GE 3-Outlet Surge Protected Extension Cord, 15ft

This product is sold under the GE brand name, which is one of the oldest names in American electrical products. However like so many famous brand names like Polaroid, Kodak and others the GE name is only used by license – the product actually comes from Jasco and is made in China. That doesn’t take much away from the fact that it looks and feels better made than most of the no name stuff you find at the dollar store and it comes to you in nice retail packaging, not tossed into a plastic bag. So on all those factors it is a worthwhile product.The concept is great, a very short one-foot grounded extension cord with three outlets. This is just what I needed under my desk to better utilize the single wall plug and help clean up the mess of cables. It looks contemporary and attractive with its white braided cable and flat space saving plug that manages to leave the second outlet available.But there are two things that they got wrong. One of them is forgivable, that the three power outlets are spaced very close together, which limits what you can plug in to them. Most power chargers for phones and devices like that won’t fit and even some thicker power cords might cover the adjacent outlets. But like I say, that’s not a big deal because this isn’t meant to be anything more than just a short convenience extender.The other issue though is something I consider major. The way they designed it, when you plug it into a wall outlet the other end with the three outlets faces backwards towards the wall, making it impossible to plug anything in to it. Because the cord is very thick and braided it can’t easily be twisted the 180 degrees it would take to make the outlets face outward toward you and away from the wall. The most I can twist the cord is 90 degrees so the outlets lay on the floor facing upward. That’s really too bad that they didn’t think of this flaw that makes an otherwise excellent product something that is only conditionally acceptable.