Accessories

Can't use as answerer
The sound quality on the answering machine was so poor we couldn't understand any message, and returned it--easily, thanks to Amazon's excellent return policy.

Good, affordable fax/copier
Amazon had the best price considering the free shipping.

The HP 1050 Fax works as advertised. The only problem is sometimes it grabs more than one sheet when copying.

I have spent hours faxing over the past year
I was looking for reviews of fax machines on amazon and came accross the 1050 I am replacing. As others have stated the answering component is unusable as the messages cannot be understood (the quality is similar to my childrens toys that record a phrase and play it back--very tinny and garbled). I have spent many wasted hours faxing as the machine frequently refuses to load more than a single sheet at a time when I load a document for scanning.This has often led to having to send a couple of sheets, then redial (at additional expense) and send one or two more. Ditto for the paper loading mechanism for printing. The pages frequently hang up, or the rollers attempt to pull through multiple sheets or none at all. This has often led to having to send a couple of sheets, then redial and send one or two more. Recently after 45 minutes of trying I was able to send 8 pages! It seems the things I want to fax and recieve are frequently last minute items. I only hope my children have not heard the steady streams of profanity associated with using this machine, I say this only partly in jest. I have kept using the HP 1050 because I'm cheap, and because it seems I must be paying a penance for a prior sin.
The construction is flimsy, the guide to the paper loader fell off the first month as I was loading paper, feel free to contact me for duct tape instructions for holding it on.
The only positive is that if you have a worst enemy, it would make a fine gift.

This fax will self-destruct in one year....
Aside from the horrible speaker, which reduces phone messages to nearly indecipherable gargling sounds, this fax appears to be pre-programmed to self-destruct within a year. A few days after the warranty expired, our machine lost its ability to maintain a stable phone line connection (and the problem is not with the phone line). Furthermore, when we try to use it for copying it consistently fails with a "paper jam" error, even though there is nothing of the kind. Naturally, I'm really glad I bought the now worthless 1 year replacement package as well. What a total waste of $140. If you're in the market for a reliable fax, I'd look further than this fragile toy.

Fax Me or is it Fax you?!
Actually, this is a great fax machine for folks that aren't too technically inclined (like me)...but I had it set up and running within 30 minutes. The only reason this didn't get a fifth star was that there is no catch tray for incoming faxes...they just fall on the floor! Also, the digital recorder for your greeting is horrible, but the message system does do a good job of recording incoming messages...This really is a good machine for the money as most HP products are....