6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Half-Baked, Non-Existent Support
Date of Review: Dec 17, 2007
The Bottom Line: Don't waste your money - wait for a later generation that incorporates customer feedback, or go with a different phone.
I bought this phone the other day and am ready to return it. I will try to be objective, though I must say I am very disappointed.
Pros:
1) Voice quality is good, sounds very sharp
2) Good features like mute/speakerphone/headset jack
3) Works with Skype & POTS fairly seamlessly
Cons:
1) Phone is too small - this is a personal preference thing, I know, but is it really necessary for my home phone to be as small as my cellular? I don't think so.
2) HORRID software. The software that comes with it (Skylink) works ADEQUATELY in terms of connecting to Skype, but then suddenly drops the connection and you have to reboot to get it back. The software is extremely minimal and doesn't seem to do but 1 or 2 things. Maybe I have an older version, BUT...
3) Support is NON-EXISTENT. And I do mean NON-EXISTENT. Is it a GE Phone? A Thomson Phone? No one knows! But you have to search pretty hard to find any page that actually claims to offer support. Once you get there, you'll find that the only downloads available are the product manual and specifications sheet. Gee, that's helpful. No links for new driver downloads, nothing. Ah, but they do say that you can contact them via phone, email or snail mail. Ok, snail mail for tech support? Not even going to go there. Email? Would be ok, but they, um, don't actually give an email address. Ok, phone sounds good... Oops! The number they give is a general support line for all GE/Thomson phones - the only thing you can accomplish here is listening to stupid recordings droning unhelpful advice (like unplugging/replugging in the phone if it doesn't work - gee, wouldn't have thought of that!) Other than that, you can get a recording for 4 types of problems - phone not working at all, static on the line, call waiting issues and one other irrelevant topic. In the end, all you get is a recording, and absolutely NO chance to speak to a human. How awful is this? Typical of products today - all marketing hype, zero support. Once you've actually bought the product, they forget you exist.
4) Volume is too soft. My hearing is fine, but in regular handset mode, I can barely hear the other party. Note to GE/Thomson - the loudest volume setting should probably be TOO loud for most people, not too soft. Oddly enough, the speakerphone mode volume is excellent.
5) Range stinks - I went downstairs with this phone and behind a closed (wooden) door (house is primarily wood), and it dropped out of range. WTF? Unacceptable.
6) Phone menus - again, difficult to navigate, poor layout, frustrating. Also, you get exactly three choices of wallpaper, all with some form of the Skype logo. You spend all this money getting a color screen, then you're stuck with three goofy logos, all of which make it difficult to see the text on top of them? Unbelievable.
So, I think this phone suffers from awful software and drivers. If there were a place to get updated versions or a way to actually speak to a human about this, I might keep the phone. But the crappy software and non-existent support will make me send the phone back, even if it costs me around 25% of the original cost in restocking and shipping fees. That, in and of itself, should be an indicator of how dissatisfied I am.
