Harmony 880 . . . JUNK! - Page 3  

Whenever I sell on Ebay, I offer a money back guarantee if not satisfied. Why, because I'm "a business man" and I know the value of excellent feedback and repeat business.

A 30 day return policy is what most reputable stores give you.

Offer the lowball price and cut it down to 10 or 15 days, fine with me.

But NO returns . . . .

ECOST SU*CKS!

[quote=jfischer]I think you're being unrealistic about your expectations. If you want to have sophisticated features in any universal remote, it's going to take time to get there. The Harmony will control the basics of most equipment with minimal setup, but if you want advanced functionality you'll have to work at it.

Sophisticated features . . . do you mean like turn the TV on and off and putting it on the correct input. Is this what you consider sophisticated?

Once I had my 5 year old Pronto T1000 learn the codes from my various remotes it did what it was supposed to do. And that was 5 years ago.

Seems for many of us (read other sites reviews and feedback on the 880) it takes a lot more tweaking than advertised.

I never liked the Pronto's form factor, poor screen and you had to be a mini programmer to go beyond simple macros. So I know I could get another Pronto product but I won't pay the price "again". Phililps could have supplied users with latest codes. I could also go to remote central.com where other users might have posted new codes.

But I can't be bothered :(

Thx for your comments and your courteous dialog. . . still I can agree to disagree with how simple the box and their website says what their product does.

I'm a member of many various forums because I buy " a lot" of electronics and get better feed back at sites like these rather than companies low informed tech people.

But even from this thread I can see the fanaticism some posters feel from a piece of electronic equipment (watch for the posts in other threads where they buy a new toy and they "love" it. Don't know how love can enter into the equation when talking about electrons but those are the ones that flip out in their posts when ever anyone disagrees with their opinion of their new toy (the one they Love) :D

I went back and re-read Harmonys ad for how simple it is to set up! Before I need to hear back from any users that did not run into my problems they should really read it themselves as this is what I read before I sprung for the 880 http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/pr...categoryid=396

From Harmony's website:

Activity:
Set up your remote the first time
Here's how you do it with a Logitech Harmony Remote

Get the model numbers of all your components.
Set up your account on the Harmony Remote member site.
Using a simple Web Wizard, enter your component information and answer a few basic questions.
Connect your Harmony Remote to your PC or Mac via the USB cable.
Unplug the remote and start using it.
This should take about 20 minutes, and you probably will only have to do it once.

Note the 20 minute part ;)

Expidia: So I spent "over an hour" with tech support on the first go around. Sent back remote and Ecost (never buy from Ecost and their no returns policy) who never sent me a UPS pickup as promised. I spent another $7 to return it to them.

Other posters have said to keep trying tech support until I find a knowledgeable person. Found out today the first tech support person set the input codes wrong.

Spent "another 30 minutes" on hold to reach today's tech person. He was pretty good and "after another hour" got the inputs working correctly except one (the Panny XR55 would not change inputs).

So he passed me up to their second level tech. Spent another 1/2 hour awaiting him to pick up.

He was very knowledgeable and had me use the amp remote to overwrite that one code after about another 30 minutes on phone.

Also, another poster was correct in the misinformation the first tech told me that the help key can remember your settings which was driving me batty the first day.
The help key only re-syncronizes the settings after each update once they change your setting from their end (or if you know how to do it yourself from the webpage).

So now it's working. . . and the first remote was probably OK but more waste of time due to the first tech's knowledge level. How is one supposed to know you've reached a bad one until you've wasted an hour already and you're problems still not solved yet.

End result is it's turning my TV, DVD, Amp and DVR on and off and adjusting the inputs properly like I want it to. I always new I could get it right "if" I was willing to put in the time and effort with their hit and miss tech's.

For those of you that say "Oh I just downloaded my components and it worked flawlessly" . . . I say Logitech is advertising the setup for most buyers falsely.
Say what you want . . . my experience took 3 hours and more counting re-packaging and returning the first unit to the post office.

And from my experience with the setting up of the 880 . . . forum members that are so enamored with the 880 are not doing potential buyers of the 880 any favors by touting how easy it was for "them". If it was, that's great for you . . .

But after all is said and done, I think their 20 minute claim is Bulls*t.
The software bugginess and the poor web interface leaves much to be desired for buyers that think they are getting what Logitechs ads claim for ease of setup.

Still, I like the unit for what it does, that's why I went for it in the first place after reading "glowing" comments here and other reviews.

I'll probably buy two more once I see if this one will hold the settings and before the $50 rebate expires.

