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Showing results for tags 'dont buy'.
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Well, it's been not quite a month now since I received a partial refund* for a brand new BCR-40U I purchased back in February. I received the unit in early March and it was bad out of the box. I contacted Bridgecom who instructed me to 'open a ticket'. In fact, they don't do anything until you go through the process of opening a ticket. Then you wait anywhere from a day to a week for a response. I had my suspicions as to where the problem lay and informed Bridgecom that I could, with their approval, crack the cover and diagnose the problem and, that I am not only qualified to do this, but have state of the art test equipment (if required). However, they basically insisted that I send it in to them (at my cost ~$90 USD) I sent it insured of course, but even if I hadn't, it would have been about $50 to ship it back. It turns out, it was a bad duplexer (as I suspected), and so they sent it back and it worked fine, save for yet another issue (I'll get to that). Less than a day later, it stopped working for no apparent reason. This time I decided to at least look at the programming and found that the repair tech left in a test channel and, after I removed it with the software, the repeater started working again. Now to the next problem... One of the first things I found wrong with this repeater is that if you program in a user with DCS on RX, that is the only user you can have, included the sysop/control user. Tone squelch users, you can have as many as you want up to the limit of 23 users/coded squelch per channel. After reading the manual and all of the sales literature, which makes no mention of this limitation, I Contacted Bridgecom (again), and they basically became forthcoming and stated it was a limitation of one of the chips controlling coded squelch system. It is also important to note, that per the instruction manual, the unit IS CAPABLE of multiple DCS users. Indeed, I think it was me pointing out that fact they agree to refund my money. After that last confession and 2 primary failures, I decided enough is enough. You spend good money for a new repeater you expect better. So I requested and received a refund, well, sort of. The refund appears to have been short the tax I paid for the original purchase. Compound that with the fact that I had to pay to return it twice (once for the repair and once for a refund) at a cost to me of just shy of $200, I am out of pocket about $250 just for 'trying' a (brand new) Bridgecom repeater. I'm really sad to have to write this, but others should be warned. I very much wanted to support a small American vendor/manufacturer, but I've never been so disappointed with any vendor/manufacturer. Between the failures, slow service, basically false advertising (the DCS issue) and, having to pay to return (again twice) a unit that was defective from day one, it was just too much. I'm kicking myself today because what I should have done was purchase a used Motorola repeater for less than what I paid for the 'new' BCR-40U. And I am not talking buying off eBay either, there are plenty of mainstream dealers where you can get a used MTR2000 or even a Quantar for less than the BCR-40U. Bottom, line, I have to call the Bridgecom BCR-40U a 'Don't Buy'. Not just for the defective unit, but also their warranty policies which leaves a customer out of pocket. I had to pay for their problems? WTF?? Indeed, given their service/warranty policies, I don't think I'll ever buy anything from them again. Just my own experience, FWIW!