FLEX-6500 discontinued... what about support?

Richard Adkins

I'm on the FLEX-6500 waiting list to buy one used. Should I be concerned about continued support for it once I make my purchase?

Ria

Support is there. It may be discontinued but Flex is committed to servicing the radios both with software updates/fixes and hardware repairs should you need it (hopefully you don't). If you search here, Tim has addressed this a few times. 

Ria

Mike VE3CKO

No you should not. Flexradio has tremendous support for radios no longer being manufactured. I speak on this from personal experience with support.

Tim - W4TME

No worries what so ever.  All of the FLEX-6000 are FULLY supported by our tech support, repair service, and software development teams.  The only thing with the FLEX-6300 and FLEX-6500 is we are no longer manufacturing them, we didn't abandon them.

As a case in point, the FLEX-5000 was discontinued 7 years ago. We still provide tech support and repair services for the radio.  And even though we are no longer releasing PowerSDR, we fully support KE9NS in all his software endeavors and work with him to maintain updated TURF files for those radios.

Richard Adkins

I seriously didn't expect anything less. I know FLEX would do a great job, I just wanted some reassurance.

N0AZZ

I recently purchased (2 mo ago) a pre owned 6500 knowing all the facts about them and Flex support in general. I can tell you that for the price with a full warranty and the latest software installed that it is an excellent radio choice. I say this from one who has owned several high end radios FTDX-9xxx, FTDX-5000, Icom 7xxx, and from Elecraft and extras for a full station K3/KX3.That the Flex 6500 is second to none with features that can't be matched with all of them together.

The 6500/Maestro makes a great station the only thing I found to be needed IMHO was a larger monitor to take advantage of all things possible for it to do all at one time, many apps open at same time. 

Jim Gilliam

I am thinking of buying a 6600 for standby. If and when one of my 6500's needs repair, I'll put the 6600 on line during the repair. If the 6600 should fail, back it goes and I'll put the 6500 on line. Would you call that good Re-Flex?

Jim, K6QE

Tim - W4TME

:-)

Jeff Eli

    If you do wait it out and buy your 6500 through Flex, I highly recommend that process due to the warranty you receive with the radio. I bought my 6500 used through another ham. This summer the radio stopped working. I had no warranty as it had expired. I sent the radio in for repair. Once during the time the radio was at Flex I was told the radio possibly could not be repaired. Eventually it was repaired and returned after 5 months. With the cost of my shipping it to Flex and the repair cost it was close to $800. That is the gamble I made and lost by not purchasing through Flex. If I ever buy another Flex it will definitely be a re-certified or new unit. 

Take care,
Jeff, W4JDE

N0AZZ

Now I'm a bit worried, never considered a 5 mo. repair turnaround time.

Makes me wonder even under warranty how long a time for repair.

Steve K9ZW

There will always be laggard resolutions but hopefully minimal. W9EVT has “lost” his IC-7800 to repairs several times for extended periods. I “lost” my personal Expert Amp for five months, and had a TenTec unit in for a half-year repair cycle. Collins-Rockwell was famous for extended repair cycles. I’ve had several FRS in for repairs/upgrades and turn around was good to excellent. In comparison to my first hand experience with FRS’s competitors FRS is outstanding. Good people with good stuff. 73 Steve K9ZW

Tim - W4TME

Warranty repairs are prioritized non-warranty repairs. Non-warranty repairs of in-production radios can have a higher priority over discontinued products depending on the amount of time since the product was discontinued (this can be a parts availability issue).

In order to effect a repair, you must first diagnose the issue.  Some issues are much harder to diagnose than others and take more time.

Taking 5 months to repair a radio is not within our normal non-warranty repair turnaround times and unfortunately, this incident was an exception to that service level.  While this is no excuse, it should be noted that during the time of W4JDE's repair, our Service Manager passed away unexpectedly so there was a staffing issue that compounded the situation.

Bill -VA3WTB

Mine took about a week turn around, depends what has to be fixed and if parts are available.