Disgruntled PRO-96 Owners

[jj-22]

I for one am not happy with the "Shacks" decision to charge $49 to fix THEIR bug. The bug doesn't affect me at this time but it may in the future. I was going to wait to send it in to avoid the major rush but now I'm considering returning it for a full refund (still within my 30 days)and buy a Uniden 296 out of spite or wait a few months and check to see what versions are on the stores shelves.
I really like the radio but they've made a really crappy business decisson.
Before I do this though, would other owners like to get together and flood them with a demand to change this rediculous policy?
Maybe it's time GRE got involved in this as well.

 

[unitcharlie]

with apologies....

i can't say i am disgruntled.... maybe miffed but not disgruntled....
i have a 96 and program/oversee eight more for tv station where i work(and a couple of 95's and a couple of 92's and some additional less sophisticated stuff).... i have been a loyal rat shack customer since the early programmable days and currently have a good working relationship with a rat shack store (because i have done about 8-thousand in business there this year). i don't really know if the upgrade will be needed here for a while and really dont want to take any out-of-service for as long as it will take....

how did you want to involve gre or rat shack in this mess.... i was going to talk with the manager of the store and explain my feelings to him and see if he could pull some strings ad get someone in town from ft worth to fix the problems.... without charging 49 bucks... that would be about 500 bucks total for the fix.

 

[fireant]

I thought this upgrade was free and they where charging it against the radio shack store you took it too but if thats the case and you have to pay 49 dollars after buying a 500 dollar radio than forget it I am considering buying a pro 96 have a pro 95 but not if I have to pay for something like that I will buy uniden as well I too have always been radio shack and would like to stay that way but they are going to have to do so changing of the way they do things or I will have uniden scanners from now on

fireant

 

[Pro-95]

I for one am not happy with the "Shacks" decision to charge $49 to fix THEIR bug.

Where or who said a customer was charged to upgrade their radio?

 

[GlacierClipper]

Sounds like "playing musicial chairs" and we are all waiting for "show and tell"! :shock:

 

[scannerfreak]

I for one am not happy with the "Shacks" decision to charge $49 to fix THEIR bug.

Where or who said a customer was charged to upgrade their radio?

Can you guarentee that all stores will eat the $49 like you will? I called my local store this AM and they said they were not aware of this charge, but if they got charged, I would be charged.

 

[fireant]

If thats the case then I am not buying the pro 96 and will go with uniden for sure then

fireant

 

[W5JLF]

They fixed mine FREE at the Fort Worth Service Center. All I had to do was let them make a copy of my original purchase recite.

 

[jj-22]

I for one am not happy with the "Shacks" decision to charge $49 to fix THEIR bug.

Where or who said a customer was charged to upgrade their radio?

In an EMAIL posted in the thread "Pro-96 1.3 Upgrade - myths removed",
"Beth" of Radio Shack Product Support states

"There is currently no program in place to automatically upgrade the
Pro-96 in our Fort Worth or any other facility and there are no programs
planned to do so. "

AND

To our PRO-96 customers, if you monitor a system that uses one or more
of the 8 talk group ID's, please contact us with a list of those ID's and
most importantly what system they are on, your address and proximity to
the system - we will verify the system's use of those TID's and your
address, then contact you individually and arrange a prompt update.

If you are a PRO-96 customer, but don't use one of those talk group ID's,
you just want the update we encourage you to wait until parts are more
readily available. The charge for the update will be the same minimum
service fee - no penalty for just wanting the latest!

The email states that the "minimum service fee" is $49

If I am wrong and flew off the handle, I am truly sorry. But the way I read it is, the customer will have to pay the $49.

 

[Pro-95]

ACK! All service center repairs, warranty or not, create a cost from the repair facility. I'm fairly certain that this is the cost she is reffering to. However even with a repair ticket stateing the 49 bucks when completed in the register the system would automatically change the price of the repair to $0 to the customer as it is an IN-Warranty repair and covered under the MFG warranty as a mfg'ing defect. In that same thread were you got this email I mentioned that the cost of the repair is paid for by the store NOT the customer. This is one of the joys of being the retailer as well as the "manufactureer" since it is labeled Radio Shack.

So no, no customer should have to pay for the upgrade. The radio was shipped/sold to you in less than 100% working condition and that is covered under warranty.

This would be no different than if you bought a TV but the TV didn't get channel X and channel X is listed as a receivable channel. Or worse yet only 1/2 of channel X.

 

[unitcharlie]

with apologies....

will one of you rat shgack types plz get the OFFICIAL word from headquarters and clear up this question.... i am wondering why the store selling a p[roduct they only front must pay for this fix..... i haven't been a fan of uniden since the mid-80's and surely don't like the thoughts of going back to them but if i must i will take my boss's moeny with me.....

