Customer Reviews

GE 28112EE2 DECT 6.0 Cordless Phone with Digital Answerer and Caller ID

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I was very excited about this new phone system and all the wonderful features. I waited for weeks, then rush on the internet. Having use it for few days, I am quite deceived:

- The sound is so-so, it is sometime hard to understand people talking. Setting it to high make a slight "hum"
- The handset display is nearly unreadable, too bright with too thin fonts.
- Setting the phone is quite complicated (as compare to my former Panasonic)
- There a lot of frill options, but some other lacking (setting the display light for instance).
- At every power failure, the answering machine to be reset (how modern!),
- The speakerphone sound is "humming"

So, it is far from the description on the box.

I'd rather go for a 5,8 technology and another ... and wished I had buy it at Wal-Mart, so I could return it hassle free. But I didn't.

At first when I bought this phone, I couldn't understand why everyone gave it such bad reviews. However, after using it for a few weeks I've found there are some serious problems with this phone. I had to return it.

Pros:
* Finally, no interference from my other various devices.
* I work from home and my favorite feature on this phone is that the "mute" button is a toggle feature. You press it and the phone says "mute on" until you press it again. This means I don't have to hold down the mute button on a conference call where I just want to listen, or when I don't want coworkers to hear background noise in my house.
* Two expandable handsets will connect to the same call at one time, simply by pressing "talk". This comes in handy when the battery starts to die on one handset and you need to switch to another handset, or when two people in the same house want to talk to a caller at the same time.
* I love the blue backlight and find the display to be easy to read.
* It will store 50 numbers in its address book.
* Like all GE phones, there is a "format" button so I can redial a number from caller id and decide whether I want to include a 1 in front of the area code or not.
* The answering machine allows you to record & choose between 2 outgoing messages.
* A do not disturb button on the answering machine turns off all the ringers in the house with one touch.

Cons:
* Although the speakerphone adjusts to a nice high volume, the ear-speaker for normal handset use will not adjust loud enough. I have excellent hearing and do not normally have to turn up the volume on phones. On this phone, max volume is still not loud enough. So the only way to hear a soft-talker is to switch to speakerphone mode.
* There is quite a bit of background noise (like a hissing sound) that I don't have on the other cordless phones in my house.
* The phone does not register an incoming call or start ringing until the other phones in my house have already rung 3 times. So basically by the time this phone realizes it has an incoming call, I'm about to miss the call.
* Some of the buttons periodically do not work properly. For example, in one case pressing "speaker" (to enable the speakerphone) hung up on my caller, and in another case pressing mute would not unmute my call. I suspect the software in this phone is buggy.
* The quality of the outgoing message on the answering machine could be improved.
* The phone has some usability issues. For example once you enable the speaker phone, pressing "speakerphone" again hangs up the call, and pressing "talk" switches back to handset. This is exactly the opposite of what I would expect these two buttons to do in that situation. I had to read the user manual to figure out why I kept disconnecting my calls when I wanted to switch out of speakerphone mode.
* It would be nice to have the option to choose an audible alert for the mute, for example a soft beep every 10 seconds. I have to look at the screen to tell whether I'm on mute or not.
* The backlight turns on at random intervals when the phone is hung up. In my office this is distracting, but on my bedside table in the middle of the night this is unacceptable.
* I find the "baby monitor" feature to be creepy and I would like a way to disable and/or lock that down with a security code. This feature allows any handset in the house to silently listen in on conversations occurring in rooms near any other handset in the house. Anyone with kids (and their visiting friends) in the house would understand why this could pose a problem.

You can spend a whole lot less and get a way better phone.

1st problem: I can't hear people on the other end regardless of volume setting.

2nd problem: Display is nice and bright, but the LCD doesn't have enough contrast, so you can't see the display.

3rd problem: I doesn't display the number of missed calls, you manually need to scroll through the list to see how many were missed.

I hope GE will take this piece of work back.

