I used to run the support group for a ERP software company. If I read what I'm reading here I'd be doing everything I could to contact everyone iin this thread that mentions this employee.

After that there would be a very serious discussion in my office about soemone's future.

I emailed information about this thread to a URC trainer in Southern California a couple of hours ago.

Tweeterguy and Antonio,
Please do this out here in the open where we can see what happens.

Antonio,
Tweeterguy is not the only person who has had problems with URC Tech service. Once when I had an MX-850 just barely out of warranty, in which the RF output had died, I called and was told I could get a replacement unit for a fixed "fee" of $200. I remember being amazed that this was the only fix, as that matched the price of replacing a Pronto at the time -- several years after they had stopped manufacturing them! More to the point, the tech was pretty stiff about it, with a "take it or leave it" attitude. I don't think the techs realize that such an attitude easily translates to dealers as "take it or leave URC," which some of us simply choose to do... and all because of a tech's attitude.

Tweeterguy,
in other communication it was posited that you were being rude.  Be honest -- were you at the end of your rope and acting exasperated, or did the conversation as you posted it go along very civilly until the end?

I posted a problem about a remote about 2 or 3 months out of warranty and I got lambasted for expecting too much. This guy is years out of warranty and everyone is up in arms? My remote was a MX-5000 and got something under the screen which SHOULD be unable to happen, warranty or not.

URC is a throwaway product and URC knows it. You get a year or two if you're lucky and you can't expect any more. I just use it to sell more Elan or Crestron when people ask about cheaper options. I say they can get a URC for half the price or less but we will be replacing it in a year or two because they don't last.

There are MX-900's out there that turn into dust before they break or stop working but that's the exception not the rule these days.

I would have to disagree. Where I have less than stellar support from urc, their products are limited, their limited 2way is glitchy, and graphics are boring. Their remotes have lasted for me for years. Every once I a wile I need to get buttons replaced, but they seem to do that for free once.

I'll never use their touch screens again, way too many failures, usually fixed for free, but not worth the hassle.


I still sell an 880 or 890 on occasion when it fits the bill, but I'd much rather stick to RTI these days. Now if only crestron could program like ID I'd be happy.

.

First, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! 'Lowpro' from the URC forum of this very website provided the first answer that fixed the bricked unit.
[Link: remotecentral.com]
The procedure he outlined sent the unit into a blue screen of death of sorts causing all buttons to flash constantly until the battery was drained. I then docked it, connected the USB, sent a blank file to the remote, it worked. I then sent a test file to it and tested the functionality...it works. Please PM me your full name and shipping address; I am a man of my word.

Secondly, thanks for all of the assistance, well wishes, and in one case some ball busting. I'll address all here below:

On June 13, 2013 at 14:57, Hasbeen said...

Thank you for the offer. In the clients mind this never occurred. I called back to the shop, we had a new MX-980i and RFXi in stock...client was up and running without even knowing about this issue. Thank you again for the generous offer, it is appreciated.

On June 13, 2013 at 15:47, Jason Allan said...

It was not clear in the original post but I did try both editor styles while the unit was bricked.

On June 13, 2013 at 18:21, acambra said...

Antonio, thanks for your concern; I did receive your PM and am honoring Ernie's wish to keep this in the public forum. I do not recall the tech support persons name. The call came in at 5:24 PM EST on June 12 and lasted 4 minutes. That should help you narrow this down as to who fielded the call.

On June 13, 2013 at 18:48, JAZ909 said...

Unfortunately this was not the first time I've received poor tech support service from URC. I'm glad it's not just me :-)

On June 13, 2013 at 19:45, Ernie Gilman said...

Thank you sir!

On June 13, 2013 at 21:38, Ernie Gilman said...

What other communication are you referring to? I am being honest, I was not rude nor was I at the end of any rope. The script in post 1 accounts the exact conversation. I get it that shit fails; I've been doing this professionally for 16 years so I know the deal. What has occurred here is a company hiring incompetent and unintelligible people to run their tech support lines. They have also allowed this individual to go on like this (based on other people's accounts) for far too long.

On June 13, 2013 at 22:00, cgav said...

Hey don't take offense if people care about my situation more than yours :-) j/k
I wasn't looking for anything for free nor did I expect it to be covered under warranty. I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion from the info in post 1. I think we all agree the proper procedure is: try to resolve dealers issue over phone; if that fails either escalate or setup an RMA for paid repair. None of that was done in this case...which is what lead to this thread.

