They are coming from a few places.

#1. Criminals who have stolen them from a CI's shop or van or from a clients home. Products get ripped off from job sites all the time. In the old days people wouldnt steal Nevo or Crestron because they didnt know what to do with it. Now they go to ebay and see what its selling for and realize they have a way to get rid of it.

#2. Someone bought one and found out they dont like the touchscreen or wish they would have heard about RTI beforehand. Or they just want to trade up.

#3. CI's that decide they will sell below retail to move product so they can put some money in the bank.



CI Only is not just meant to keep the price stable. Its also helps UEI invest in product R&D vs a 100,000 man call center that deals with every slack jaw in the world who wants to be walked thru the programming of thier new remote. Not everyone calls tech support as a measure of last resort. Some people think tech support is product training.

They train dealers, dealers handle the installation and programming and feild the questions from end users. Dealers troubleshoot errors andall UEI has to do is issue an RMA # and get the thing repaired.

UEI wont honor the warranty because they dont have to. It is in thier best interest not to honor the warranty. This keeps CI's happy and they made money on a remote that they no longer have to support. How cool is that?


Dealers hate that the remote can be purchased @ ebay because todays AV client has an internet connection and some of them shop price and say "i can get the nevo for a lot less online than i can from you". This happens with TV's speakers etc. Theres really nothing a CI can do when this happens. Guys lose money when they have to turn a project down because the customer wants to shop them out of any profit. UEI has a policy in place for dealing with ebay sales. Those who buy product from ebay have no access to support or warranty. Theres not much else they can do. If there were a better system for catching crooks we wouldnt have guns and drugs everywhere.

As a DIY guy you have 2 choices.. you find some place to sell it to you @ retail or you get it from ebay and save money on it. At retail you have access to your warranty at ebay you dont.

I can buy whatever AV part or product i want thru a distributor at less than retail but i cant get engine parts. If i want to rebuild my engine i have 2 choices. Pay retail someplace local so i can get support and warranty or get it @ ebay and know that if it breaks im SOL.

I have been burned on stuff i bought online over the years and its frustrating but ebay didnt just open up yesterday. We all know what the risks are when nvidia graphics cards from bob0_83425 in alabama are.

I need some clarification here, if I legitimately buy a Nevo from an authorized distributor then decide this ain’t for me, I cant sell it because the person I sell it to gets zero support from Nevo regardless of the question??

This is 2009 right and not 1970 any company that will not support questions regarding their product needs a lesson in marketing…..

Especially electronics

You can sell anything you own whenever you want. No one can tell you otherwise.

With a "dealer only" product.. your typical avenue of support is the dealer that sold you the remote. Your contract with the dealer will determine whether or not the new owner can get covered/free support that you are owed. Typically dealers have non-transferable warranties so the new owner might get turned down completely, they might get offered a service contract of some sort and in rare instances.. the dealer might back his gear and take care of the new owner in hopes of securing a new loyal customer.


I think in 1970 you would have had a better shot at getting service vs. now. These days you got trunk slammers calling themselves business men, crying that the sale of one remote is taking food out of thier childrens mouths.

At a bare minimum it seems like access to manuals and product repair should be a given with anything. And maybe a paid subscription for software where the user pays for the software then a subscription for updates like we do with antivirus software.

As far as I’m aware in Australia warranty is not transferable by default. So if you purchase something and decided for whatever reason to sell it, there is effectively no warranty. Some places will help you out but not all.

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

D

Hey guys, thanks for the responses. It clears up what I was thinking, but also leaves me wondering if there's a market here that is being missed. I don't know that I would pay $1,500 for the remote and extender, but I'd pay more than I did on ebay if I knew I was getting a warranty. From the posts I've read here, I'm not alone in willing to take responsibility for the programming and configuration, I just want a sealed box and a warranty. Almost as if I was buying an iPod or iPhone. I probably would have paid a few hundred more to know I had that security, and I'm still a little upset that I don't, but it's ebay so what are you going to do.

On the flip side, I can now make it do whatever I want, and have no need to pay someone else to configure it. My brother has a similar (not a Nevo) remote that he got with his A/V setup. His DVD just went belly-up and he had to buy a new one, it's been about 8-10 years or so, so he wasn't too upset about that. But now his remote doesn't work, and the A/V guy wants a few hundred to reprogram. Not that I'm opposed to that, if you do work, you should get paid for it, but he's stuck now, either pay the guy or have two remotes. I may be SOL if my remote goes belly up, but I can add anything I want to it whenever I want, I just re-programmed all my satellite radio stations with little logos for buttons (the Nevo totally rocks BTW) and love it.

I guess I'm just saying that there are some of us DIY guys who don't need all the support, but still want the remote and warranty. Also, just curious, how long is the normal Nevo warranty if purchased at an authorized reseller?

Nevo's warranty is 1 year from the date of purchase from an authorized Nevo reseller.

I can see your point from the DIY perspective.

From a professionals perspective - the Nevo product is not just a "remote control" - a remote control comes with every box we as consumers buy from our electronic retailers - the Nevo in the CI environment is the human interface to a whole house system or the media room. This is what provides the value to a $1500 control solution.

A "remote control" like those that come with DVD Players, TVs etc - has virtually no value. When a CI proposes a $1500 control solution (whether its Nevo or other brand of respectable control product) - its more than just a remote - its the homeowners gateway to enjoy their entertainment system.

