UPDATE: Five calls later as of yesterday afternoon and here is where it stands: customer service confirmed that as of yesterday afternoon, Corporate offered to send me a replacement knob, which I could then solder on myself, but if I chose to do that, it voids my warranty. This is not an acceptable solution. I want Uniden to repair the unit under warranty. Finally the representative told me Uniden could repair the unit but it could take up to 8 weeks as they are still on limited staffing and operations due to COVID-19, which I totally understand. When I asked the representative as to why they just could not agree to do that from the get go, she said she didn't know, that perhaps it was a miscommunication. I called four times previous to her, there was no miscommunication.
In the midst of this, I called the retailer (Zipscanners) to ask how I could return the unit and obtain a refund. He asked why I wanted to return it and I explained my situation. He graciously offered to replace it and I intend to pursue that route, but there is one issue. I purchased all three unlock codes from Uniden direct. The retailer told me that I would need to contact Uniden to see if they would allow me to transfer the codes to the new unit. I totally get that from the retailer point of view, this is both logical and reasonable. So, call number six to Uniden and I'm told "We will submit your request to corporate, it might take until the end of next week." Now mind you, the Uniden customer service representative confirms they can see that I've purchased all three unlock codes in their system.
So for now, I'm in limbo mode. I do not want to pursue a swap out with the retailer at this point because I don't know if Uniden will approve transferring the unlock codes; and as you are all well aware, those codes are expensive.
For those who are telling me this should be fixed and just follow the instructions. I'm here to tell you, I've done that. The summary I've shared with you is my personal experience. You can agree or disagree on the reasons for which I am frustrated. For those of you who feel compelled to tell me that your knob didn't break, that's fantastic. Mine did break, on a new unit under warranty, and I'm sharing my experience with you.
Bottom line for me, Uniden's customer support truly sucks. This isn't my first rodeo, I understand that when any product is massed produced, a small percentage will make it past QC with defects. But the fact that their customer service team does not seem to be empowered to make any decisions on simple warranty support and it takes days for someone at corporate to make a decision is just sad. And the inconsistency between customers services reps (we need corporate approval vs. we don't need it) is a major waste of time. A company's commitment to backing their warranty is just as important as the quality of the product they manufacture, especially when that product runs 650 bucks, not counting the cost of the unlock codes.
Will provide an update next week on the status of transferring the unlock codes.
