain to do this because you have to manually go through the 24 hours to set the correct time and then again with the 60 minuets. It needs a feature that feeds off of the time that is kept on the phone.

It has a sleek design but if you're not careful you tend to keep bending your neck to hold it and you end up with an aching neck. These are just little peeves that I have with it. I still love my Vtech phone that I have had for 10 years the best. It has better "Functional" features.

Don't get me wrong this phone has lots of bells and whistles but when it comes down to it, the things that I need the most are not included. Take this into consideration when purchasing this phone. I purchased this at Target for Thirty dollars last year and it included one extra phone for another room. Overall I did not spend too much to figure out it just was not the best purchase for my household.

11.) its okay
Reviewed by: A. Gonzalez
Rating:

The phone is okay. When i got it there were already missing pixils in the screen (bought it brand new) The battery life is very very small. It does have several ringtones which is nice. But is not very loud in my opinion. When the battery is low it begins to malfunction. I dont reconmend it to someone who needs the battery to last.

12.) Decent Phone
Reviewed by: Brad Rules Wisconsin
Rating:

This phone has some good points and some not so good points.

Good Points:
1] It is expandable which is very nice. We have a phone on each floor of the house.
2] You can access your messages from any of the phones.
3] You can page the other phones from any phone.
4] Does not interfere with our wireless computer network (802.11g).
5] Only one phone jack is required (by the base station), all other phones communicate with the base station.
6] Attractive compact system with good utility.

Not so good points]
1] Audio quality is acceptable. It is slightly inferior to hard land line.
2] Too many button presses required to access and dial a phone number from the phone book.
3] I guess the battery life could be longer but it has never been a problem for us (we rarely are on the phone for more than 15 minutes at a time). I have never had the phone die on me.
4] You have to hit the flash key after dialing a number to actually make the call. For some reason the extra key stroke annoys me.

Some of the criticims of other reviewers strike me as unfair. They obviously have other problems going on other than the phone. This phone is a decent product.

13.) May be OK for some, but I'm returning it.
Reviewed by: isosaf Lawrence, KS
Rating:

I bought this phone mostly for the message forwarding feature, replacing an old Panasonic 900 MHz that had a similar feature. Message forwarding is a must for me, and I am dissapointed that it is not widely available. Anyway, this was the first 5.8 GHz set that I found with the feature.

Here is why I'm returning it:
* OGM quality is poor.
* Message forwarding calls a second and a third time (after 5 minutes and 1 hour) if you do not answer the first call. I would prefer the option to have it call only once. My cell phone indicates "missed call", so I will know there is a message waiting at home. I want to know about the message, but I don't need my home phone nagging me.
* Message forwarding can be disabled from the handset, but cannot be enabled from the handset. The option to enable it from the handset exists, but the option apparently does not work.
* Handset speakerphone has poor sound quality for the "other" end.
* Handset battery life seems very short compared to my previous cordless phones. I understand that battery life may initially improve, so perhaps it will get slightly better. I'm used to several days of standby, but with this phone I may get just over 1 day. I'm of the old school that likes to discharge the battery almost fully before recharging.
* Retrieving entries from the phonebook is clunky at best. There are two options: 1) Scroll down the list to find the listing, or 2) Enter the associated phonebook record number (51, 52, 53, etc). For the latter, you have to know which record number each of your listings was assigned to (you have no control over the assignment).
* There is no option to find the listings alpha-numerically. I prefer to find the listings by entering the listing name in the keypad. I know all of the names of the folks or businesses I've stored, so this is naturally easy. I will not likely remember which number was assigned to each listing in the phonebook.

Features I do like:
* Message forwarding. This is a "must have" for me, but it was poorly implemented on this unit.
* Battery back-up for the base unit allows the phone to work during power outages. This will be another "must have" on the replacement phone.
* Handset speakerphone (this one could be better).
* Multiple handsets can be on the call at one time.

Panasonic, Uniden, V-Tech take note...I'm still in the market. Where are your models with Message Forwarding???

14.) Good features, marginal sound, horrible battery life
Reviewed by: J. Canfield Oakland, CA
Rating:

I bought this particular phone because it has a lot of the features that I was looking for and I had had some good experiences with Motorola cellular phones. The features work well enough, but, well, the rest of the phone is severly lacking...

