Uniden customer support non-existant?

[dustman]

I have recently purchased a Uniden Home Patrol 1, and have the BCD996T and the BCD396T. I am having difficulty with a favorites list. I am in Indianapolis, IN, Marion County, and in the suburb of Lawrence. I cannot isolate Lawrence to a favorites list. It says it has downloaded, but the scanner says there are no favorites lists on it. I tried to contact Uniden. What a joke. Go to their site, click on product support, and it offers to let you send a question by email.

When you finish filling in all the blanks, and putting the problem in detail, it asks you to submit your question. It then shows a list of generic questions, hoping your answer is there, but if it isn't, it asks you to confirm your question. When you do, it simply erases everything you've done, and offers you the blank to fill in again.This happens every time. No email is ever sent.

When you try to call, it give customer service and technology numbers. When you call, it takes it's time answering, and a man's voice gives you the hours they are open. He then says to call back during business hours.(which I have done every time). He then says goodbye and hangs up on you.

What kind of service is this? They completely isolate themselves from any contact with purchasers of their products.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Dustman



W

 

[UPMan]

Why don't you post specifically what you are doing here?

Are you using Sentinel to make the Favorites List?
If so, are you setting the Favorites List to be downloaded in your current Profile?

FYI: We recently moved to a new facility and our phone system is continuously blowing up. Right now, our queue system isn't working, nor is our message system (the messages are going to a black hole), and the phone contractor promises to get it all fixed this week (third week in a row we've heard that).

In any event, we've always been responsive to questions asked in these forums.

 

[LIScanner101]

Why don't you post specifically what you are doing here?

Are you using Sentinel to make the Favorites List?
If so, are you setting the Favorites List to be downloaded in your current Profile?

FYI: We recently moved to a new facility and our phone system is continuously blowing up. Right now, our queue system isn't working, nor is our message system (the messages are going to a black hole), and the phone contractor promises to get it all fixed this week (third week in a row we've heard that).

In any event, we've always been responsive to questions asked in these forums.

Can you address dustman's other comment (non-phone related)?

"When you finish filling in all the blanks, and putting the problem in detail, it asks you to submit your question. It then shows a list of generic questions, hoping your answer is there, but if it isn't, it asks you to confirm your question. When you do, it simply erases everything you've done, and offers you the blank to fill in again.This happens every time. No email is ever sent."

You can't blame that on the phone company :roll:

 

[UPMan]

I just tried the support form, and it worked just fine.

??

 

[gfkeith]

Uniden Support

I too went through this with my BC-RH96. My problem was that it would not recognize my 396 or 996. I sent in two request for support, that was 30 days ago.....still no answer. I took to the web and found a fix, which was to download an upgrade file. I know they are busy, however with it being the only game in town better customer service is expected or maybe not.

 

[UPMan]

I had halfway typed the answer to your problem by the time I got to the part that said you'd already found an answer. I always recommend your first shot be in the forums, even when the phones are working. Written answers are typically easier to follow (and written questions are typically, but not necessarily, more well thought-out). Also, many scanner questions are related to locality issues that we just cannot know about...but posting in a forum gives a high likelihood that someone else in your area with local system expertise can help in providing a very specific reply.

 

[Blackink]

So what are the chances Uniden can put a notice on their Web site stating the problems they're having with the telephone system and customer support.
If that can be done, then maybe a link to this Web site's forum with a suggestion that they try getting their Uniden related problem/questions/issues confronted here?

This Web site/forum with UpMan's support should calm the agitated customers looking for help from Uniden's "not so user friendly" support services.....at least until they can get it up and running?!?

 

[UPMan]

We are putting RadioReference and HomePatrol forums in our call queue script. I'll pass the suggestion to add it to the web site on to the correct person, too. Thanks.

 

[dustman]

Thanks for the responses!

Thanks for the responses! I go to Sentinel, I have Lawr3ence as my favorites list. When I select that it cascades to the Metro system 1 (which it is a part of). If you click Metro (which is the only choice given) the right pane then shows Lawrence and below that the Metro system. If you select Lawrence, it opens a huge list that includes the Lawrence lsit and 600+ more channels which I seriouosly doubt Lawrence has even half of thosse. I have amended Lawrence to my favorites, and done the update. When I run the scanner, it says there are no favorites llists. That's where I am stuck. Now, I am new to this scanner, but "profile" isn't something I have run across yet.

Any ideas?

Dustman

 

[UPMan]

In the top of the Sentinel menu section, there is a "paper with pencil" icon (next to the "star with pencil"). Click on it, then click on the Favorites List tab. Make sure the Download column entry for Lawr3ence says "On" and not "Off."

 

[dustman]

CONFUSION!

I went to the icon with the pad and pencil, favorites list tab. List name is there, but no agencies are on it. I go back to Sentinel main menu, and see LAWRENCE on my favorites list. When I click on it, the only thing it opens is Indianapolis Department of Public Safety (which I know Lawrence is on). When I click Indianapolis Department of Public Safety, it opens 3 IDs: Lawrence, Government 2, and Public Safety 1. I click on Lawrence and it gives the Lawrence IDs. But where do you go from there? You can highlight, but not copy or paste. How do you ge the Lawrence IDs on the Favorites List? I don't want to monitor the whole Indianapolis Public Safety system, just Lawrence. Please advise.