D

also keep in mind that unless you are a nevo installer,
you can not access the nevo database to add new devices.

you will have to either enter in the device codes,
or learn them all in. or download the devices from RC files section.

I maybe mistaken, but it looks like NevoStudio Pro does that. I just tell it what device I have and it connects online and downloades the codes. I only had to learn a couple of commands, all of the others it pulled down automatically. The only commands I had to enter directly were on/off for my Onkyo T-4555, which I found here and entered pretty easily into the studio. They're actually better than the Onkyo remote, which is only a toggle, whereas the commands I got here (thanks sydinstaller!) were discrete ON and OFF.

Diy'ers are a funny breed. They want to do it themselves and save the money but need you to hold their hand and tell them how to do it. If you are a DIY then by all means DIY. I can't count how many DIY people I have sold product to over the counter that didn't want to pay to have something installed or programmed then get mad because I won't walk them through doing it over the phone.

One of the reasons companies won't honor warranties for online sales is because they have no way of controlling or verifying product. Dishonest people will take a nevo remote or a crestron touchscreen and pay some company over seas to build a mimic of it for half the price. Package it up OE packaging and sell it on fleabay for unreal prices. Customer buys it, breaks it, sends it to Nevo. Now when Nevo won't repair or replace said item customer ends up back on the net calling Nevo every 4 letter name they can type. Look no further then harmony to show you what internet sales do for your tech support and reliability.

This is exactly why most people wont deal with DIY'ers. The problem is that your describing a Cheap Bastard not a true DIY'er :).


I had no idea about this. I know that everything is copied in China and sold allover the place but i had no idea they were doing it with PC programmable remotes. I would love to get my hands on one just for a conversation piece when people come over :)

I have some extra Nevo Stuff laying about. With the wonderful economy I am cleaning off the shelves and unfortunately selling backstock on ebay. In the end I think I am getting out or just focusing energy elsewhere for the next couple of years.

Anyhow. I had posted an extra Q50 on ebay that I really don't want to sit on. What a pain in the butt. I spent more time responding to DIYs suggesting they get a Harmony instead. In the end I wrote a bunch of e-mails and still own the remote.

I think the Nevo is a installer device or a very serious hobbyist. The average Joe would not do well without access to the Nevo classes.

Other wise. I have an S70 in my living room and love it. I installed a bunch of Q50s for clients and they have all been very reliable. Once in a rare while they need to be turned on and off to reboot.

I don't see ebay as a way to sell Nevos

Won't your distributor take it back for credit on your account with or without a restocking fee?

I have had this sitting around for a couple months assuming another job would come along. At this point I am done. There are other things I would rather do than sell high end theaters during the period we are going through. Even if a small job came in I would not want to do it knowing I won't be there to service it later. Especially considering the profit (reason for working) is dwindling on these projects. Fortunately there are many other things I can do for a living.

I am just selling off back stock. Normally I would have a few of these on the shelf. This is the last one except for one I am installing for a family member. If a warranty issue were to come up I would not have a problem mailing it in for them.

I'll be going a bit off-topic here, but it concerns the nevo just as much as Philips etc. I'm in two minds - the remotes themselves seem to be getting a bit too expensive considering the state of pda tech now, considering what you can do using a pda and software like TV Remote Controller (developed by little guys without the backup of a consumer electronics giant). On the other hand I understand that there is the R & D that goes into these devices and it's unfair on the installers who have people coming to them to program the devices that they don't understand.

I'm a Pronto RU-950 owner (TSU 3500) - purchased from a company selling home automation products. I purchased my original RU-940 (TSU-2000) online (richersounds - long running av site). I would not expect the store to program it for me without me paying them. I am a DIYer and fully appreciate the fact that i have to do programming off my own back. That's part of the fun (also getting everything laid out exactly as I want it, selecting the order of commands without having a wizard decide it for me - i.e. harmony). I didn't hassle Philips or the people I bought it from for anything. I downloaded many files from this site to get my layouts. I manually learned codes and got discrete codes etc for what i needed devices to do. I update in relation to newly added equipment.

What I do find annoying is if I can't purchase such a product and do the setup on my own or download files myself. All these devices should have basic diagnostics built in to determine if a hardware fault is present. It's not that unreasonable to expect the company to replace if the remote goes dead or does instant crashes etc.

I've consideed going the PDA route, but it seems there's no way to add consumer IR to the new PDAs like ipaq 214. It's a shame the nevo pda software isn't as prevelent (i would have bought it for a pda). I think Logitech should do a Harmony Extreme or something (maybe open source interface - android? so that enthusiasts can expirement without having to use the wizard). I wish some company would do a sort of blank slate device - android could be a good way to go (the open source nature of that could really see some inventiveness). And open source remote - that i'd like to see.

With the e-bay angle though... somewhere along the line someone has to buy from the company, so ultimately, Philips, UEI etc get the money. I like the angle of maybe paying an installer a certain amount to get support if you haven't bought it from them e.g. buy from e-bay - no support. Take unopened box/reg card to installer, pay them registration fee - they verify authenticity, register with Philips and you get what you need. The stolen goods angle affects everything potentially on e-bay. If a warranty is valid for a year, then it should be for a year, even if you give it to someone else. If the box is opened and there is no unregistered warranty card/it's been registered on Philips website, then you can say tough cheese. The trust thing is an issue though - i certainly don't like the idea of money for product (at whatever level) going to counterfeiters or thieves, but if they've actually paid for the product and sold it on, then I say why not.