Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Returned this unit after testing for 3 weeks. As advertised, it has an excellent radio/speaker system, and the weather broadcast is, in fact, clearer than with other weather radios tested. All started out ok, until I attempted to test it's battery back-up capabilities (in preparation for hurricane season in FL). As soon as I unplugged it from the wall (with 4 brand new heavy-duty, name-brand alkaline batteries having been installed since it was first unboxed, just 3 weeks earlier), the entire unit died. Upon plugging it back in, all settings had been lost. Upon testing the AA batteries, all showed to be low... despite having been brand new and fully plugged into the wall since we first used it. A call to Sangean customer service (answered by a very nice woman, after only a very short wait ...credit where credit due) yielded a very surprising discovery. I asked (almost jokingly) if their unit might be draining the batteries while plugged into the wall... to my utter surprise and dismay, she said YES, that was a KNOWN ISSUE, and they were "hoping" to possibly address it with another upgrade in the future (this unit has been out, in its current format for many years already, and gets generally top marks in reviews). She said one should only put batteries in if the power went out. I reminded her that this was an emergency radio, designed and advertised to warn people of life-threatening situations, including things such as tornados. She assured me that if the power went out, whenever I went to put batteries in, the radio should THEN tell me of past emergency alerts that I might have missed while the power was out. What?!? Not even possible. Not only that, I reminded her it's advertised as an emergency battery back-up system, to COVER for when the power goes out - duh. At least she was brutally honest and said that was the way it was designed, and it was a known issue, with no expected date for improvement. So A TOTALLY USELESS EMERGENCY DEVICE. Not only that, after the battery fiasco, I noticed it had stopped any further notifications related to actual emergency alerts (evidenced by a lack of weekly required test records, despite being plugged back into the wall). TOTAL AVOID!!! And SHAME ON SANGEAN for putting a product out purporting to help in protecting people's lives, accompanied by completely false advertising!!! Went back to Midland for all my weather radio needs.