Whistler does not care about their customers. I'm now stuck with a $480 piece of equipment that I no longer can get updates for and doubt anyone would buy from me.
Granted, the ability to access the RadioReference database, and use the Library Import function in EZ-Scan, is impaired as, at least for now, no database updates for the Whistler scanners are being provided. Whether Whistler will sell or auction off their IP for these scanner models, much as Whistler took that over from GRE, is for now, unknown. One of the selling points for the database scanners, both GRE->Whistler and Uniden database scanners was that database updates may be useful for people not familiar with programming later model, trunking, scanners. Unfortunately, GRE did not license any third parties to provide software for their database scanners, and Whistler continued that policy. The only software available is the appropriate version of EZ-Scan.
However, that does not mean that these scanner models can no longer be programmed. Yes, it does take a bit more work & understanding of what is required for programming, but it can be done. More concerning is the lack of support for technical issues, other than programming related. The loss of technical support, and ability to repair units with problems, is a more important factor for those who already own one of these scanners, which may, at some point, need repair. Several members, based on comments posted in one of these 'Whistler is MIA" threads, had recently sent their units to Whistler for repair, before the plug was pulled. So far, I have not seen any comments on whether they were able to find out if repairs can still be done by Whistler or a successor, or if their units have been returned without any repair being done. Also unknown is that, if payment was provided for the repair, when the unit was sent to Whistler, has that payment been refunded. Third party repair firms, such as
G & G, have declined certain repairs on the GRE, or Whistler equivalent models because they cannot obtain the parts needed without purchasing an extremely oversized quantity. Uniden, in the past, has indicated that they could provide repair service on non-Uniden models, but they might incur the same problem of repair parts availability.