As has been noted by more than one reviewer, the speaker quality is surprisingly bad - especially so for a company that has been making communications gear for as many years as Motorola has. I was glad it had a headset jack - I was forced to use quite often.

The second annoyance, and the one that made me want to toss the phone onto the bay, was the battery life. After two months of intermittent use, I was finding that the handset batteries were running out after a day. According to the folks that I bought the phone from (and, yes, I didn't actually RTFM until after I started having problems), the handset cannot be stored on the base station because it will overcharge the batteries. This was a new one on me. I've had several wireless phones and this was the first one that had burned batteries this way. To make a very long story short, after long and arduous search, I never found a place that I could buy replacement batteries for this phone. Motorola wasn't much help, either.

To sum up, I'm *very* disappointed in this system. I had expected a lot more from Motorola.

15.) Nice features but very unreliable
Reviewed by: farmer dude Remsen, IA USA
Rating:

I bought this phone for the great features and because I've had good luck with other Motorola products. The phones and answering machine are easy to set up but that is about the only redeeming quality that they have. The handsets frequently lose connection with the base unit. The only way to get them working again is to unplug and then replug the power to the base unit which loses the answering machine settings. Range on the handsets is only mediocre, I can't talk in the far corners of the house even with the base centrally located. Also, battery life is very limited. Overall the phones are very disappointing and I would definitely recommend not buying them.

16.) Should have been better
Reviewed by: spyder Goodyear, AZ USA
Rating:

The phone sounds clear and is easy to use, but the big problems for me are:

1. The phonebook entries cannot be copied to another handset (even though the manual says they can be, the option doesn't show up when using the product).

2. There are private phonebooks for each handset, and a shared phonebook that is kept on the base for use with each handset. The shared phonebook doesn't give you the option to sort it alphabetically. How dumb is that? It keeps the numbers in the order you put them in, with no way to change it but to delete them and re-enter. The private phonebooks can be sorted alphabetically - but you manually have to do that.

Imagine having to go around your house to every handset and entering 50 phone numbers and names. There shouldn't be anything but ONE phonebook in the first place. It needs to be kept within the base, in flash memory so that a power cycle doesn't take it out.

I'm returning it for a V-Tech. I had a V-Tech system for years with no trouble until I wore out the soft buttons.

17.) Disappointing and Over-Priced!
Reviewed by: KSF Cambridge, Massachusetts
Rating:

I did quite a bit of research before purchasing this phone - my first cordless - and I have been very disappointed with it. The problems:

1. The sounds quality stinks. This could be a function of my apartment building or something in the environment, but I tend to think it's probably the phone.

2. The set-up is inordinantly complicated, and needs to be repeated whenever the base gets unplugged.

3. The battery life stinks. I've only had the phone for six months, and I can't even get 30 minutes out of the handset before it needs to be recharged.

4. The casing around the battery is poorly made, and keeps falling out.

5. The 'hand feel' of the handset is weird, and doesn't comform well to the head and hand.

The only real 'pro' to this phone is that it looks really cool. Otherwise, it's not worth the money!

18.) Bad voice quality trumps design
Reviewed by: Tony Chang Wisconsin
Rating:

Like a lot of other reviewers I was seduced by the design and features. I've had this phone/answerer with a total of 4 handsets for about 7 months now. The voice quality has been highly variable, but most of the time it has been bad. Even the recordings on the answering machine are difficult to understand at bets and unintelligible at worst. I probably paid the price as an early adopter, so don't make the same mistake I did. Do your research and don't buy this phone.

19.) A Bad Experience
Reviewed by: Amazon Customer Seattle, WA
Rating:

I bought this from Amazon along with an extra handset. My kids loved the features and the retro look. But the sound was awful, dropping syllables, and sometimes whole words, of the person on the line so you had to guess what they were saying. Motorola tech support told me to move the phone away from all interference: refridgerators, stereos, lamps. Lamps? "I thought the 5.8 GHz was meant to resist interference." "No sir, these phones are very sensitive." So I found a corner of my house away from everything, even lamps. Same problem. I returned it to Amazon, losing $40 in fees and postage. Bought a Uniden 5.8 GHz at Sears that turned out to have all the features plus crystal clear sound. Even right next to the lamp!

