Hi everyone,

I just thought I'd share a great story with you all. I have a Home-Theater Master MX-500. One day there was a rattling noise inside, and the light stopped working (gee, I wonder what is was). Anyway, to shorten the story a bit, I call Universal and end up sending it in for repair.

I get the remote back in no time, BUT, it doesn't work right! Some of the buttons didn't respond and even though I re-taught and re-programmed it, it didn't control any of my devices. So I called Universal back. I got a guy named Jordan in the repair department. We talk about it a bit, I explain my story. Anyway, he sent me a NEW MX-500 ( mine was well past the warranty)!

I get the new one in the mail. Since I have soooooo many custom buttons and macros, I decided to try and clone the old remote to the new one. Believe it or not, the new one started displaying gibberish all over the screen! Nothing was legible and I tried to reset it but it didn't work. Called Jordan back ("you won't believe this!", I say). Anyway, he sends me ANOTHER new MX-500! I should be getting it on Monday.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this with people. I've had so many bad experiences with tech support people (from other companies) in the past, that it's like a breath of fresh air to find a company that stands behind their stuff like this. I mean, half the time I feel like I'm just getting the run-around from other people, but these guys at Universal were great!

That's my two cents...

Sigh...I wish I could afford an MX-700...

Viken K.

Viken,

I'm not sure this makes me feel good about them. Lets see... the backlighting LED de-soldered itself from the board. (Can't see how this could of happened other than a munufacturing defect.) They repaired the remote, and sent it back, but obviously they never really tested the repaired unit, as it didn't work right. So now they've decided to send you a new remote. But the new remote doesn't work correctly either, seems they are uncommitted to doing testing that proves full functionality of their product before shipment. So now they've agreed to send you another new remote.

To others with Home-Theater Master experience,

Their support personnel sound good, but their quality control sounds horrible. Do they normally have such a large infant mortality rate on their products? Is this just a fluke, or are they having some serious manufacturing problems right now?

I'm asking because I was just about ready to buy from them, and this doesn't sound good to me!

Well, I gotta say this: the first time I got my remote back and it didn't work, I was not upset. Sometimes, s*** happens, right? Nobody's perfect.

The second time, I admit to "user error". I should not have tried to clone my old remote knowing that that it wasn't operating correctly. I won't make that mistake again. They could have just said "tough luck send it back in". But even though it was likely my fault that the new remote got corrupted, they sent me a new remote anyway. THAT makes me feel good.

The fact remains that they were extremely helpful. My remote was over two years old, and probably been dropped enough times to make other remotes break. But until the light stopped working, it worked flawlessly.

I highly recommend a Universal remote. You won't be sorry.

Viken K.

One thing I forgot to mention was that the second new remote they sent me was working correctly when it came out of the box. I started to set it up when I decided to just clone my old one.

It wasn't till AFTER I cloned my old remote that the new one screwed up. Next time, I'll just spend the time to reprogram and re-teach.

Viken

bcf1963... IMHO, you are over the edge!!

First of all, what makes you think that URC sends back remotes without testing them. Do you think that the guys who fix the remotes have nothing better to do then recieve the same remote in time after time? I guess all the electronic components that you've owned ALWAYS worked...and NEVER need repair.

I had a light problem with my Mx-700 and I got it repaired by Jason in the service department....I had recieved it back and two days later the light went dead again. I was a bit frustrated, but after calling Jason, he sent me out another remote right away after hearing about my situation.

It is service such as this that makes me proud to own a URC product. Things break....and even sometimes they break again....so maybee you should lighten up and give them a chance!....good luck to you

I have an old MX-500 that has developed the same symptoms (rattling noise inside, and the light stopped working). When you sent in in for repair did they charge you for the "repair"?

FWIW, of all the remotes we sell, the URC remotes are the most reliable and have a lowest rate of return.

Mike

Yes, at first they charged me $15 for the repair (which is next to nothing if you ask me). At only $15, I figured that it was better to send it to them than to try and pry the unit open myself.

They refunded me the $15, when I called back AND sent me the new remote.

I guess you didn't buy your remote from ebay, right ? Or They don't care anymore ?

