Customer Reviews

Ge 26993ge1 Cordless Telephone with Digital Messaging and Call Waiting Caller Id 900mhz 40 Channel Auto Scan

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I will admit that I bought the silver version of this phone/answering machine because it looked pretty. However, its performance is another story. There is a low but audible buzz coming from the unit that can be heard as background noise in my greeting. When I called my sister from this phone, she said she couldn't hear me as well as usual and that my voice sounded a little choppy, almost digitized (although I could hear her perfectly). I find it disconcerting to use the phone because when I speak, my voice is amplified in the earpiece; but when I pause in between sentences, it sounds like the line has gone dead. On the positive side, the unit is easy to operate and has some nice features like message retrieval from the handset. The sound quality of incoming messages is much improved over my standalone GE answering machine. The range of the phone seems pretty good and the unit takes up minimal space. But overall, I would not recommend this system.

The life span of the battery and the charger itself is short. I purchased one of these, lasted 3 mo. The retailer replaced it for us (even though they didn't have to) and the replacement lasted only a few months more before the battery died. We replaced the battery (BYW, we followed instructions on charging & battery maintaince to the letter) only to have the battery charger in the base die. Calls to customer service were fruitless. Automated 800 number had no option for troubleshooting our problem and referred us to a toll number (317 AC) that had the exact options as the 800 no. No option of talking to an actual person. You should know that GE doesn't make its own phones but subs manufacture out to a company called Thomson Electronics. There is no phone no. given to call GE directly, I guess because its your problem not theirs, or web site reference for either GE or Thomson. Anyone would be nuts to buy any GE phone product.

Purchased this phone over a year ago. Easy to set date and time. Controls are very easy to navigate. Battery life of phone is excellent. Digtital answering system works well. Caller ID holds last 40 calls. I also have another 900 MHZ GE phone (same model but without digital messaging) and the do not interfere with each other. I like 900 MHz phones as I get great reception and theyy don't interfere with my 2.4 GHz wireless home network. Seems like the 2.4 GHz spectrum is getting pretty saturated with all the devices using it out there. Good solid phone.

In response to other reviews I see here I have had no problems with buttons not working.

We have a GE cordless phone that worked fine for us but we wanted a phone with all the options this phone came with, so I thought this phone would fit the bill. I found the connection faded while talking on the phone even though the phone was fully charged. The phone was comfortable against my ear when talking but it wasn't worth it when the connection faded while talking to someone. I returned the phone and bought a different brand.

Yes, it may be cheap, but we have all heard the saying "You get what you pay for!" This phone worked well for a few months, but went downhill fast. Now, I never had an issue with clarity within the house, but once I steped outside it got fuzzy. (I cannot walk to my mailbox, which is not that far from my front door.) Anyway, the "3" button was the first to go. It got to the point that when you pressed the button it would not register at first, so you would press harder, which ultimately would make it register not only once, but three or four times! This became really frustrating, but I could deal with it until I found a better phone. Eventually though the "TALK" button started malfunctioning, which basically made my phone a giant paperweight. When you can't turn the phone on, it usually means you need to buy a new one! Anyway, I recently replaced the phone with a nice Panasonic 2.4 GHz/Fax combo, which works wonderfully. I also purchased a Uniden headset phone, which is also 2.4 GHz, and that was the best phone purchase of all and it was under $80.

The phone has decent functionality and one would think that a GE product would be reliable, but we've been frustrated by the buttons on the handset, which quickly became unreliable. One has to mash on the "3" button repeatedly to get it to register, and the "redial" button is useless. This is not a matter of wear and tear because we hardly ever used the redial button.

Another design flaw: if you scroll through the caller ID list and then press "dial" for a long-distance call, the call fails because the phone isn't smart enough to put "1" before the 10-digit number! It seems pretty idiotic for a major company not to realize the long-distance numbers require a "1" first.

I just bought this phone the other day ... Got it charged up and it seems to work just fine. Maybe GE has changed some things since the initial reviews on this site. I hope so. I really don't want the battery pooping out on me in just a few months.

But anyway, the clarity's fine and I don't hear any of the background noise that other reviewers have found. I think it's a fine phone for the money.

May 5, 2005. UPDATE - Well, I've had this phone for almost four years now, and it still works great. With the turnover in electronic equipment, I'm amazed the same model is still even available for purchase. For the price, I don't think you'll do much better than this product.

I have had this phone for about 3 years. It's been great. Considering that last year I threw it against my wall and smashed it into three pieces, when I put it back together it still worked fine. Now, it is starting to give me problems with the battery life, but if you'd been broken in three pieces, would you charge properly? I don't live in a high voltage area, so it picks up just fine. I can say this, it's definately not fragile!

As stated by <<electronics fan from Gaithersburg, MD United States >>,I faced the "same problem" just after the 1 year Warranty period expired :(
The phone has decent functionality and one would think that a GE product would be reliable, but we've been frustrated by the buttons on the handset, which quickly became unreliable. One has to mash on the "3" button repeatedly to get it to register, and the "redial" button is useless. This is not a matter of wear and tear because we hardly ever used the redial button.

Three months after we bought this phone we started having troubles. The phone would ring and we'd pick it up and hit the "talk" button. However, the phone would just beep - unable to locate the right the channel to begin the call. So we reread the manual and learned to hit the channel button after using the talk button, but to no avail. By the time we pressed the different buttons, the caller would be leaving a message and we couldn't even talk to them! Happens two out of every three incoming calls! We're looking for a new phone.