20.) Save Your Money - Don't Buy this Phone!!
Reviewed by: M. V. Aswathnarayana FL
Rating:

Lately, Motorola has been making horrible phones.This is the worst phone I ever bought.

1. The battery doesn't even last for a day on standby and only about 45 mins talk time. The handset just goes dead in a day without warning.
2. The handsfree speaker phone is bad.
3. The door for the battery compartment on the base unit is almost impossible to open.
4. Usually phones sort caller-id by the time the call was received at. But this phone doesn't even list the caller id in any order.

I even exchanged the phone thinking I may have received a defective one. But the replacement turned out to be as horrible as the first. Don't waste your hard earned money on this junk.

21.) This phone shouldn't be on the market
Reviewed by: dack USA
Rating:

What? No "0 star" option? That's what this POS phone system deserves.

I was seduced by its clean design and good looks, but I literally had to throw this phone and two expansion handsets away. The problems:

(1) As other reviewers have noted, the menuing system was designed by an engineer with no interface design experience. Just basic things like putting "New Entry" as the first item on the Phonebook. Duh. That wouldn't fly after even the most rudimentary user testing. And, again, as others have noted, the "sharing phonebook" functionality described in the user manual DOES NOT WORK, which makes the phonebook somewhat useless.

(2) Battery life *is* bad.

(3) After using it for about a month there was terrible static on the line, even though the phone line checked out OK. I called Motorola and they said the phone should be 10 feet from any electrical appliance to avoid static. Huh? I think every household in America has a phone in the kitchen, where *appliances* are. What a joke.

(4) When a message is left and the caller hangs up, there is a burst of loud static at the end of the message. It's incredibly annoying.

Bottom line: DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE! It's garbage that should not be available for purchase.

22.) Horrible sound quality
Reviewed by: Kate Los Angeles, CA
Rating:

I have never submitted a review to Amazon before, but feel compelled to for this product because it is so bad. My husband and I bought this for ourselves in November 2004 and thought it was good. We didn't really have much time to test it out though before I bought it as a Christmas present for my parents. I bought them the base and 2 additional handsets. What a huge mistake.

The sound quality is absolutely horrible. There is so much static. We noticed it on our phone after the holidays and my parents experience the same static. No matter where you are using the phone in your house, the static is present. I am so disappointed because I bought the phone for my parents to replace their old telephones, which in retrospect are better than this one. It's hard to understand what people are saying at times because of the static. Our old Sony 900 mhz phone, which we've had for 5 years is worlds better than this phone. That phone isn't fancy, but has the most important quality for a phone - clarity. I don't have a real problem with the menus for the phone - if the sound quality were what it should be, I'd be satisfied with the phone (even though, it does have batttery problems as noted in other reviews).

Unfortunately, we are stuck with the phones having thrown away the boxes to be able to return them to Amazon and Bestbuy. I am going to start shopping for a new phone for my parents immediately.

23.) What has happened to Motorola?
Reviewed by: Grump Longmont, CO USA
Rating:

I've had the phone for about two months, and as others have said, the sound quality is bad. Also, the sound drops out from time-to-time so we constantly have to ask the person on the other end to repeat things because we miss sylables or words. The hand set lasts for about 30 minutes before it has to be recharged.

Several times per week (sometimes per day), when the handset is replaced in the charging cradle, the base unit locks up and becomes non-functional. The only fix is to remove AC power and batteries from the base unit. Motorola customer support just keeps sending me instructions for removing the batteries from the handset, even though I've repeatedly explained that the problem is with the base unit.

I've had enough lousy products from Motorola over the last couple years that I'm finally starting to get it -- they don't make good producst anymore (I can't stand waiting for my cell phone to "boot").

24.) Don't Bother
Reviewed by: Chris San Pedro, CA
Rating:

I bought this phone and then returned it after about 24 hours. I think other reviews here have been a bit kind on the audio quality. It is terrible. The phone chops off the first portion of all incoming audio. If someone is speaking slowly it chops off the first part of each word. For someone talking faster it is only the first word in the sentence, the rest sounds OK.

Otherwise the phone is fine but the audio quality made this phone a non starter for me.

25.) TERRIBLE RECEPTION / SOUND QUALITY
Reviewed by: Pete
Rating:

This phone's aesthetic design, ringtones, and lighting effects are awesome. It's just too bad that it flunks in a phone's most necessary area: voice clarity and reception. I returned mine and bought a Vtech that I am very pleased with. That's the second Motorola I returned due to poor sound quality.

