GE 29893GE1 Speakerphone with Answering System and Caller ID

Rating:
Summary: machine frozen
Review: I purchased this product in January of this year, and was pretty pleased with it at first, except for the quality of the digital voice. However, recently, after a severe electrical storm, the machine keeps saying "memory full", even though I have deleted all messages. I followed the recorded instructions I received when I called the customer service number, but nothing has worked. I'm ready to retun it, and purchase a completely different machine.

Rating:
Summary: Many features, very poor quality
Review: I wanted a corded phone with caller id display and digital answering machine. This product had all these at a good price. BUT, the static on the phone is awful. Can't hear incoming calls. It's going back to the store. Don't be taken in by the features.

Rating:
Summary: Oxymoron: great phone; lousy sound.
Review: If I want to be assured of good quality, I'll stick to AT&T or Panasonic phones. But the phone I was replacing was a 12-year-old digital GE that had served me well. Moreover, this model, besides being compact, easy to set up and use, had the exact features I wanted, no extra bells and whistles. But, alas, the quality of the speaker phone is no better than that of the model I replaced--messages of callers are hard to decipher, my greeting is slightly distorted, consonants are indistinct, and the "mechanical lady's" prompts are often unintelligible. And, as other reviewers have observed, the liquid display of the Caller I.D. can be set so that it's readable from only one position. If I'm sitting, I can't see it when I'm standing and vice versa. My hunch is that phone manufacturers have invested all of their research and development in cordless models for the past 12 years, merely providing some external face-lifting to the corded models. If you have more time than I, you may wish to check out one of those AT&T or Panasonic models first. Either that, or concede the advantage to a cordless model.

Rating:
Summary: Nice features but. . .
Review: If you decide not to pay for caller ID, you have to reset the clock et al every time there is an electric outage. The display would have been a lot better if lit. As is, you can only read it in perfect light and at the perfect angle.

Rating:
Summary: Worst possible product
Review: It doesn't get much worse than this. I wish the product would have not worked at all. Then at least I would have returned it. The phone works OK, but only after a while did we find out that the answering machine is only storing about 30 seconds of voice, before it states, Memory Full...

Rating:
Summary: This has been a disppointment from the first moment
Review: The best thing about this phone is that it has broken 15 months after we bought it. Thank heavens! Now we can toss it out without guilt.

One of the big annoyances with this phone is that it's blinking lights aren't terribly logical. It has two, one to indicate that you got a call, and the other to indicate that you have a new message. But the "New Call" light is HUGE and blinks every time the phone rings, even if you answered it. It is as if the phone says, "Deal With Me!" Every single time it ever rings. It is annoying to have to press a button every time the phone has rung just to make it stop shouting at me.

A much smaller light blinks when there is a new message, and is just red to indicate the phone is on. Here I can understand a blinking light when you have a new message. Oddly enough, the light is smaller and less noticable than that New Call Light.

And did I mention that the caller ID mostly refuses to display who is calling? Sometimes on about the fourth ring it will flash the name of the person, but rarely before, and only sometimes. I am paying, what, $7 per month to the phone company for caller ID but the phone won't give up the information. It does, however, capture the name and number of the caller if I don't ever answer the phone.

Rating:
Summary: A major feature overlooked.
Review: This is a good product but a major feature has been overlooked. It does not have a light or any other indicator to indicate if an extension is in use.
Also it would be nice if this unit had some way to disable the audio prompts when features such as the Caller ID Display are being used. It can get annoying after a while to hear "Press next to see the next caller id", Press Stop to quit" and so on.

Rating:
Summary: So great, I bought a second one!
Review: This is a great caller ID phone and digital answering machine! It functions very well - just as advertised. When I needed to replace it (because it had been thrown across the room - it's a long story) - I bought another one. I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Answerer quit working
Review: We have had this item for less than a year. The answerer stopped working. Trouble shooting tips says, "Unplug power cord from the outlet and plug it back in". Simply, that doesn't correct the problem. Calling the 1-800 number does not give satisfactory information. It gives you a regular phone number to call for additonal help. That could be expensive. Over all, without usable trouble shooting advice, it's unsatisfactory.

Rating:
Summary: Answerer quit working
Review: We have had this item for less than a year. The answerer stopped working. Trouble shooting tips says, "Unplug power cord from the outlet and plug it back in". Simply, that doesn't correct the problem. Calling the 1-800 number does not give satisfactory information. It gives you a regular phone number to call for additonal help. That could be expensive. Over all, without usable trouble shooting advice, it's unsatisfactory.