Thanks again to all and congratulations Lowpro!

Well thank you for posting the solution. I will be sure to send the solution to tech support so they are aware for the future as well as send it over to the engineers so they may be able to see what caused it, etc based on the solution.

I assure you, as I know many of the Tech Support personally, that they are more than qualified and great at what they do. If there is someone providing a consistently bad customer service, we need their names - but unfortunately most of the time we get exactly what was stated above "I'm not sure who I spoke to" - please get the names of the URC Tech Support Agent you spoke with and report your bad experiences with name to your local rep or distributor so that we can take the proper actions to fix the problem.

You're right - if people are having bad issues with this person all the time - something must be done about it. However, if I get 100,000 complaints about "someone at tech support but I don't know their name" - unfortunately there is only so much that can be done to fix the issue.

I urge you guys to just simply ask every time for the persons name so you have it. I promise you if you post in our forums and/or talk directly to your rep/URC staff about a specific person - things will be taken care of... and quickly!

Feel free to email me if you have experiences with a specific person and I will make sure I forward those experiences to the right person.

Thanks guys! Happy your situation was resolved in the end! Sorry you had to lose the MX-980 anyways! :-P

PM sent and it was my birthday yesterday. Imagine that! :-)

I said 'other communication' to indicate that it was nothing published here, which is why you're not aware of it. I exchanged some emails behind the scenes to help get this solved and none of that was written with the expectation that it would be shared with everyone with names and dates.


I've read this here before.


Do you have any idea how often we call URC, or RTI, or other manufacturers to deal with a problem and the response we get is "we've neer heard of that happening" ? Well, the frustration you feel when not knowing whom we spoke with is probably parallel to what we feel when we hear that. I think "let's see if we can work that out" would be A HELL of a lot better than EVER saying "we've never heard of that problem." See, sometimes the problems are discussed here and confirmed by others before we call....


Braden,
maybe we don't have much foresight and only want to get the problem handled when we call, and therefore don't get the name of the tech we're speaking with. For me, the only way I'll get in the habit of getting names is to assume there will be a problem and I'll have to complain. I assume I'll get help and it will be good, so it doesnt' matter who I'm talking to. By the time it has gone bad, I don't remember the name.

 I don't call URC tech support often enough to know if they do this, but I always expect the person answering the call to state their name.  This should be standard protocol, but with some companies it is not.  

The guy gave you the exact time he called, I don't think we ever should call a place and write down someones name. We don't call expecting to have issues we call expecting results. If you guys can't pinpoint who it was, don't ask us to, that's not our job. Tweeter had a client to worry about, not you tech guy, so I find it offensive to say "I'm not sure who I spoke to" comment.

Imagine a client calling tweeter guy about some employee he had and he said to client that, goodbye client.

Your remote has been queued for shipment. I sent you a PM with the tracking info. Enjoy!

I agree with Ernie and HT Octane...it is not my concern at the beginning of a tech support call to note and write down the persons name; especially when said person talks all thugg-like. At the end of the call I already knew what we were going to do to ensure the client was satisfied and already had texted my assistant to bring out the MX-980i and RFX from the shop.

Paramount to how URC runs their business is my concern to keep my client (one of 7 years and 5 different projects) satisfied. That's all I care about; end of story. Do I care about eating the cost of the remote/antenna (~330 dollars combined)? Absolutely not. Nor do I care about eating the 17 bucks it cost us to mail the unit to Lowpro... that was to prove a point and have a little fun and make someone's day. All accomplished, all is well...have a great weekend.

This answer is very telling. If you could do little to fix the issue, with a huge number of complaints, you are simply not trying to fix these issues!

I've been responsible for tech support at a much larger company than URC. What percentage of your support calls get screened without the URC tech support person knowing? From your response, I would guess zero, as with a large number of complaints, such screening would have given at the minimum some clues.

I had my own issues with URC tech support years ago, and decided to move on, and have purchased my remotes elsewhere. I highly suspect you are not performing regular screening of support calls without the representatives knowing. If they know of such screening, issues with such calls will become almost inexistant, as the tech support people know they will get reprimanded for such issues.

So yes, your response is telling... It is telling me that URC is not doing their homework on policing their own tech support people. In my opinion there is only one way to construe why they wouldn't!