26.) Avoid This One
Reviewed by: WhoDo USA
Rating:

This one is going back to the seller. It has a lot of problems. In the first 24 hours I ran into these:

The answering machine doesn't always hang up after recording a message, which means it starts recording the fast busy signal that indicates the phone is off the hook.

The manual is incomplete and entirely inadequate. Note: I have a Motorola cell phone that also has manual issues. This seem to be a common thread with Motorola's consumer products.

The user recorded outgoing message (OGM) sounds awful and is unusable. The default OGM, a female voice, is OK.

The "Light Effects" touted on the box (a dim LED at the base of the antennas) cannot be seen from a few feet away if the room is illuminated by daylight, thus making it impossible to tell if there is a message on the machine, other than walking to the base unit and checking the message counter. The manual makes no mention of this feature whatsoever.

The display just plain isn't very legible. It has a critical viewing angle and washes out in only moderate light. The characters a tiny and the font is very light. It is hard to read under the best condtions.

Battery compartment on the base unit (for 4 AAA backup batteries) is poorly designed and doesn't hold the batteries properly. According to the manual, the batteries require replacing after only one cummulative hour of power failure time.

There are probably other problems, but I have already decided return the product, so I have not pursued anything else with the set.

These phones appear to be made by VTech, a company that used to make a good product. However, the last couple of VTech products I have purchased have not proved satisfactory.

27.) Many great features and the worst sound quality
Reviewed by: Balticbeau Marin County, California
Rating:

I purchased this phone with two additional handsets. The unit is expandable to more handsets, and it has many great features. However, the sound quality is the worst of any portable or cell phone I have ever used. All callers tell me that I sound as if I was in a tunnel. They all say that either my voice is breaking up or that I'm not clear. Apparently, it goes both ways for I have to strain to hear them, and often I can no understand what they are saying. All three handsets sound equally bad. Relocation of the base unit and/or the handsets does not improve the sound quality.

28.) Terrible voice quality and range
Reviewed by: Raoul Duke
Rating:

I really liked this phone before I purchased it and during setup. The only minor complain is that the screen doesn't light up when you have a call coming in on call waiting, so you can't see who is calling when it is dark. Now for the major complaints. First, the voice clarity is horrible. There is some static, but worse is the garbling or interference which causes missed syllables. It sounds like the connection is cutting in and out while you're talking. I tried moving the phone around the house but nothing improves this. Second major problem is the range. My old 900mhz and 2.4mhz phones I had allowed me to walk halfway down my block and get reception. I can't even make it to the end of my yard with this phone. This phone is definitely lacking in the two most important areas. It is definitely going back to the store.

29.) Worse phone I've ever owned
Reviewed by: K. Kelm CO USA
Rating:

At random times the base station goes insane and all the handsets say "out of range" and stop working. The only thing that fixes it is unplugging the base station and taking out its batteries, putting it all back together (the battery compartment is poorly designed and the batteries don't want to stay in), and reprogramming the current date/time (which is also tedious). Then the handsets all work again... for a while... maybe a day, and then it happens all over again.

I'm extremely disappointed in this product and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. We've wasted hundreds of dollars on this, stupidly buying a lot of handsets for it.

Motorola, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

30.) Easy to Use But Unreliable
Reviewed by: Kathy D CT, USA
Rating:

We bought this phone two years ago. While the phone is pretty easy to use and has nice features (I've especially enjoyed the handsfree function on the handsets), we've found it to be extremely unreliable. The problems we've had are listed below:

*very short battery life for the handsets
*the screen on one of our handsets blanked out after only several months of use
*the handsets go "out of range" when one takes them only a modest distance from the base (even though we have the base in the middle of our house, the handsets don't work at the ends-- and our house is not that big)
*the handsets randomly become "unregistered" from the base and have to be reset (this has only become a problem in the past month)

The issues we've had with this phone have frustrated us so much that we are now shopping for a new phone-- usually we'd expect such a purchase to last longer than two years.

31.) Avoid this phone!
Reviewed by: Eric Curran
Rating:

I bought this base unit and three of the individual phones for use in my home. They just don't hold a charge. I can't tell you the frustration you'll feel when the phone rings, and you pick it up directly from the charging base, only to have the call disconnect due to lack of power. It doesn't matter how long its in the charger. Although it's nice to look at, unless the fix the battery, avoid this one.

