Frustrated with Uniden Service

[batrastard]

Last month I sent in my Homepatrol1 for service. I followed the directions on the website, sent $70 for the repair and sent return postage (wife sent the proper amount of stamps for return postage). Today I received and invoice stating that $10 more dollars was needed for the part, no problem, and $10 dollars for postage. My wife sat on hold for over three hours only to be told that no one knows where the postage is. It may have been thrown out, someone may have taken it they are not sure. Then the representative from Uniden proceeded to tell my wife that stamps were not the proper form of currency for return postage.
I am at this point regretting my decision to send my Homepatrol1 in to repair the gps port that broke. I thought that Uniden had better customer service than that. My wife was told by a representative that she was not over the scanner division. After waiting for ten minutes my wife hung up and called back only to be told that if she didn't quit hanging up and calling back she would never get her question answered.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my Uniden scanners. I bought the Homepatrol1 just after it released and the turned around and purchased the extreme upgrade. Then two years ago I upgraded to the BCD536 and I have enjoyed that unit. This year I purchased the Homepatrol2 this year and I am happy with that unit. I was not happy when the gps port fell out, literally, because I enjoyed a scanner that did not have to be changed as I drove around the western US.
I hope that something can be done, however, I am waiting approval so that I can email a question to Uniden. I hope to have a better relationship in the future, however, if this is what I have to look forward to I might consider looking elsewhere.

 

[batrastard]

Follow up

I have been checking the repair status on Uniden and it does not mention that I need to send more money for postage. I did see the charge for the part but I was expecting a phone call seeing that one of the things that they require for repairs is a phone number that they can contact you. I have never received a phone call informing me that money was needed for the part or for the extra postage. I did receive a letter dated March 1, 2016 stating that I had twenty days to reply or my equipment would be destroyed. I received this letter today March 14, 2016.

 

[MStep]

I have been checking the repair status on Uniden and it does not mention that I need to send more money for postage. I did see the charge for the part but I was expecting a phone call seeing that one of the things that they require for repairs is a phone number that they can contact you. I have never received a phone call informing me that money was needed for the part or for the extra postage. I did receive a letter dated March 1, 2016 stating that I had twenty days to reply or my equipment would be destroyed. I received this letter today March 14, 2016.

Horrible service is an understatement for what happened to you are you wife. With three hour hold times, misunderstandings over $10 in stamps, and the run-around that you got, I hope this is not typical of Uniden's overall service. Rest assured that yours in not the only horror-story I've heard about Uniden customer service.

I think, over the next few weeks, I will conduct an informal survey, calling Uniden at various times during the day and seeing exactly what their hold times are on an average basis.

I remember in the final months of Canon's laptop division, getting a recording at the beginning of a call stating that the hold time was expected to be, typically, 240 minutes, was somewhat common. That's four hours, for anyone who can't do the math. Needless to say, it was not long after those terrible experiences with Canon customer service in that particular division that Canon completely dissolved its laptop sales efforts.

C'mon Uniden--- do the right thing for this guy and get him his scanner back and don't worry if the $10 was in currency or postage stamps.

Hopefully, these horror stories are few and far-between, but I'll be checking up on Uniden's customer service lines over the next month or two and report back here.

 

[batrastard]

Wife Reached a Supervisor

First of all, I work at a correctional facility and I do not get off in time to make calls to customer service. With that said, my wife finally got hold of a supervisor at Uniden. Brandi stated that in order to find how Uniden ships your scanner back to you you really have to dig into their website. Somewhere deep within the website they tell you that Fedex is the delivery service that they use to ship your item back to you. They did find the stamps and they will be sent back with the scanner.
Brandi did acknowledge that the people that my wife spoke to yesterday will be trained further in customer service. I hope that this will help Uniden to improve its customer service skills. Thank you Brandi for your help (forgive me if I misspelled your name).