I purchased this phone along with the extra handset only to be extremely disappointed. We allowed it to charge the mininum hour time as stated in the manual - it didn't make a difference with the phone quality. From the first use the sound quality was horrible. I could barely hear the person on the other end of the line - regardless of them using a landline or cell. I turned the volume up, which only made the problem worse and then created an additional 'feedback' problem regardless of where I was in the room - when I spoke, the phone would make a soft sound as if I was too close to a mic. We did give the phone the benefit of the doubt - we double checked our battery connection, phone line connection, power source connection - we even changed to a different phone jack in the house and it didn't make a difference. Another note - the phone is set up to prevent sound interference, yet another feature that doesn't work as any time the cell phone rang across the room and you were on the cordless, it would buzz in your ear. Our old phone worked perfectly fine on the same line - so obviously the problem was the phone - maybe it was a defective phone, I don't know but I took it back to WalMart and traded for a Uniden - Nice thing about that was I got the extra $50 difference to pocket for a Uniden standard with three handsets and it works GREAT!

We love the baby monitor function and use it all the time. The phone sound quality is quite good. For $98 we have three phones and an answering machine.

I only have two problems with this system:

1) The "do not disturb" feature could have been great: it stops all noise from the phones and answering machine (incl. outgoing message, caller's message, etc) with one button. HOWEVER, it does not stop the beep every 10 sec letting you know you have a message. How silly.

2) The outgoing message sound quality is poor / muddy.

Other than that I am fairly pleased with this system.

I don't have a problem hearing conversations with this phone, which is the most common complaint. Nor do I get humming or a bad connection. Seems ok on that stuff, and I like some of the features, like the "Do Not Disturb."

The three issues I have (not counting the instructions, which are a ridiculously hard to read fold-out pamphlet) are:

1) lack of a battery back-up means you have to reset it and re-record your messages if the power goes out or if you have to unplug it for any reason.

2) after a year the display started malfunctioning; parts of the LED stopped working.

3) the phone (and all its satellites) light up periodically for no reason. Sometimes they light completely up, sometimes the blue lights just flicker a little, but it happens all the time. Not sure why -- maybe it's detecting activity, maybe it's just random; it's not mentioned in the "manual." But a paranoid person would have issues with a phone that seems to be doing something on its own all the time. I had a client in the room who was disturbed by it, and repeatedly asked why my phone was lighting up while we were talking. And frankly, it's a little unnerving to see it occasionally flickering away to itself when the room is otherwise dark.

If there's an explanation for this I'd love to hear it. I'm not talking about when it checks its messages; I mean when you walk in the room late at night and the blue light is faintly flickering. What's it doing?

This is the worst phone I've ever had! Everything about it is wrong. The instructions "pamphlet" is just that. It unfolds to a large piece of paper. Give it to us in a book format so it's easy to read. It doesn't tell you what the functions are, just how to set them up. Everything you have to set up is awkward. The phone book adds everything by order of entering, not alphabetical. The most important feature is the answering machine and my outgoing message sounds like I'm either 30 ft below water, very far away or extremely scratchy!
The ring tones are OK, I love the back light and it's sleek looking but those are the only good things about this phone.
I have 10 days left to return it and for $90, it's going back!

Helllo Uniden or Panasonic!

I've had my phones for about three years now, and the displays are getting garbled and unreadable. Resetting by pulling the battery does nothing. These are NOT worth the money!

The menus are horrible. Next to impossible to navigate. Caller ID takes 15 seconds to show up on the phone. Answering system is VERY odd. Time is hard to set as well. Sound was so-so. I own this item now, but in about 15 min it will be back at the store.

Until I read these reviews I thought the constant static and occasional dropped sound might be due to a problem with the unit I purchased or perhaps due to some electronics in my office. It has gotten so bad that I only use this phone long enough to walk to my older (but much clearer) Panasonic. If you buy this GE, hold on to your receipt.