Dustman

 

[UPMan]

In the Profile Edit view, all you are going to see is the names of the Favorites Lists, not their contents. Just make sure "Download" is set to "On" for Lawrence.

I thought you had already added channels to the Favorites List. If not, the easiest way is to right click on the channel and select "Append Favorites List."

 

[dustman]

When I click on a channel, and right click on it, append favorites list is grayed out and not available. Also, when I open the files on the Sentinel, they end in weird stuff like ..pconfig. If you select it, I get the error message Windows cannot open that type of file. That error message appears on every single file I try to open on the Sentinel file. I have to use the Sentinel icon on my desktop to even get into Sentinel file. I can open the channels I want by going through the cascading steps, but can do nothing with the channels when I isolate them.

Dustman

 

[UPMan]

Based on what you describe, it sounds like you are picking channels that are already in a Favorites List. You can only add a channel from the Main dB to a Favorites List.

There is no reason to try to open the files in anything other than Sentinel.

 

[dustman]

how to add Lawrence channels

Lawrence is my favorites list. When I click it open it cascades to Indianapolis Department of Public Safety. You have to click on that, which opens your choice of 3 systems, one of which is Lawrence. You have to click on Lawrence to see the Lawrence channels. But you can't do anything with them but remove or apply Avoid. You can't put them on the favorites list in any way. I only want to monitor those Lawrence channels, not the entire Indianapolis Department of Public Safety (IMeca 1). The top option, when you click on one of the wanted channels is the one that would let you amend to the Favorites list. It is grayed out, not available.

What am I doing wrong? How can I get just Lawrence channels on my favorites list?

Tearing my hair out. I really appreciate your helping me. I know it's a pain.

Dustman

 

[dustman]

UPMAN,

I thought I was on to something. I hit Edit the Favorites list, cascaded down to Lawrence channels, and was able to click on each one individually and hit "amend". The problem was there were only 28 channels, but when I started amending them, each time I amended one, another one appeared at the bottom of the list. It ended up being over 600 channels when I finally gave up. Why does this have to be so complicated? Man!

Dustman

 

[phask]

Lawrence is my favorites list. When I click it open it cascades to Indianapolis Department of Public Safety. You have to click on that, which opens your choice of 3 systems, one of which is Lawrence. You have to click on Lawrence to see the Lawrence channels. But you can't do anything with them but remove or apply Avoid. You can't put them on the favorites list in any way. I only want to monitor those Lawrence channels, not the entire Indianapolis Department of Public Safety (IMeca 1). The top option, when you click on one of the wanted channels is the one that would let you amend to the Favorites list. It is grayed out, not available.

What am I doing wrong? How can I get just Lawrence channels on my favorites list?

Tearing my hair out. I really appreciate your helping me. I know it's a pain.

Dustman

Sounds like you are trying to add ones in your favorite to a favorite - nope - not the way to do it.

You already have what you want, plus some extras.

You can just delete those you do not want or avoid, either works, but I'd just delete them.

On the left side, click on your fav. Then you should see all the systems. If you want to delete an entire system, right click and select remove from list.

Sentinel has some non windows standard functions, but once you learn it it's OK.

 

[dustman]

Ok. I deleted my favorites list. I was able to start a new one, I can put in the name, but the page is blank. How can I populate the list with only the Lawrence channels? It only offers file, view, and help. There is the green amend plus, but with no channels on the page, you can't do anything with it.The only thing I can do is get out of the favorites list, follow the cascades (USA -State-County-Indianapolis Department of Public Safety. When you select that it opens 3 systems. I remove the other 2, leaving Lawrence.I was then able to amend each of the 16 channels. Now, when I go to the pad and pencil icon, choose favorites list tab, the name Lawrence is there, but no channels. The page is blank. When I go to update, there are 2 items offered, Uniden Patrol One and the database. Clicking update on either results in the uupdate is current. I'm getting dazed! LOL

One last thing, how can I increase the delay from 2 seconds to a longer time?

Dustman

 

[dustman]

Oh, I forgot, now my scanner, when clicking menu, offers manage favorites list, when clicked it offers me the option of creating a new favorites list, and presents the alphabet.What am I supposed to do with that? It shows there are no favorites lists at all.When I go back to Sentinel, I can get to the Lawrence favorites list. Monitor entire database is checked. When I un-heck it, the name Lawrence appears. But that's where the control ends. You can click Monitor On, but it shows it is still off. And, nothing changes.. Clicking either update results in it saying the update is current.

 

[UPMan]

In the Main dB, navigate to the Lawrence channel(s) you want. Right click and select "Append Favorites List". As I mentioned before, you were previously trying to add channels to the Favorites List from the Favorites List, itself, which isn't possible (or with your workaround would just make additional duplicate channels).