Why on earth do they keep making these things with built in answering machines when just about every land line provider supplies answering capabilities to their customers for free!

Because I would rather use my answering machine?

Ditto. Also, Voice mail here costs $5 extra per month, so these pay for themselves pretty quickly.

It's easier to screen calls with your own answering machine, you just listen. There are VM systems that allow screening but you need to remember a sequence of keys.

I used to think Panny was the shiznit when it came to cordless phones but I now have some handsets that reboot on me. I have to do a battery pull then the problem resurfaces after a few weeks. I had the same problem with an old Uniden set but it was worse.