Rating: 
Summary: May be the best out there..but not perfect
Review: On paper the features look great but after becoming accustomed to Southwestern Bell CallNotes(answering service hosted by phone company), the features and ease-of-use are less than I hoped for. First complaint, even though you have 4 mailboxes, there is no way to protect each one with a separate passcode - one passcode provides access to all mailboxes so if you can't protect the privacy of your mail box (from roommates for example). Second problem is the very odd odering of the remote access menus. If you have a cell phone or answering service, I'm sure you are accustomed to listening to a message then immediately having the option to erase it. Not so here. You first listen to your messages in one box. Then you go back to the main menu. Listen to all the choices...last choice, press 0 to erase messages (probably the most common choice is last...after recording new greeting etc...how often will you do that?) Then, choose the box you want to erase, 1-4...yes, that is right...you must erase ALL messages in a box, you can't pick and choose. And the first thing i noticed about this product that is small but really annoying - the cord to the wall is hard-wired, you can't unplug it from the unit. I have a cord the exact length from the outlet to my table but I have to buy an adaptor to connect the unit's cord to my longer cord to reach the outlet....GE...make the cord detachable! I'll pay the extra .50 for the manufacturing costs. These problems were obvious after only 30 minutes of use...who knows what other problems will crop up?The good things...yes..the sound quality is good and recording time is long as most reviews mention. Reasonably easy to get started. If you are buying it for these reasons, you will be happy, if you want full-featured mailboxes, you will be disappointed and if you are frustrated or disapointed by mediocre design, you have been warned.
Rating: 
Summary: Canned Voice went haywire almost immediately. Had to return
Review: The product worked correctly for probably a week or two. Then the robot voice went completely haywire and made screeching noises you could not understand. Not happy.
Rating: 
Summary: Great sound quality and features, bad interface
Review: The sound quality is very high on this unit. It has a great deal of memory, so it can hold many messages. I'm happy with it so far. The only drawback is the poor user interface. For example, you cannot delete a message until you have listened to all of it, and you can't fast forward, so several times I've had to sit through four minutes of fax machine beeping or telemarketer pitches before removing the message. It also present much of the information in the reverse order of how it would be most useful, like it doesn't tell you the time/date stamp until after you've heard the message.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible Sound !
Review: The sounds quality on this answering machine is horrible. My wife yells at me at least once a week for picking an answering machine where she can't understand the messages. What good are all the fancy features in the world if you can't hear the darn message! I've looked around and it looks like ALL the major digital answering machines have sound quality problems. I plan to keep looking but my just end up buying an old cassette tape answering machine - at least I can hear the message.
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading prior to purchasing...
Review: There is a fixed phone cord to where the answering machine plugs into the wall (which one cannot detach from the machine) and it's only about 10 feet long. This may seem like a problem for some if the machine needs to be placed farther than the factory cord can reach but a simple fix is an inline phone coupler that would allow you to plug another phone line (of any desired length) into to reach as far you need to the wall jack. It can be picked up at most electronics stores (including Best Buy) and it simply has two female connections for the ends of two phone cords to plug into so as to act as an extension cord of sorts. Also, the voice on the machine is fairly mechanical and certainly not aesthetically pleasing; however, a personal greeting (recorded by the owner) and all incoming messages are extremely clear. If you're even remotely familiar with electronic devices (such as a VCR) then the machine will be fairly intuitive to program (except perhaps when recording the greeting, which only requires one to press and hold either Announcement A or B, record the greeting, and then release the button - extremely easy to do but not entirely intuitive to discover without reading the manual). There is only one code for all four mailboxes (which wasn't an issue for my roommate and I) but it does allow the owner to remotely check his or her messages. With 40 minutes of recording time, I am very satified with this machine. It's not perfect but what is these days? ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Please leave a message....
Review: This GE digital messaging system is one of the best that I have ever seen or tried. Add to that the fact that this machine won't cost you an arm and a leg. There are several reasons to like this GE messaging system. For starters, this machine is one of the first to offer 40 minutes of storage capabilities. Most of the digital machines out at the time of this review only allow 15 to 20 minutes. Secondly, there are 4 mailboxes on this machine, making this a great machine for a family or roommates to use. Even if you live by yourself, the separate mailboxes is perfect to use to store messages separately from the main mailbox. Another great feature is the clarity of the messages as they are being played and the time/date stamp. I have had absolutely no trouble understanding my messages or the digital voice in the machine. There is also a battery back-up you can use to help save your messages and settings in case there is a power failure. (9-volt battery is not included). The directions that came with the machine were very easy to read and understand. 10-minutes after taking the machine out of the box it was set up and ready to answer my calls. One of the best features, to me at least, is that it has a toll saver feature. When set to toll saver, the machine will answer on the 4th ring if there are no new messages and on the 2nd ring if there are new messages. When you call home to check your messages, if it rings more than twice you will know that you have no new messages and can hang up without having to waste your time. There are a few drawbacks to this GE digital messaging system, the main one being that the time/date stamp plays at the end of the message instead of the beginning. Personally, when listening to a message I like to know when they called in advance so that I can process the message accordingly in my mind. Aside from this, most of the drawbacks are small and do not affect the fuctionality of this machine. If you are in need of a new answering machine, or just want to change from tape to digital, give this great little machine a try.
Rating:
Summary: GE Digital Answering
Review: This is the only Answering Machine out there with 40 minutes of recording time. Why no other company makes one is beyond me, but when we had only tape everyone made 30 - 60 minute record time. This machine has all the functions including rapid advance and skip or reverse and repeat, plus four mail boxes. Clear recording sound. No static (like other reviewer reports). Wish the other makers would recognize that some people need longer message recording time.
Rating:
Summary: the best sound ...
Review: This little digital machine is supposed to have the best sound of all the digital answering machines, right? It's sound ... :( I don't know of an answering machine now-a-days that doesn't sound pathetically garbled. It is hard to believe people are actually marketing this stuff. It ..., and badly at that. I would choose an old tape system in a second over the now ubiquitous digital ones.
Rating:
Summary: crackling noise
Review: This machine was working fine, about 6 months back it started making crackling noise, it was very low, but enough to wake me up in the middle of night, so I moved it to downstairs office room.
But from last week the crackling noise has increased and when I try to hear the recording the volume has become very low.
I have decided to get another one because I could not find any other machine with 40 minutes of recording and multiple mail boxes. If any one knows how to fix the crackling noise. it will be nice to post it in another review. Howev this is a very good machine if the crackling noise problem is solved.
Rating:
Summary: 2 years and still going
Review: worked great for almost a year. then it started cutting off messages at about 20seconds. machine was set for 3minutes. thought i was the only one, but several other reviewers had the same problem. so must be a common problem. cheaply made w/low quality control? will try to return and see what happens. stay tuned.
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