OK Phone, Bad Speakerphone, Bad Service

I installed a second line, so I needed a two-line speakerphone for my home office. At first, I hooked up the lines incorrectly, so when I hit the Line 2 button, it gave an "Error:Inhibited" message. After calling customer support, all they could tell me to do was reset the phone, which means unhooked the line and power, remove the batteries, and wait 10 minutes. Of course, this didn't help. Luckily, I figured out the line problem and all was well... Until I tried the speaker phone. It cuts off the first few milliseconds of the start of each phrase. So "hello" becomes "ello", etc. This made it almost impossible to understand conference calls, so I ended up using the handset instead. So I called customer support again, which by the way isn't GE, but Thompson. They are staffed by Indians, which is fine by me, but can be a problem for those who are not used to Indian accents. However, I do dislike the new trick of them adopting Americanized names. When they start off a conversation saying "Hello this is Joseph," I know that his name isn't really Joseph. So the whole interaction starts with a lie. Anyway back to the speakerphone, guess what their remedy for the problem was. You're right, reset the phone and wait for 10 minutes. Didn't fix it. So I called them a third time to replace the phone. They assure me that this isn't normal behavior for the phone, but refuse to send me a new one. Instead I would have to wait for 4-6 weeks for a replacement phone. Well, I don't have the luxury of waiting 4-6 weeks without a phone. So I am returning the phone to Staples and buying an RCA 25204re1 full-duplex speakerphone at OfficeMax. Wish me luck... By the way, the 29487 does not do caller ID, for that you need the 29488.