The life span of the battery and the charger itself is short. I purchased one of these, lasted 3 mo. The retailer replaced it for us (even though they didn't have to) and the replacement lasted only a few months more before the battery died. We replaced the battery (BYW, we followed instructions on charging & battery maintaince to the letter) only to have the battery charger in the base die. Calls to customer service were fruitless. Automated 800 number had no option for troubleshooting our problem and referred us to a toll number (317 AC) that had the exact options as the 800 no. No option of talking to an actual person. You should know that GE doesn't make its own phones but subs manufacture out to a company called Thomson Electronics. There is no phone no. given to call GE directly, I guess because its your problem not theirs, or web site reference for either GE or Thomson. Anyone would be nuts to buy any GE phone product.