There’s nothing like buying a Christmas gift for someone and it not working. My sister wanted an under-the-counter radio with a CD player for Christmas. By the time I bought it, I’d bought other things first and my gift list for her was over extended. So, instead of the more expensive brands, I purchased this GPX model through Amazon. It had the features she wanted and the price was good for me. I gave her the present and she was happy with it.

It is white in color and easy to install (although the screws didn’t fit into the holes that a previous radio had made in the cupboard bottom); it was MP3-Ready with a flip down cradle; it had a CD player; LCD display; kitchen timer; remote control; and an AM/FM radio with a digital clock.

The digital clock works great and has only stopped once, (when the power went out). The small remote control is handy when you are sitting at the table and you need to turn down the sound or you need to switch songs on your CD and don't want to get up to turn it down to to switch tracks. The kitchen timer is on the side of the unit and it automatically turns what you have plugged into it on and then after 2 hours, turns it off automatically. I have a GE Space Saver and use it for my electric coffee pot so it turns itself on in the morning while I'm getting ready for work. My sister doesn't use hers much because she hasn't had the need yet and she doesn't drink coffee. It is, however, a good feature because you can use it for any electric appliance that you want to turn off automatically and if you do use it and forget to turn off the plugged in appliance, it takes care of it for you. Sounds like it has it all, right? Right. However, the radio will not work!

What complicated the problem further is that my sister waited five or six months to install the unit. She finally mentioned it to me hoping that I could take it back to where I bought it. By that time, however, it was too late to return it to Amazon. So, we were stuck with it!

The rest of the features work, but the main component (which is the radio) doesn’t and she now has both this attached to her cupboard  and a radio sitting on her kitchen counter. She loves listening to the news in the morning, and so needs to have a working radio. This space saver isn’t saving much space.

As I was looking for ways to return the item, I read some reviews (which I hadn’t bothered to do in the heat of Christmas purchasing) and every one of them had the same problem. Many said that the problem stemmed from not being able to fine tune it enough to pick up the stations. I once had a radio like that but I could at least get the FM stations, just not the AM. My sister and I tried everything we could to tune a station in but finally gave it up and she has no radio source at all.

I paid $39.99 for it but it is now selling (on sale) for $45. My recommendation is to pay nothing for it and get a different brand!

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 39.99