32.) Awful phone, Awful Customer Service if you are on the West Coast
Reviewed by: Dohg Lover USA
Rating:

The phone has not worked since day 1. First the hand sets would not register. Customer Service hours are only M-F 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EASTERN standard time. So, anyone on the west coast is looking at 5 a.m. telephone calls. Nothing like a little irritation before you even go to work right? Well, repetitive calls, take the battery out, and cycle back up. If your cell phone drops the call (mine is a Motorola) you have to call back and start all over and hope that the last call was just documented. They won't call you back if you are in the middle of trying something. So then there was the instruction to unplug everything, wait 24 hours, and if it won't register call back then. I'm getting tired of 5 a.m. calls at this point. Then out of range messages which no one seems to be able to fix. After so many calls, and so much irritation about even setting this phone up, I actually hate Motorola now. The customer service rep is nice, it's nothing personal ... but the company limits what they can do. It's all so irritating. Get better hours and let people call back if a cell phone drops the line while trying to fix the land line.

33.) absolutely not dependable -sound very poor
Reviewed by: Glenn A. Gibson
Rating:

Purchased MD761 and 4 ea MD71 for throughout house because Patricia (wife) in wheelchair and on oxygen 24/7. She could beep all phones in emergency and I would hear. First- sound terrible, second- after 1 month most phones good for less than 10 minutes usage and constantly dropping calls, third- phones quite often in 'searching' mode when picked up for use. Entered house to find wife unconcious and not breathing. Started CPR and reached for phone to call 911. Phone in base beside her was
SEARCHING!!!!!!! Stopped CPR and ran to another room for different brand phone and called 911. Resumed CPR. Patricia DIED in spite of my and 911 personnel's efforts. Looking for someone I hate to give these 5 phones, my last Motorola product.

34.) worst phone i have ever used
Reviewed by: Chaplin Boston
Rating:

this is the worst phone i have ever used. will NOT hold a charge. charge all night and next morning it is on zero cells. try using it at that point, u get 10 minutes tops. called motorola. no receipt, no help. i have read countless reviews stating the same, so u know motorola is aware of the issue. you get nothing but apathy from them. i will forever avoid motorola.

35.) Worst battery life I have ever seen
Reviewed by: Charles L. Furman Plano, TX USA
Rating:

My first concern about this phone was the battery. I noticed immediately that the battery never stopped charging. I contacted Motorola and asked if this was normal. They said, "Yes, it never stops charging." That is insane! You can destroy the batteries very quickly if you keep charging them non-stop. So far the battery life has been very poor. I've probably already damaged my battery. Do not buy this phone. You will be very unhappy. I've had a number of complaints that my voice was breaking up. I attributed that to my VoIP service (Vonage). But now I'm wondering if it wasn't the phone. The audio quality is also very poor.

36.) Don't waste your money on this
Reviewed by: D. P. Mitchell Seattle, WA USA
Rating:

This is the worst phone I've ever bought. The audio quality is terrible, verging on inaudible. The phone book software is mind-bogglingly bad: the manual says you can sort entries alphabetically but you can't (at least not the "shared" phonebook); the manual says you can copy entries between the shared phonebook and the per-handset entries, and you can't; getting to a single entry requires 3 or 4 keystrokes at least, one of which is to get past the "add new entry" step. The manual simply does not match the feature set and appears to have been written for a different piece of gear, although the pictures in the manual match the gear.

What happened to Motorola? They should be ashamed of having their name on this thing, let alone of having actually built it. I returned this after trying to use it for two days. Don't waste your money on this.

37.) Pure Junk from a once great company
Reviewed by: Wood Chief Texas
Rating:

I had to replace two of these in a year. The answering system went on the fritz both times (on two different phones no less.) It takes three phone calls to Motorola's help center until it's clear to Motorola that the phone needs to be replaced. I guess they are just trying to see if you are serious. Both phones were replaced on warranty, but Motorola has a policy that they won't send you a replacement until you send the old one back to them. This means that you won't have a phone for about 10 days. They give you one other choice---they'll send you a replacement but you have to pay shipping both ways. Talk about a low grade warrenty!
Motorola's help desk people are nice, so that gives Motorola a star.

