Customer Reviews

GE 28128EE2 Dect 6.0 Series Cell Fusion Phone

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

I got rid of long distance on my home phone because I can call nationwide on my cell phone. Well walking around the house with my cell phone/ear piece was not convenient. I knew there had to be a better way. Well this is it. This phone is awesome. I read up on the technology and I was afraid my cell phone would not work. I have a T-mobile MDA and my husband has the BlackBerry 8000 series. Both phones linked via bluetooth in less than a minute. As long as your bluetooth is 1.1 or higher, there should not be a problem is my understanding. Reception is great. I had a 5.8mhz phone and could only make it to the front porch before I got static. With this phone I got all the way to the mail box at the end of the ( short ) driveway. The "Cell" and "home" feature work seperately so one person can make a "cell" call on one handset and another person can make a "home" call on the other hand set. Also if you are on a cell call and the home phone rings ( and vice versa) the phone will blink to let you know. I looked into other makes Panasonic,Vtech etc. and liked this one because of the price, the features and the fact that it has 2 handsets.


There are a few cons, you can only link 2 cell phones to the unit; you have to keep the cell phones near the base unit ( this is not where I usually leave my phone so I have forgotten it a few times), the black berry automatically searches and connects to the base when it is within range ( which may or may not be an issue) I must manually connect my MDA to the base each time ( which may or may not be an issue).


All in all, So far, I have been very pleased with this phone.

I LOVE the idea of this device, In fact i REALLY want one. I purchased it at Wal-mart. It was defective, took it back, that one was defective, went thru all the in stock units and they all had the SAME defect. I got refund. Thinking that WAL-Mart online would have a different "LOT" number, i ordered it from wal-mart online. I received it yesterday and it also has the same defect.

The problem is this: will not recognize that there are 4 AAA back up batteries in the base unit. When the phone rings, it creates a short that causes the device to go into a soft reset. So all the bluetooth settings, time of day, greetings, etc are erased.

I called the GE/Thompson and the off-shored help is useless. They said to send to some blind PO box in Texas and that the turn around time for a new replacement devices is 10-12 weeks. Screw that!! i'm taking it back to Wal-mart and getting my money back.

Those GE/Thompson consumer products have not human US based support and those off-tech people are useless.

It IS a shame. Cause the product DOES look really cool. Hopefully some other more reliable manufactur will create a similar item that actually works.

This home phone does exactly as described. I thought I would have to keep my cell phone closer to the unit, but I keep it up to 15 feet away with out hearing crackling. I have had it for 2 weeks, and I am still trying to figure out all the features. I do like that you can download your own ringtones, but it can only be MIDI files under 10K.

As far as the review complaining on the soft reset, I did see that happen one time on the second day I had the phone, but not since ... and I did not put batteries into the bsae until the second week.

My wife and I are on Cingular, as well as some friends. This unit allows her to anwser her cell phone from this phone instead of running around the house looking for the cell phone in time. Also, it acts as a 2nd line. Just put your home line on hold and use the cell line to dial someone else.

I would feel confident in referring this unit to a friend or family that needs this feature.

The IDEA of this phone is great. I am so influenced buy the IDEA that I am waiting for my 3rd replacement. The problem that I was having is that the phone would not recognize the number 4 and 7. It beeps when you push the buttons but will not actually dial them. If you switch pulse dialing it works for some strange reason. Thomson/GE has no idea why or do they care to fix it. Tried two different dealers but had the same problem. Here are the good and bad of this phone system. GOOD; works on Dect 6.0 so no interference with my home network. It allows me to have One Touch Dialing (almost no phones offer that anymore). USB support to transfer and store contacts on PC. 2 cell phones at once can be Synced to the base unit for use. Number keys are backlit. Up to 7 handsets can be linked to base. 4 AAA batteries allow for emergency use in power outage and also saves info. It is both desk and wall mountable. Now for the BAD; So far 2 defective from 2 different dealers. Thomson/GE has virtually no support, just a "pay to send it back and wait 8 weeks for a replacement" policy. Says you can transfer new ringtones to unit via USB but they can only be MONOphonic MIDI files (the really really old style cell phone ringtones)not POLYphonic which is the most common form. You can only transfer contact info from unit to unit via a PC (it is very fast though). All and all the features out way the more expensive Vetech and AT&T models that use bluetooth technology. I wish I had a working unit to stand behind but I don't so my advice is to pass on this model and wait for the bugs to be worked out. If I get a working unit I will write another review to keep you informed. If it worked I would give it 4.5 stars but they haven't.

I would rate this zero stars if Amazon allowed that. So the concept of this phone is great. But I am now on my 3rd defective brand new unit, which is completely ridiculous. These people (Thomson) have a serious lemon issue. I've noticed other reviews where people have gotten repeated defective units. So you are taking your chances big time if you buy this phone. You may be one of the lucky few who gets one that actually works. Or you could spend all your time, and your shipping dollars, returning it over and over and over.... If you want an idea of what it is like to deal with these people, just try calling the tech support # listed in the manual you get 800 448-0329. There is no way at all to get to a live person. After extensive internet research and calls to GE, who brands the phone, I eventually got another number that I was able to get a live person thru, but they seem to purposefully make this a very difficult task. Even more reason to buy someone else's product. I am so sorry I ever bought this phone!!!