I'm sorry, I don't understand this reply :>(

No, I didn't buy the remote from eBay

Viken

I dont think they warranty stuff that was bought off of ebay, but honestly, they have been super easy to deal with regarding warranty repair. I just told them that the unit was 7 months old and i got a free repair!

I had pretty good service from them, although Damon sent my MX-700 back with the ON and OFF buttons reversed.

Made for some interesting programming problems until I figured out what he had done:-)

Craig

HappyWithURC...

First, I won't resort to name calling. If you wish to respond in a civil manner, I'll be happy to discuss this further. I do think that you are missing the point of my message.

Let me elaborate. VikenK, Hiker, and yourself have all had the same problem with a specific model of remote. This sounds like more than random failure to me. This sounds as if the design doesn't allow for correct mounting, or shock protection of this component. Of the small sample size of about 150 people that have viewed this thread as of this message, 3 have had the same or very similar problem with a particular model.

I also don't think VikenK's comments about cloning explain why the new remotes he's received failed. I don't really care what gets sent to the remote, you shouldn't be able to damage the remote by cloning it! If this issue is really present in their design, it is a serious design flaw in my opinion.

Another individual out of this small sample has also received a remote back from service with buttons in the wrong locations. This sounds like a failure to inspec work, before it is returned to the customer.

Where I work, if our customers had failure rates like this from what we sell them, we'd be out of business in short order. Our customers expect failure rates of less than 200ppm. This is a failure rate of 0.02%. This is the kind of failure rate the consumer electronics industry is based upon. This failure rate is present in devices with a much greater complexity than the remote that is being discussed, I feel the remote should have failure rates much lower than the values I've expressed above. Yet the issues discussed suggest failure rates in the range of integer percents.

Umm, what name exactly were you called?? How about now...you seem like a miserable, over-sensitive, impossible to please, snob.

It sounds like you don't even own a URC product and have no personal experience with their products, yet you are condemning them.

You have NO IDEA what their failure percentage is. You heard just a few people who have had a problem with their remotes. These remotes take a beating and old up VERY well. How about all the people who have URC remotes that have never had ANY problems chime in?? I bet those responces will eclipse the negative ones.

The cloning feature is absolutley NOT a "design flaw". Why don't you put diesel fuel in you gas tank and call that a "design flaw."

URC goes way beyond normal customer support and stand behind their products as well as ANY consumer electronics company. I have many examples of this but I doubt anything would satisfy you.

I must say bcf1963.....you clearly seem to have some bias against URC......and it is honestly not fair to say that because 3 people who looked at a post specifically labeled about repair of a remote....means that 3 out of 150 random people had a problem with their MX-500. And yes...if you load faulty or corupt software into any product...be it a cell phone...a pocket pc or a remote, it can become non-functional.

Your logic that this means that there are "failure rates in the range of interger percents" is quite flawed, since you have already selected a VERY biased population, when you post a thread about the repair of a remote. Certainly those who read...and even more so....those who answer this post are likely to have had repair issues with a remote.

Having monitored PPC threads for many years.......if an operating system update is corupt of if the process of updating gets interupted in any way, microsofts update process does not allow for mistakes and the entire PPC would lock up and could not even be rebooted. The PPC companies realized this and replaced them no questions asked when customers came across this....and although probably not often.......the threads were hundreds of pages long with similar stories. Did that mean that 1000 out of the 10,000 people that viewed those threads all had complete PPC failure, HECK NO....those were just the people that chose to read (and/or answer) a thread labeled "PPC dead after update". I expect that the same is likely true when updating a remote.

Having monitored these threads for years, it is the rare person that seems to complain about HTM support in comparison to those that seem to sing their praises.


That being said....I am also critical of HTM/URC on some issues such as when they replaced a very functional thumbpad/select button (on the original mx-500), with a newer one that is NOT fuctional (or I should say is dysfuctional). I have one MX-500 remote with each type of select button, and there is a world of difference. I would also have much preferred a design with dedicated Info/Guide/Menu/exit buttons. So, it is not a perfect remote (if one exists). I have heard gripes in the past on this board about how they have stopped supporting and/or stopped coming out with updated versions of older software for their prior remotes, so their support record is not unblemished....but all in all, most comments seem to be quite positive, and most people (as do I), seem to have their remotes take quite a beating, without missing a beat so to speak.

This message was edited by Scott on 03/19/05 10:24 ET.