I finally reached someone who was able to help me.

Joe: What did they do? Folks are interested! :-)

Well I was just days away (and with great antcipation) from purchasing a Pronto which I played with at a local A/V store just the weekend(it was exactly what I was looking for) ... until I read this rather long discourse on Philips service practices. Now I'm having serious second thoughts, I have two kids and a tile floor and I'd hate to lose $400 on something like this which is not a matter of "if" it gets dropped but "when". You'd think that at an absolute minimum a unit could be replaced at factory cost with the return of the broken unit. I've had two $400-range palm type computers over the last couple years and the associated manufacters had standard repair fees to replace the touchscreen which was still considerably less than the cost of a new unit. This is going to delay my decision for sure. Hmmm. Maybe somebody could come up with a padded case?

I've been following this thread, and as a new Pronto owner, hope it turns out happily. What surpises me is that the retailer, or Philips, could be selling 'extended warranty' coverage, a.k.a. 'Insurance'. In this case the coverage would be for what the mfr's warranty should cover but apparently doesn't. I have been anti 'extended warranty' in the past but with HT components becoming S o o o expensive it may make sense. I bought 5yrs worth of coverage for a 60" Mits RPTV. If I have to use the insurance it will pay for itself... quickly. BTW, maybe the damaged Pronto is covered by the owners credit card (e.g. AMEX etc.).

I sure hope Philips gets their ducks 'beak to tail'. Meanwhile, we need to be really careful with our Prontos. sigh...

Steve

Seems to me that there may be a bit of misunderstanding here as to the tuffness of Pronto. They have been dropped onto hard floors (stone or equiv) and the worst that has been reported is the battery cover jumps off and the batteries end up on the floor. Replacing these bits and the Printo reboots and is back to normal. I beleive the touchscreens are being damaged by excess pressure being applied to them which causes them to crack. In some cases, it's just a heavy finger, in others, perhaps it's a sharp object impacting the face.
There is a formal policy being created by Philips to handle such "service" issues. It will likely be an "out of warranty" deal of course and you'll pay $100-$150 to get a new unit in exchange for the one you send back damaged.
This is not official but is likely to turn out to be the way this type of repair is handled. It mostly has to do with setting up logistics within Philips. One must remember that while Philips sells Ninos, that is another division altogether so while they may have the vehicle in place to do such repairs, it's really like another company. Such is the case with other large multi-nationals that have numerous divisions.
In the meantime, suffice it to say that I know JOE is happy with the outcome he has on his damaged unit.
A formal policy is in the works and I expect will become official in the next 30 days.

That sounds pretty close to 'beak-to'tail' to me. All things considered, a fair policy. And I thought I saw an opportunity to open an insurance business.
Thanks for the report.
Steve

My case is a little different because my Pronto is out of warranty, the screen is partially broken, and however, in the part that works, I can see that the rest of the remote is OK.

After going through what everybody else has gone through I was told that the cost to replace the unit = $239. I told the rep. that he must be joking and he said that he was going to terminate the call.

at this point I lost my patience and became really upset.

I am so sorry I ever bought such a product; obviously a division of Philips developed a great product but does not have the right support organization to back it up. I think Philips do not care at all about their customers.

I was even told by Scott (he said he was a supervisor from Philips) that they do not care about anything posted in the Internet, I asked him that I wanted to talk to someone from Philips and not a sub-contractor that take telephone calls for them.

Fine, I will throw the remote to the garbage and shop for something else.

I just remind them that larger companies have gone bankrupt for not caring for their customers no body is almighty, look at Microsoft.

Me, again, Just finished talking to the Customer Service people from Marantz and they do have a policy; $75 to repair a broken screen. I will pay the extra they ask for the RC5000 in exchange for better service. Philips could learn a couple of things from one of their daughter companies.

Pardon me for getting involved, but in the UK, you could make a claim under your household contents insurance under the accidental damage section. Is that not available elsewhere in the world?

I agree that customer service is a requirement, however, companies have also gone bankrupt for bailing people out each time they break something, accidentally or otherwise.

As for the ability to repair an item, subject to payment or not; that is a different matter. I suspect it is one of company economics and structure as Jack says.

Marc B-C

Mr. Marc B-C's Pronto obviously has not break down, because if it did and he would have to pay 80% of the original cost (in case you paid $300, 60% if you paid $400) plus shipping to get it repaired he would not think of someone else company's economics and structures. At that point He was quoting Jack which sell Prontos for living! Is this the case for Mr. Marc B-C too?

I do not expect to get the unit fix for free I just expect that it be priced reasonably! And I also expect not to have to go through all the nightmares people had as expressed in this forum.

Why don't you take a look at Philips support history (both hardware and software) since the Pronto came out and then reply to this message (Is everybody else who have had problems with getting their units repaired out of sync with the manufacturer’s structure and economics?). I also encourage you to read all the messages posted so far. Not you or even Mr. Jack can cover the sun with a finger in behalf of Philips!

Last thing this is not an insurance matter but a service issue to be resolve by the manufacturer (an irresponsible manufacturer that behaves like a start-up amateur)Insurance costs have gone up dramatically in the US recently because of people using it for the wrong reasons. I will go to my insurance company for an item that cannot be repaired or replace (e.g. an antique).

Respectfully!

Ivan

Still no response from Joe? Now I worried as a dealer.
Was it really 5/30/99 when he last responded? maybe he found satisfaction in retur for ceasing all comuications. hmmmm. Scratching my head. Not my remote.

Hmmmm is right. Joe, after many long and detailed postings your 5/30 post was far too cryptic. What gives? Who helped you and how did they do it? Were you paid-off or muzzled? What did Philips do, threaten you. Hey! We won't stand for that! Let us know how the situation was resolved. Thanks, Dan

Wow! I own a Pronto and have dropped it about 3 times on hardwood floors. I sort of wondered what my recourse would be if the screen finally broke. Damn, this isn't good!

Philips needs to get with the program. I also own a 3Com Palm V and had it run over by a car - needless to say the screen was broken. Not to mention a completely crushed case - this thing was a total loss! But 3Com handled it wonderfully - you just call them, give them a credit card number, and they send you a reconditioned unit right away.

I did this and received what amounted to a brand-new unit the next day! I returned the smashed unit in the suppiled box (via the pre-paid weight-bill!) and 3Com charged $100 on the credit card. Nice!

Now that's how support on a $400 product should be. Why Philips isn't doing the same on their $300 product is beyond me. They have the resources!

Note: If you want to read about another customer support nightmare, see my thread in the DVD forum about my Samsung DVD player - there's more than one company out there with it's head up it's ass.

Daniel, sometime back, posted some of the durability tests that Philips performs, and one was a drop from 27-29" from the ground. The pronto should handle a drop like this, according to quality specs then.

I just received a clearer scan of that sheet yesterday. The test was two drops from 70cm (27.5") onto a PVC covered stone floor, once on each side. It's supposed to be able to operate perfectly after that.