This system has an impressive feature list. With two cell phones and a land line, it's like having a three line phone where you can take advantage of extra cell phone minutes in your plan. Having your cell phones tied into your home phone system means not having to carry your cell phone around all the time or run for it when you hear it ringing across the house. Most of the bluetooth features seemed to work okay. However, I experienced enough bugs to force me to return the system:
1. The LCD display on the base station showed a lot of garbled characters.
2. After being plugged in a couple of days, incoming callers couldn't be heard and you'd have to unplug the base station.

There were some other minor annoyances like a bright blue charging light that never went off (bothersome in your bedroom at night) and an ear piece volume changing button that makes a really loud tone right in your ear.

They need to take this product back through another cycle of quality assurance to get the kinks worked out. I'm really disappointed that GE released this phone so prematurely. I'd be willing to try it again, but how will I know when they've released a new version of the product?

OK, I see a lot of bad reviews on here so obviously this product has problems. I'm one of the lucky ones who got a good unit that passed quality control. I, too was attracted by the long list of features, and the ability to pair cell phones.

I must say that my 28128EE2 set is one of the best cordless phones I have ever owned, and I've had them going back to the 49 MHz days where you had to telescope the antenna out 3 feet then put it back in when you were done!

I have a 2 story house with basement, and both handsets work in all rooms of the house plus outside in my shed 80 feet in the backyard. I have an 802.11g wireless LAN and there is no interference. In fact, the base station is in the kitchen right next to the refrigerator and plugged into the same outlet (something they tell you NOT to do...) but still it works great.

I originally got this because of the cell phone issue, my wife gets all sorts of cell calls and she's constantly running around the house to the place where the cell phone is, only to get there and hear the "beep" that she missed the call. The feature of this phone was intended to allow her to pickup one of the handsets wherever she was and accept the call. The bluetooth feature works great. After we paired her phone (Mot W755) all we had to do is press the bluetooth button each time she set the phone down and it was connected. Call clarity was great all the time!

Unfortunately, my lovely wife is not a geek like me, and she doesn't really "get" the whole house-phone-ringing thing...("why when people call my cell does the HOUSE phone ring?" she asks...)

So alas we don't use the bluetooth that much; sometimes I use it for my cell phone. But as a cordless phone mine works great. I don't care much about ringtones or polyphonics so that's not an issue for me. One feature I REALLY LIKE is the alarm. You can set an alarm to wake you up on any or all of the handsets. Then the alarm plays one of the embedded MIDI's you select. It can be set to not too loud so that the whole house doesn't hear it. The BEST thing though, is that the handset is battery powered. So you can set the alarm confident that it will still work if the power goes out, unlike alarm clocks!

One reviewer said he liked the speakerphone. So do I. When you call a business, and are put in queue for 30 minutes or so, I just put it on speaker and set it down. It's loud enough that when a human finally comes on, you'll hear it. And if at that moment you're wiping baby's butt, you don't lose the call because you can just talk back and save yourself another 30 minute wait time.

Another testament to how nice these phones are: I have a 15 year old son who's the stud of his school...this means he's on the house phone 4-5 hours a night with all his honeys. He has a wired phone right next to his bed; but what does he do? He comes to my bedroom and steals my cordless! Battery life apparently isn't a problem for him. Imagine! A teenager's stamp of approval!

It's a shame that they made so many defective units, and that their customer service is so poor. I don't mean to rub it in to those who have had a bad experience, but if/when you get a unit that works, it really is a nice unit, and the ideas and feature set are fabulous. In fact, I'm buying another set off eBay just as a cheap way to add 2 more handsets... one for the boy and one for the basement rec room. I'm gambling that since I have a good base unit, adding 2 more handsets from the 2nd kit won't cause me problems, even if the 2nd base is defective. I figure I'm only using the 2nd base as a charger, so if the 2nd base speakerphone is a POS I'm still ahead.

After all, a 2nd kit on eBay is much cheaper than buying 2 extra individual standalone handsets.

If you are considering buying this unit, and can try it out to see if you got one that isn't defective, then buy it. When it works like it's supposed to, you won't be disappointed.

PK

Picked up this phone for Christmas as I really liked the idea/concept of it. It hooks up via Bluetooth to my Apple iPhone just fine and works as advertised as I can receive and make calls through my cell instead of the land line.

My problems with it:
- Battery life: horrible. I had the phone like a month and my primary hand set no longer holds a charge for longer than a day or two
- Ringer cannot be separated for land line and cell: My land line is unlisted and no one has the number. So if it rings, it's a marketer or some other undesirable that i do not wish to speak with. It would be GREAT if i could turn off the land line ringer but still have it work for the incoming cell phone calls.

Other than those two issues, I love the phone

Calling out from the cell phone only works from the base station , not the handsets.

If anyone were to call the landline and hangup before the answering machine completed the announcement, the phone locks up so the next person who calls can hear you speak but, you can't hear them.

Thus, everytime I got robocalled or telemarketed, the phone was locked up until I hit the speaker button.

The overseas customer support is pointless as after three rounds of "and if that doesn't work?" they told me to ship the unit back.

Oddly, the trash can was closer.

I bought this unit becasue it had a GE label on it, next time I'll know better.

I really wanted this phone to work. It has some great features, and when it's functioning correctly it is a great phone. Unfortunately, as many people here have related it does not seem to have been thoroughly tested. We have the "I answer and nobody can hear me" problem. It's going back in the box and going back to the store. FAIL.

Don't buy it, it's not worth your time. If you do buy one, get it from somewhere that will readily take a return. The odds seem pretty high that you will be returning it.