38.) What a piece of junk!
Reviewed by: cardinal virtue Milwaukee, WI
Rating:

My biggest complaint is about my ID display. The caller ID flashes for only one ring , then it says "incoming calls" I spoke to my phone local and long distant provider and they tell me it is the equipment that I use that is at fault. It is true because I tested an old Panasonic cordless phone I have and the ID name does not disappear after one ring. I usually do not get to my phone before one ring. So in effect I never know who is calling and what good is it to have this feature. There are many other shortcomings, too many to list here.

39.) DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE
Reviewed by: P. Murphy Evanston, Il United States
Rating:

Phones won't stay connected to Base Station. Read the review from the guy who's wife died while he could not dial 911. My wife has been yelling at me to get this two handsets fixed for 3 months. Don't BUY IT!!

40.) Does not work with digital phone from the cable company
Reviewed by: Frederick A. Nicholson San Diego, Ca USA
Rating:

I own the slightly older models, MD 760 and MD750. They don't work with my time warner cable digital phone service.. The phone does not ring. You can see the call come in, the display lights up, the caller ID shows up, and you can answer it and talk,... but the ring circuit doesn't activate.

This also affects the voice mail on the MD 760... i.e. it never answers the phone (since the ring circuit is not activating, it doesn't know the phone has wrung 4 times, etc.

Motorola tech support was completely disinterested... they didn't want to forward the modem info to their engineers, nothing.

BTW, Time Warner in San Diego is using the Arris cable modems. The phone might work with other modems, I don't know

41.) This phone has no battery life
Reviewed by: H. Ludwig TX
Rating:

Even with a brand new set of batteries, this handset still fully discharges in a few hours even when no calls are made. I have the older Motorola MD61 and it has usually a 3 day life even when making several calls a day. Don't buy the 761

42.) Junk!
Reviewed by: LuvnAG Georgia
Rating:

I bought this base for my parents and one for my house and neither one of them hold a charge. They're awful!

43.) Atrocious display
Reviewed by: acwitko New York, New York United States
Rating:

By the end of the first year, the displays of my three remotes began to deteriorate. After 6 more months of use, all displays were unreadable. Since they were out of warranty, Motorola would not replace them, even though they must have known these had been of defective manufacture. Otherwise it's a great phone.

44.) junk
Reviewed by: K. Brabender
Rating:

I bought this to replace the same unit that was several years old. My origional one worked flawless. This new one cut out consistantly. I tossed it after a month and bought a Panasonic.

Features of Motorola MD761 5.8 GHz Digital Expandable Cordless Phone with Answering Machine and Caller ID (Black/Silver)

Item #: MOT-MD761.

5.8GHz Expandable ITAD/CID
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Amazon.com Product Description

The Motorola MD761 5.8 GHz digital cordless phone system offers versatile functionality that includes a digital answering system. Expandable to eight handsets (one included, additional model MD71 accessory handsets sold separately), the MD761 lets you place extensions throughout your home or office, but it requires only one phone jack. Additional features include visual call-waiting and voicemail-waiting indicators, caller ID with a 99-number memory capacity (shared; 50 in the handset, another 49 in the base), handset-to-handset intercom, room monitoring, three-way conferencing, speakerphone, even selectable ring tones.

The Motorola MD761 has an illuminated keypad for easy dialing and a four-line backlit LCD with helpful features such as time and date display and easy-to-navigate icons. Located in the phone's base, the integrated digital answering system offers voice memo recording, message forwarding, and remote message retrieval. The handset comes with a belt clip and is headset compatible (headset not included). The base is wall mountable for versatile placement. A convenient battery meter lets you monitor the handset's standard battery charge.

What's in the Box
MD761 (base and handset), NiCD battery pack, transformer, phone line cord, belt clip, wall mount, user's guide, warranty information

1.) 5.8 GHz digital signal; expandable to 8 handsets, 1 included;
2.) Digital answering system, accessible from base and handset;
3.) Visual call-waiting and voicemail-waiting indicator;
4.) Caller ID with 50-call memory; 50 shared phone book memory locations;
5.) Intercom, speakerphone, 3-way conferencing, custom ring tones;

Package Height x Length x Width: 9.4 in. x 9.4 in. x 8 in.
Package Weight: 4.9 lbs.