1. I've never said they owed me anything. The point of this post was to see if I can find the solution.

2. Let me re-phrase it: URC tried to help but weren't able. He walked me though Factory Default reset and that's all they've had in store. The only option he could offer is to replace (out of warranty). At this point I've asked him if it would make sense to open and see if there was some liquid inside. He said it would void the warranty but it was out of warranty anyway. Thus, I've opened it.

You seem to have gotten this "I've opened my new remote and now URC won't fix it" vibe here and it's not the case. Just wanted to make things clear.

Also, I wanted to post here in case this is somehow caused by software/firmware and it ever happens to anyone else, at least we'd have more data points.