Home > Consumer Reviews > GE 29868GE1 Digital Answering Machine

great machine when it is working, but the digital memory flashes "full" when there is nothing in the memory. as a result it does not function as answering machine. can't get the erase function work.

Every 2 weeks, the machine shows F, even when there are no messages on it. While the F is showing, the system will not accept messages. The unit must be completely unplugged and powered down in order to clear it. Then of course, the machine must be reprogrammed. Reprogramming is anything but intuitive. I tried to find the manual on line. Most companies post their product manuals on line as PDF's. If GE has it posted, I could not find it. I would not recommend this machine to anyone. I am sure there are better ones out there. I would gladly replace this one with my old cassette based unit.

I bought this machine hastily to replace my Bell South which only lived a short life. This machine was a waste of money. About once every 2 weeks it randomly displays a "F" for full, even if there were no messages on it, which requires you to pull the battery and power supply to reset the machine. The battery backup doesn't work (the machine resets itself when the power goes out, erasing the messages, even with a brand-new battery). Wait, did I just contradict myself? NO, the battery will not save the messages if the power goes out, but you still have to unplug it to reset the machine when it crashes.
To top it off, the sound quality is awful; people who speak softly cannot be understood at all. I typically don't think highly of GE products, and this one is no exception. My next machine will be from a different company.

I have found products made by GE to be the most reliable products I own, and I have never yet encountered a problem with any of them (they seem to last forever!). This compact, fully digital answering machine has no tapes to get tangled up in it but rather records messages on a digital microchip (recording time is 20 minutes; most other digital models only give you 14 minutes). This answering machine is a great and cheap alternative to voice mail provided by your telephone company: even though I have Caller ID, I still like this machine's call screening speaker which let's ME decide whether I want to pick up a call or not (something voice mail can't do!). Furthermore, the machine (like voice mail) features a Voice Time/Day Stamp which tells you when each message was received. You are alerted to new messages by a large red blinking indicator light right smack in the center of the machine. There is also a "no-worry" 9V Battery Back-up built in so that messages won't be lost during a power outage (especially nice if you live in California right now--but not to pick on the West Coast States: it happens here in Chicago, too!). Of course, as with most modern answering machines, this one has a remote access function that let's you access ALL the functions of the machine (play/erase, turn machine on/off, change the greeting & more). This little machine also gives you the choice of playing ALL messages back or to skip the old ones and listen only to your new messages; then it allows you to selectively erase messages you don't want to keep. Finally, there are the usual adjustments you can make to the number of rings before the machine picks up a call, the length you want to allow for incoming messages, volume adjustment, and it lets you select your own 3-digit Security Code for remote access. For those of you who want to have things matching in your home or office: the color of Model #2-9868 is white with 3 big blue buttons for playback/erase in the center and 3 smaller white buttons on each side to activate the other functions (there are 11 function button in all). These buttons are laid out intelligently, and the machine is real easy to set up (it actually has voice instructions to help with the set-up!). Seems GE thought of all you could possibly expect from an answering machine and has made it easy to use -- it's a lot of machine for the price !!!