 

[jwood]

Boy I love my UNIDEN more and more each day :!:

 

[Mozilla]

Radio Shack

While the issue also does not affect me at this time, I do believe Radio Shack could have handled it better....HOWEVER I also think all the people should remember that a lot of people got stung by UNIDEN on the first digital scanner with the no 9600 baud systems . There are a lot of users who had to later buy another scanner if they wanted 9600baud and also still don't have the audio quality delivered by the PRO 96. Don't get me wrong ...I love Unidens stuff..I own 4 780XLTs and several other scanners but I know a bunch of guys that got the first series and eventually sold them with more than half going over to the 96. They on average spent $1000 over a 2 year period while I spent $525, so while slighty irritated its nothing compared to the whole in their pockets.

 

[mdulrich]

Re: Radio Shack

HOWEVER I also think all the people should remember that a lot of people got stung by UNIDEN on the first digital scanner with the no 9600 baud systems.

I really have a problem with people who say buyers got stung, ripped off, etc. with the first Unidens. Uniden was VERY clear that the scanner only tracked 3600 baud systems. If Uniden buyers got stung then every Pro-96 buyer got stung since they can't track LTR systems. Each scanner has things it doesn't do and the manufacturers never said they would do those things, so how can you say buyers were stung?

I purchased a 250D and knew up front it only received 3600 baud, that is all I need right now. However, I also need LTR tracking. Am I upset the radio doesn't track 9600 baud systems? Maybe a little, but I was able to receive systems months ahead of when I could've with the newer Unidens. Will I purchase another scanner to receive 9600 baud? You bet ya, but only when I need to. Will it be a Uniden or Radio Shack? That is yet to be seen.

I sure don't feel stung, I'm very happy with my 250D.

Mike

 

[fireant]

The only concern I have say if the talkgroups are not in your area but a year down the road those talkgroups become active you have to pay to get those added so you take the chance of that happening I will wait for Radio Shack to either improve their radios, come out with a new radio without the bug, or buy a different brand of radio

fireant

 

[rdale]

"come out with a new radio without the bug"

They have one. It's called the Pro-96. There is an upgrade for free that'll fix the bug.

 

[shackmgr6073]

with apologies....

will one of you rat shgack types plz get the OFFICIAL word from headquarters and clear up this question.... i am wondering why the store selling a p[roduct they only front must pay for this fix..... i haven't been a fan of uniden since the mid-80's and surely don't like the thoughts of going back to them but if i must i will take my boss's moeny with me.....

Hi I work at "Rat Shack" (SP?) I for one sincerely hope the people that storm into stores with a piss poor attitude get charged for the repair, that would be funny. However, if people would occasionaly show a little patience, everyone would be a little better off. I know for a fact that probaly 90% of employees do not know about the upgrade. The main reason for this is that a majority of our stores have probaly not even sold a Pro96. Also, most employees do not own scanners, or follow the hobby. The reason for the 49$ charge is that the repair center has to charge for the repair, something that the store will "eat" In the big scheme of things it's not that big of a deal, and not one RadioShack employee here (or elsewhere) has complained about that charge. Also, the customer IS NOT RESPONSIBLE for the charge. I repeat NOT RESPONSIBLE. I think my company actually going the extra tby not even requiring proof of purchase from a RadioShack.

 

[Chris-M]

Satisfied PRO-96 user

I am very happy with my PRO96. So far I've tried it out on two digital systems. It works great there too! And with Don Starr's WIN96 software, it's even better than it was 'out-of-the-box'.

Before I spent my money I researched the other radios on the market such as the Uniden BC296D (still might get one and keep the 96).
By doing the research I found that the '96 won't do LTR but there are no such systems near me that I frequently monitor. So I've been looking for a PRO92 that will do LTR. No hurry though.

As for the $49 charge to do the upgrade, I recall reading about it in this forum and my impression was at the time that there was no charge to the customer. It is a warranty issue. As for getting the repair done when the radio is out of warranty then that is an issue that should be considered. But I'm pretty confident that RS would honor it's product and perform the fix even out of warranty. Guess we'll find out someday.

 

[unitcharlie]

with apologies....

i don't think i have a piss poor attitude, in fact, as the manager at the rat shack i freqwuent told me, "you put my store on the pro 96 map!" i have purchased 9 pro 96's there and a number of other scanners as well... but i would take it as a personal and professional afront if i was charged tfor the repair since this year i have spent close to 8 thousand dollars at that store....

it would be nice if rat shack could send a group of techs out into the scanner world and fix this thing in the field rather than me telling the whole newsroom i need their scanners for about a month to get them fixed....

until someone else comes up with a scanner that is easier to use and more reliable i will be a rat shack fan....the fact that most of the people behind the counter don't know anything about scanning is a given and not a problem.the problem is those who will not try to find an answer once a question is posed....

 

[SCPD]

Happy without Pro 96

Maybe thats why you can't buy any scanners here in Canada at Radio Shack stores. They are such cr**py scanners anyways. Thankfully there are better ones available .. gotta love Uniden scanners.

Sorry to all you RS fans .. but sorry the GRE made scanners of recent are all pretty bad units. Just my opinion of course .. but I am happy I don't own one and never will.