Effective today, no more Harmony live call-in support if remote > 60 days old

[Lord Vader]

Well, this really frosts my ass!

I spent a couple hours on the phone Friday night and Saturday morning (Dec. 5th and 6th) with Harmony support due to some issues I had after adding an HR22-100 to my setup. My main HR20-700 has been having some issues with my 880, the same issues I had on the 5th and 6th. So I log in to my remote to retrieve the Harmony support # and noticed it's gone. Fortunately I had written it down next to my incident # after double-checking.

I called Harmony and gave them the incident number, explaining that the problem with which they helped me TWO DAYS AGO was still present. Imagine my suprise and disgust when they tell me that "effective today, our support policy has changed for customers who have had their remote longer than 60 days. Because your remote is older than 60 days, you are not able to receive live technical support. Please visit our Harmony forums where an answer to your problem may be found, or you can Email us your problem and a technical support representative will contact you within 24 hours."

I'm sorry, but this is @#$%^& ridiculous! Harmony for the longest time used to have some of the BEST tech support out there, mainly because it was live via phone. With this radical change, they've done an about-face and now are one of the UNfriendliest companies! I can understand getting away from free support, but what about on an OPEN TECHNICAL ISSUE THAT BEGAN PRIOR TO THE POLICY CHANGE?!? The snippy rep tells me, "Sorry, but I cannot change policy. It doesn't matter if this is a new or existing issue. Once your remote is older than 60 days, the new policy is in effect."

A word of warning to those of you, then, whose Harmony remotes are older than 60 days: just hope you don't have a major issue that needs resolving rather quickly, because it looks like you won't get it.

[smiddy]

This just sucks, sorry man!

[Lord Vader]

Tell me about it! I can't be the only one ticked off by this change.

[spartanstew]

I updated my 670 two weeks ago to add a new Blu Ray player. When I did, all my custom activity buttons reverted back to the defaults. Couldn't change them no matter what I did. Called in two weeks ago and was told it's a bug in the latest 670 software and that they'd Email me when they fixed it.

Since it's been 2 weeks, I was going to call this coming weekend and check on the status. Guess they won't take my call? That stinks. Do you have the number handy?

[Lord Vader]

Here's the tech support number: 1-866-291-1505

As long as your Harmony remote is less than 60 days old, you'll be able to receive live phone tech support; otherwise, post a message in the forum and pray that one of a handful of forum members will be able to help you.

:mad:

[Ken S]

Considering what they charge for some of the remotes it's a foolish policy. When you add in what they did when the screwed up that download a couple of months ago it's not exactly great timing. Of course, the spike in calls from that mess is probably what caused someone to say "We're spending too much on tech support..."

[smiddy]

I've had my 890 for a couple of years now...some folks I know were discussing an MX-1, or something like that. Anyway, I love the simplicity of the USB interfeace and programming. Maybe it is time to move on? :shrug:

[Richard King]

I'll hang on to my 880 until it "breaks", at which time I will be looking into alternatives that I never thought I would look at.

[richierich]

It is the Way Of The World. Try to get ahold of Linksys's Support. Once I finally did they hung up on me supposedly inadvertently and had my number but did not call back. Then I called back and I was accidentally disconnected after they put me on hold for 10 minutes.

Finally called back the next day and told them of my problems with them hanging up on me and he stayed onto resolve the problem but you have to wait an awful long time to get help.

I have a Harmony 1000 for 6 months and just bought a Harmony One a couple of weeks ago. Thank God I found out everything I need to know about customizing this remote which works great but that is bad news about customer support.

[Lord Vader]

I'll hang on to my 880 until it "breaks", at which time I will be looking into alternatives that I never thought I would look at.

I'm beginning to feel the same way.

[Lord Vader]

I can kind of understand, albeit only a little, going away from free help across the board, but to stop helping a customer in the middle of an open issue is just asinine. Only 48 hours after a techie and I tried to figure out a problem, it still existed, so I called back and was told that due to a policy change, they could no longer help me live. Unbelievable!

[Stuart Sweet]

What a shame. As you said, their support was among the best.

[richierich]

It's SAD but companies like this are always trying to find ways to save money and this was probably the brainchild of some Senior Marketing Director who thought he could save the company alot of money and make a name for himself but in the long run they will lose money by losing customers.

[richierich]

I just got an email from Harmony asking how I liked my Harmony One Remote that I recently purchased and would I like to participate in a survey to help them provide better customer support.

