New Flex 6500 dead again, three times in three months

Bill K8WLK

I purchased a Flex 6500 from you in July of this year. It arrived DOA. Your service department repaired a hardware problem. In August and September numerous lockups and the radio going deaf were observed. Finally in September a lockup and becoming deaf was permanent. Your service department replaced more hardware. I received the radio back this week and put it back in service noon on Friday in a receive only mode. Within eight hours the radio failed again. The radio was deaf there is no noise floor but the software is fully functional on the computer. The usual attempted remedies of restarting the software resetting the radio to factory defaults have all failed.

This was a new radio three months ago and never functioned correctly. You have repaired it two times and now I have a third major failure. I obviously am disgusted with the entire situation. I have nine (9) other HF radios, ICOM, with no problems. I was hoping Flex was going to be a great experience and it is turned out to be a disaster. Although your service department has been conscientious and polite, I think we all have to admit that you sold me a lemon or a dud.

I respectfully request you replace the radio with a new one immediately.

If that option is not acceptable to you I request my money be refunded in full.

William King
K8WLK

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Bill,

The community isn't a place to air grievances,  I can understand your frustration but the right way to deal with this is to call either Greg or Gerald at FlexRadio and I'm sure they will work something out.

I can say with certainty that your experience is extremely unusual.  My experience with all the FlexRadio products I have purchased or those purchased by my friends is that they are reliable and well built radios.

Give FlexRadio a call on Monday.
Stu K6TU

Steve N4LQ

Bill

Thank you for posting this to the community so we can all follow the situation. I appreciate this being out in the open. Perhaps it will help others. Good luck with getting it replaced and keep us posted.

Steve N4LQ 

David-N5PSM

Dear Bill (an Elmer) K6TU.   If all grievances are kept private,  Who benefits?  I can understand not wanting to turn a community forum into a complaint blog,  However equal weight must be given to Positive postings as well as to Negative postings or the forum would be considered censored.  The web is full of manufacturers forums that have been replaced by separate non manufacturer forums because of censoring by the forum owners.

This is everyone's forum,  (  Right FlexRadio ? )

Respectfully  David P. Mitchell N5PSM  (Flex 6300)

Steve W6SDM

I believe that grievances like this one should be worked directly, one on one, with Flex at least until there is no opportunity for further resolution.  I have always known Flex to do the right thing.  They should be given the opportunity to respond as a business rather than be intimidated by negative publicity.

I can understand the frustration of having a radio that doesn't work.  If I did, I would be speaking directly with someone who can address the issue.

DrTeeth

Spot on Steve.

DrTeeth

There has been no negative publicity at all IMHO. Everybody makes mistakes and no kit is 100% reliable, it is how they are dealt with that creates the publicity...good or bad. I would like to take my hat off to the OP who has been way more forgiving than I would be under the circumstances.

I thought the USA was way ahead of us here in the UK in consumer rights. If that would have happened here, I would have been able to reject the faulty kit immediately and get either a refund or replacement. Allowing repairs severely erodes one's rights in the UK.

FRS has the opportunity to get fantastically good publicity from this, the sort that money cannot buy.

DrTeeth

I would beg to differ. Whilst this is no place to have a slanging match or protracted argument, I think many of us would like to know how FRS handles this situation. If FRS handles it well, it could be a blessing in disguise, good publicity wise. At least the OP is not relying on his 6500 to get on the air like some of us with one rig.

Stu Phillips - K6TU

No need to beg... ;-)

I could understand making  the original post if, after discussing the issue with FlexRadio it hadn't been resolved in an acceptable manner.

Most companies care very deeply about customer satisfaction - and FlexRadio cares more than many of the best.  IMO, its just common courtesy to allow a vendor to resolve a problem - and justifiable to complain loudly if its not.

Knowing that FlexRadio completely tests each radio after service and before shipment, I'd begin to wonder whether there was something in the station installation that might be a contributory cause - static leakage or who knows what?

The community is read by many - including many prospective FlexRadio purchasers - I think both they and FlexRadio deserve balanced views.

I'm sure that Bill will post an update when his problem is resolved.

I understand Bill's frustration - I had a radio some years ago from a well known manufacturer that went back three times... after the second, I called the President and expressed my frustration.  He apologized for the issue and personally oversaw getting the radio repaired.  No need to mention who the vendor was - they cared, they fixed the problem.

Stu K6TU

Gerald-K5SDR

Bill, I am very sorry for your inconvenience.  Since you posted on Saturday, I don't have access from home to the information I would need to evaluate your situation.  Please enter a help desk ticket and I will make sure our support team follows up with you on Monday.  We will make certain the problem gets resolved either through repair or replacement.  

DrTeeth

I do not see anything negative in the OP at all, absolutely nothing. The post has been written in a restrained and cool style and seems an unbiased account of recent events. The style would be completely different if the matter were unresolved. Better the current post than that of an annoyed customer that could risk being moderated and all the negativity that that would entail.

Stuff like this happens. The last sentence of para 2 is quite positive. Every company, *without* exception, builds a lemon every now and them.

I cannot wait until the next instalment...

Tim - W4TME

I have converted this topic to a support HelpDesk ticket (http://helpdesk.flexradio.com) for expedited issue resolution.  If anyone else is experiencing an issue similar to this one, please submit a HelpDesk support ticket for issue resolution.