You may have read the sticky about how URC doesn"t support DIY customers purchasing the Complete Control Products. If you purchase URC products from a dealer or installer, the same issues apply to you too.
I've spent thousands of dollars on URC products purchased from their dealers and have wasted dozens of hours trying to resolve problems. I purchased from URC's Texas dealer Home Entertainment. Home Entertainment was purchased by a company called Tweeter. I also purchased products from Tweeter. These companies no longer exist. When i purchased my MX-3000, MRF devices, and multiple MX-850s, they were sold as consumer products. They were NOT dealer only installed products. URC DID directly support end customers with live updates to the software.
At some point they decided to change that sales model and manage it through dealers. Can you imagine buying an Apple computer or iphone from Circuit City; and then have Apple tell you they won't support you once Circuit City went out of business? Or even worse, tell you to find a store who will agree to help you?
For over a decade this is what thousands of URC customer have delt with. A google search will confirm this.
In the past, you could at least provide part numbers or serial numbers to prove your remotes were genuine, not anymore. They must assume everyone has a fake. Which begs the question, are there dealers so disreputable that they are selling their stock on the grey market? Is URC's sales and operations that poorly managed? Or is it that the OEMs building these remotes are duping URC completely and selling their products.
Imagine again, you purchase a universal remote to control all your equipment. Then 4 years later, you buy a new piece of equipment. Then you program the changes into into your editing software. But you cant download it into the remote due to some incompatability issues etc... Next, you go online and begin the long and tedious process of trying to debug it. You buy multiple USB to Serial adapters, but that doesn't work. You go through a rediculus precedure such as the following:
"I find the MX850 must be done this way, and then it ALWAYS works: *connect adaptor *connect MX850 *open editing program *try to download *when it fails, change the port to something or other, not 1 *try to download *when it fails, change the port to 1 *enjoy your success *if you disconnect the MX850 after this, expect to repeat this process"
That didn't work. Then you try this and many other things on a totally different computer. Failure again. You really want to throw the whole thing in the garbage, but at nearly $400 per remote, that's not an option. You continue to call URC. They refuse to provide any assistance and tell you: "Go find one of our dealers and ask nicely, and maybe they will sell it to you." This is the same software you already paid for, and still have on those old disk drives you pulled from no longer fuctioning Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP, and Vista machines you owned.
Now imagine going through this every few years when you buy new equipment. By the way, adding new devices in MX Editor is simple. A child could do it. In fact, children today learn more about software and code than the so called professional installers. Tradesman and so called installers say they need to be protected. Wow, wouldn't it be nice if we all had protected jobs.
I'm sure this will anger some people. Sorry, but buyers need to know the truth.
Some may try to argue my points, but the reality is, it shouldn't be this hard for any customer to use a product he's paid for. Period