You can bet I will take that survey and provide them with alot of stuff they probably don't want to hear about.

[SDizzle]

This is horrible news, and a BAD decision by a bean counter at Logitech. I agree with everyone here that Logitech in their harmony support has been among the best, and I have said that on this forum MANY times. It really stinks that a company with a great reputation in an area that many companies struggle in could make such a 180 and throw all that down the tubes. I have an email address to a guy higher up in tier 2 support with Logitech in the Harmony dept., I just sent him an email to see if he has any info on this, and why it was done. However, about a month ago I sent him an email and he didn't reply, which was not like him, I wonder if he is still even there?!? If I get a response, I will post back here with any new info.... I had an 880 and rarely needed to call, but my 1000 had many problems for awhile, so their support was always very helpful. Now the 1000 is quite a bit better......

THIS STINKS!!

[AlbertZeroK]

Well, here's the problem, has Harmony at any point promised phone support for the life of the product, if they have, you can contact the FTC or the Attorney General where Logitec is located. Also I think a report to the BBB is in order.

Yeah, Considering the cost, this is just plain stupid.

But if they could give the software the same control as the agents had, I would atleast feel a bit better. There are some things you simply can't do without contacting support.

[Lord Vader]

OK, now I'm REALLY pissed!

Last week I was fortunate enough to be given a level 2 phone support number to actually call to try to resolve my ongoing problem with my main HR20-700. After spending over an hour on the phone with some tech support guy, my 880 continued exhibiting the same problem: a few functions were sending out multiple commands, as if I was pressing the button 2, 3, or 4 times. This became more than just annoying, because when I pressed the dash button twice, which I've got programmed into LCD screen button #2, instead of simply deleting the recording I watched (recall that pressing the dash button twice is a shortcut to delete a show), the damn remote deleted multiple recordings! It wiped out not just the show I had watched, but the entire FOLDER of shows that were located immediately below the just-deleted recording! :mad::mad::mad:

Gobdammit! I lost 4 recordings of one of my season passes because this damn remote can't get its act together!!!

That's not the only (ongoing) problem with it. A couple other keys are STILL exhibiting the same problem. So yesterday morning I sent Harmony tech support an Email explaining that this problem still exists. They begin their endless parade of back-and forth Emails, telling me to first visit their forums for help. As I've told them countless times, THAT DIDN'T DO A DAMN THING! Then they reply with their explanation of their new policy, and as I replied to them, I KNOW WHAT THEIR NEW POLICY IS, and it sucks! I even told them about this forum (without naming it, I must admit) and how many of their current customers are NOT happy with this new policy, so much so that many are going elsewhere for universal remotes now. After I told them their forums haven't helped, they reply that they will continue to troubleshoot the problem, but ONLY VIA EMAIL: "Let's try to fix the issue via Email" is what their reply said.

Uh, sorry, but that's bullschit! This is NOT going to be fixed via Email! God! I really feel like strangling someone over there. Their support has gone to hell in a handbasket!

[Grentz]

That is horrible.

Honestly there is a lot about the Harmonies that are good, but on many levels they are annoying as h e double hockey sticks too.

One that I always love is how you can only have ONE remote per login. Seriously, what is up with that? I just setup a house full of harmonies for a friend and had to make 4 different accounts! Just stupid.

Not to mention how customizing things beyond the preset items gets to just be a nightmare.

I know there is nothing really any better, but with the resources Logitech/Harmony has they should be able to make things MUCH better. Especially at the prices they charge.

[Lord Vader]

Well, after I bitched up a storm, they finally realized this was a "grandfathered" issue and have asked me to call them to resolve it. I just hope this annoying problem CAN be resolved!

[EXTACAMO]

Get used to it. As this economy and the whole country for that matter sinks further into oblivion companies are looking for every possible way to cut costs. Things you used to think of as should be free are now gonna cost you. That's the new reality. :nono2:

[paulman182]

Any remote control that needs factory support is a remote I don't need!

Glad I never got one.

[Lord Vader]

It doesn't necessarily "need" support, but considering it's a phenomenal little computer of a remote, support may be necessary from time to time. I'm sure it beats any universal remote you may have. ;)

[richierich]

I was told by a Harmony Tech that they would still talk to customers even if the 60 day period had expired but you may have to be persistent and it would depend on the CSR that you talk to as some are more by the book than others.

They helped me out when I called back but I had to be persistent and explain my problem.