Baffling Experience
I recently was given a Logitech Harmony One universal remote (thanks, Sarah!) and it was a wonderful and useful gift. However, my experience with it has been about the opposite of any reviews I've recently seen for Harmony remotes, so I'll explain it here.
When I received my remote, I took it out of the box, and started following the sheet of directions. There was a little confusion about whether my remote was charged (the touchscreen shows a large half-filled battery icon to show it's charging, and a tiny filled-according-to-charge icon in the corner that shows how charged it is), but when I got past that, the rest of setup was a breeze. I installed the software, signed up for an account (annoying that I have to do that, but it does have support benefits), then was asked what devices I had. I was easily able to find the model numbers and put them in, then was asked if I wanted it to automatically pick some activities for me. It aptly selected "Watch TV", "Play Game", "Watch DVD", "Listen to Radio", and "Listen to CD" for me (based on a TV, uverse dvr, ps3, and a/v receiver), and automatically configured what devices would be turned on for each and how the buttons would be set up. I hooked up my remote to the computer and bam, I was set up.
Just about everything worked on the first try, except that trying to listen to the radio always set it to AM (odd since turning it to 'radio' doesn't require specifying a band). Since I don't anticipate listening to AM very often, I went to the program, said there was a problem, and was able to pretty intuitively add a command to set to FM after turning on the receiver.
So the setup was simple and worked. I had yet to purchase my PS3 Adapter, however, so testing that would have to wait. But since it just forwards on the commands from the remote, my remote was supposedly already set up to work after I bought it and paired it to my PS3.
The next day I did just that, pointed the remote at it, and nothing happened. I tried clearing my remote and re-setting everything up (even though nowhere in the process was I able to make the software aware that I had an adapter), I looked for a way to add the adapter, and tried just about everything my techy brain could think of. When nothing worked, I decided to look for support help.
First stop, the software. It was quickly evident that the software's help was merely a window to its website, but even then, at certain stages, it would just show up blank.
Next, the website itself. Searching for problems with the PS3 adapter, I discovered that there were known issues with certain adapters when using them with the new PS3 hardware (the slim one), as of the latest PS3 firmware release. I have an older PS3, but did have the new firmware, and while the problems described didn't exactly match mine, they were varied, so maybe that was it. However, even though there was clearly a certain set of PIDs that were affected by this (like a serial number), the website refused to say which ones, and said to call tech support to find out if I had a malfunctioning one.
So after not finding any other possibilities for the problem, and after confirming that I had done the setup steps correctly, the next step was the phone call. I called in the evening, around 8 (the tech support hours went till at least 10), and was on hold for approximately 40 minutes. The person who finally answered introduced himself as Dennis, though he had a strong accent and had trouble speaking/understanding English. This "Dennis" was completely inept, and I spent my time on the phone essentially guiding *him* through the setup process that I'd tried two or three times already. He didn't ask me about whether I might have a PS3 slim or what my adapter's PID was, but I was able to ask him that and he seemed to have found the document listing what PIDs would have a problem (mine wasn't in the range). With nothing else to say, he then informed me he'd be escalating me to Tier 2 support. As I got ready for some more hold time, he told me they usually call back within 1 or 2 days. What? I confirmed I could not be passed to Tier 2 directly and reluctantly hung up.
2 days later. No call or email from Logitech, so I call them again. I am able to put in my issue number, but still wait on hold for another 45 minutes. This time it was more like 5:30 when I called. The person who answered this time did actually sound like he knew what he was talking about to some extent. He saw I was waiting for Tier 2, and let me know that they were swamped, but I should definitely get a call back within 24 hours. He also made a note that I was irate (I was, and expressed it to him) about the level of service for a product that so far just flat out didn't work. I also made sure to double check with him, since my first call had been to such an idiot, that there wasn't anything more he could help me with beyond going through the setup. He, on his own (yay), double checked my PID for the known issue, but beyond some basic questions (is such and such light on, etc.) wasn't able to offer more.
2 days later. I'd determined for myself that there wasn't anything I was doing wrong, nor was there any ability to configure the adapter in any way (it has a single button, to pair itself to the PS3, and that was working fine), so I exchanged the one I had for another from the same store. I went home and it worked fine as soon as I paired it to the PS3.
3 weeks later (today), I have of course not heard back from Tier 2 support (nor have I bothered to call them back).
So, my overall experience: Easy to use products (when they work), easy to configure, works pretty much how I want with the basic setup, and very useful overall. Terrible service with long wait times, sometimes completely inept workers, and never got back to me.
The rest of the world's reviews go more like: Extremely confusing setup that's missing the information for even basic devices, hard to customize but easy to use if you can get it to a working state. Luckily the service is extremely helpful and answers in mere moments when you call.
I'm baffled, but that's my experience.
Hilarious Update!
So, first of all, I miscalculated, it wasn't 5 weeks, but 3 weeks, today, since I last called.
And just now, I received a phone call from Tier 2 support! He hadn't seen the date of the original call, and asked nonchalantly about the adapter with a problem, and whether it was still having a problem. I said, well, that unit probably still has the problem. He asked, oh, well is it working again? I said, well I wouldn't know, as I exchanged that unit a while ago, and pointed out that I'd called several weeks ago. He noticed the date, said wow, and apologized for the delay. I was more amused than anything, so I didn't bother to rant or anything (they've essentially entered the "written off" category for me).
