Today I purchased the MX-350 and I noticed that I am having the same issue with my remote. When I press right, left, up or down on the circular thumbpad, the remote believes I pressed the center "select" button. This could be a known issue as I found the following for the MX-350 on the Universal website:

New Center Select Button

The new discrete center select button is now detached from the thumbpad to offer MORE ACCURATE response to button presses.

Notice my emphasis on "more accurate" (the same clause above is also found on the Universal website for the MX-650 and the MX-850 remotes). If the issue was truly resolved, they would have omitted the word "MORE".

Is anyone else having this same issue? Any way to resolve this? Otherwise I'm returning this bad apple back to the store and distancing myself from these Universal remotes.

Thanks.