In a few minutes it's going to be subjected to it's most excruciating test . . . the WIFE :eek:

Expidia Says: In hindsight . . . I should have titled the thread "Beware, Harmony . . . not as advertised". I realize now that it was overly harsh to put it in the junk category!

But I was piss*d off that I believed the many users in the forum who chimed in with the "my setup took 20 minutes and the 880's great" So I bought one off those remarks along with Logitechs false advertising and was trapped into more hours of setup time that I cared to invest for my money.

On ecost, I've bought many items from Ecost in the past. But I've never had to return anything to them. I thought they were like Buy.com where if you are unhappy with a purchase you just go onto their website and they give you an instant RMA. ecost sends me catalogs almost monthly and I thought they were a big company

Now I say . . . Why would ANYONE buy from ecost when the next store on the pricegrabber list is a $1 more with probably a full return policy.

ecost has been scamming buyers for years by advertising an item for a lowball price and then smacking you with a exorbitant handling fee as you are confirming your order (and you say, well I've already filled out the form, and you push the button). That's false advertising and I stopped buying from them years ago because of this scam. This time around they advertised "no handling charges and free shipping so I bought it there because I thought they mended their ways due to competition.

I was appalled when trying to return the 880, they said they would only replace it. I could see that if you were a first time buyer who surfs for the low price, but I was a customer with a list of prior purchases.

So SCREW ecost and anyone who buys from them is a sucker IMO with that return policy, when other more reputable stores are in the same price ballpark.

Expidia says: A quick check today over at pricegrabber for the 880 shows:

Av Wholesale $175.99 no tx or shipping, I didn't check their returns policy but they have a 4.5 rating from consumers

6th Ave = $175.06 (checked and has a returns policy) 4 star rating

Ecost = $200.99 and a NO RETURN POLICY! 3 star rating

Last week, ecost had a 60 min special for $179 on the 880. Now I know, they do this to suck you into making a quick decision to buy on impulse "like I did"!
But it seems both of the other stores above have "every day" low prices on the 880 in the $176 range.

I think the consumer star ratings here are trying to tell us something, don't you ?

But Ecosts likes customers like you (and formally me) or how would they survive. Glad you will continue to shop there, as you say we need the competition to keep the prices down, my money goes elsewhere though :D

Thx and where were you last week before I placed my order ;)

Resellerrattings.com ratings on the ecost site:
6.64 Pricing of Products and Services
2.29 Likelihood of Future Purchases
4.11 Shipping and Packaging
1.97 Customer Service
1.18 Return or Replacement

Is this out of a possible 100 score . . . :) :) :) !

Thanks for the link, I'm going to re-post this on different sites every time those ecost snakes send me one of their catalogs, it will serve as a reminder for me to try and turn business away from them :D

Expidia says: Thx for your comments on the 880. My first cradle was finicky but my replacement cradle is just fine. I would call Logictech and ask for another one.

Nice to hear a software engineer had problems. As other have said it does have a bit of a learning curve to it.

With so many issues, the thing I found most annoying was the 20-30 min wait time for me and than another 20-30 min after the first tech put me up to level II support. That was just plain wrong.

I went to add one button last night, an "A" on the first screen of my DVR remote so I could delete saved shows from the DVR without having to go to another page (out of 7 pages).

Once saved, it would not upload the saved program to my 880. Had to call tech support (another 20-30 min hold time). I even rebooted before I called them and it still would not upload.
He had me switch to a different USB port and it started working.
Simple issues like this take much of my time. Tells me the software is glitchy.

But I did just order a second one for my living room HT ($176 at 6th Ave off Pricegrabber) and it should be interesting to see what happens after my initial upload with my other components once it is delivered.

I hope Logitech honors their $50 rebate as my units last 4 #'s are different than the ones on the rebate form as others have pointed out or I'm out another $100 for the two units.

Excruciating is an excellent choice of your words for my experience (frustrating works for me too) with the whole setup process.

At least the end result, leaves us with a workable, reasonably priced ($126) unit with macros.

I have not even tried the custom labeling program yet :eek:

I would also agree with your ratings assessment and would give it the same #'s from my experience.

Buy.com is great . . . I just returned an item to Buy.com in a small box and I was surprised on how much the Post Office has jacked up their shipping lately.

What used to cost me $5 to ship a small box is now $7 and then they tell me it's gonna take 5-7 days.

That was last week and today I just received in the mail a postage paid UPS return shipping label from Buy.com. I guess they generated it when they issued me an RMA automatiaclly online. To bad for me I already shipped it back but what great customer service from Buy.com.

And most times when I'm a doing a search for any item on Pricegrabber.com Buy.com is one of the lower (if not lowest) priced vendor. Great service and low price. Can't ask for much more than that!