When I received my remote, I took it out of the box, and started following the sheet of directions. There was a little confusion about whether my remote was charged (the touchscreen shows a large half-filled battery icon to show it's charging, and a tiny filled-according-to-charge icon in the corner that shows how charged it is), but when I got past that, the rest of setup was a breeze. I installed the software, signed up for an account (annoying that I have to do that, but it does have support benefits), then was asked what devices I had. I was easily able to find the model numbers and put them in, then was asked if I wanted it to automatically pick some activities for me. It aptly selected "Watch TV", "Play Game", "Watch DVD", "Listen to Radio", and "Listen to CD" for me (based on a TV, uverse dvr, ps3, and a/v receiver), and automatically configured what devices would be turned on for each and how the buttons would be set up. I hooked up my remote to the computer and bam, I was set up.
Just about everything worked on the first try, except that trying to listen to the radio always set it to AM (odd since turning it to 'radio' doesn't require specifying a band). Since I don't anticipate listening to AM very often, I went to the program, said there was a problem, and was able to pretty intuitively add a command to set to FM after turning on the receiver.
So the setup was simple and worked. I had yet to purchase my PS3 Adapter, however, so testing that would have to wait. But since it just forwards on the commands from the remote, my remote was supposedly already set up to work after I bought it and paired it to my PS3.
The next day I did just that, pointed the remote at it, and nothing happened. I tried clearing my remote and re-setting everything up (even though nowhere in the process was I able to make the software aware that I had an adapter), I looked for a way to add the adapter, and tried just about everything my techy brain could think of. When nothing worked, I decided to look for support help.
First stop, the software. It was quickly evident that the software's help was merely a window to its website, but even then, at certain stages, it would just show up blank.
Next, the website itself. Searching for problems with the PS3 adapter, I discovered that there were known issues with certain adapters when using them with the new PS3 hardware (the slim one), as of the latest PS3 firmware release. I have an older PS3, but did have the new firmware, and while the problems described didn't exactly match mine, they were varied, so maybe that was it. However, even though there was clearly a certain set of PIDs that were affected by this (like a serial number), the website refused to say which ones, and said to call tech support to find out if I had a malfunctioning one.
So after not finding any other possibilities for the problem, and after confirming that I had done the setup steps correctly, the next step was the phone call. I called in the evening, around 8 (the tech support hours went till at least 10), and was on hold for approximately 40 minutes. The person who finally answered introduced himself as Dennis, though he had a strong accent and had trouble speaking/understanding English. This "Dennis" was completely inept, and I spent my time on the phone essentially guiding *him* through the setup process that I'd tried two or three times already. He didn't ask me about whether I might have a PS3 slim or what my adapter's PID was, but I was able to ask him that and he seemed to have found the document listing what PIDs would have a problem (mine wasn't in the range). With nothing else to say, he then informed me he'd be escalating me to Tier 2 support. As I got ready for some more hold time, he told me they usually call back within 1 or 2 days. What? I confirmed I could not be passed to Tier 2 directly and reluctantly hung up.
2 days later. No call or email from Logitech, so I call them again. I am able to put in my issue number, but still wait on hold for another 45 minutes. This time it was more like 5:30 when I called. The person who answered this time did actually sound like he knew what he was talking about to some extent. He saw I was waiting for Tier 2, and let me know that they were swamped, but I should definitely get a call back within 24 hours. He also made a note that I was irate (I was, and expressed it to him) about the level of service for a product that so far just flat out didn't work. I also made sure to double check with him, since my first call had been to such an idiot, that there wasn't anything more he could help me with beyond going through the setup. He, on his own (yay), double checked my PID for the known issue, but beyond some basic questions (is such and such light on, etc.) wasn't able to offer more.
2 days later. I'd determined for myself that there wasn't anything I was doing wrong, nor was there any ability to configure the adapter in any way (it has a single button, to pair itself to the PS3, and that was working fine), so I exchanged the one I had for another from the same store. I went home and it worked fine as soon as I paired it to the PS3.
3 weeks later (today), I have of course not heard back from Tier 2 support (nor have I bothered to call them back).
So, my overall experience: Easy to use products (when they work), easy to configure, works pretty much how I want with the basic setup, and very useful overall. Terrible service with long wait times, sometimes completely inept workers, and never got back to me.
The rest of the world's reviews go more like: Extremely confusing setup that's missing the information for even basic devices, hard to customize but easy to use if you can get it to a working state. Luckily the service is extremely helpful and answers in mere moments when you call.
I'm baffled, but that's my experience.
Hilarious Update!
So, first of all, I miscalculated, it wasn't 5 weeks, but 3 weeks, today, since I last called.
And just now, I received a phone call from Tier 2 support! He hadn't seen the date of the original call, and asked nonchalantly about the adapter with a problem, and whether it was still having a problem. I said, well, that unit probably still has the problem. He asked, oh, well is it working again? I said, well I wouldn't know, as I exchanged that unit a while ago, and pointed out that I'd called several weeks ago. He noticed the date, said wow, and apologized for the delay. I was more amused than anything, so I didn't bother to rant or anything (they've essentially entered the "written off" category for me).