HR20's recalled/delayed shipment? (NO recall!)

[rad]

I have an order at Beachaudio for a HR20 and just received the following e-mail:
Dear Customer,

After inquiring this morning with our distributor about a confirmed ship
date for the HR20 unit, a representative from DirecTV contacted us
advising us on the current ship status of the HR20's we have in stock.
Rather than giving us the green light on shipping the units for their
arrival on the previously scheduled release date of Sept.13th, we were
advised of a significant software upgrade issue that has been widely
reported in the units from the first production run of the HR20's.
Because so many of the units currently in service are affected by this
issue, DirecTV has ordered a recall of all the current HR20 units
nationwide that still remain un-purchased by consumers to avoid the
overwhelming need for installation technicians to make in home visits to
replace the faulty units due to the significant software issue which
exists in them.

While this is clearly not good news for you, the waiting customer,
please understand this recall is on the order of DirecTV & is an effort
to avoid thousands of angry customers who would inevitably receive a
defective unit if the pieces currently in stock were to ship as planned,
or if purchased exclusively through local retailers. We have been
advised that all current units nationwide are affected with this glitch
& will have to be replaced for proper operation.

DirecTV has given us a new tentative release time frame of the first
week in October for the new units to be arriving at our warehouses &
ready to ship. This is only an estimate & has not been confirmed as a
guaranteed arrival date. Once we have a confirmed date for these units,
we will email you to advise of the release.

Please contact us at Beach Audio if you wish to cancel your order, or if
you would like to keep your current order on back-order status & await
the arrival of the new units. **Orders that have been placed via
Amazon.com are subject to a 30 day expiration time frame. Please contact
us if your order may be in danger of expiring & you wish to keep your
backorder in good standing.**

As information regarding this issue is given to us, we will keep
customers with current back orders advised via email immediately. If you
have any further questions or concerns, or if you wish to cancel your
order at any time, please feel free to email or call our offices during
regular business hours, Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm PST, at the number below.

We sincerely apologize for this delay & appreciate your understanding in
the matter.


ARG!

 

[JamesJ]

I hope thats not true as my credit card just got charged from ValueElectronics, and I was looking forward to getting mine! (I would assume this would affect them also.)

 

[Phil T]

Best Buy has pulled them from their web site and now says coming soon!!!

 

[charper1]

so what do they plan on doing? cracking open 10's of thousands of sealed units at all the various distribution hubs and / or breakout points and flash the new software on them before shipping?

 

[JamesJ]

why cant they have them installed and put software on them from there?

 

[Digital Dude]

Wow, DirecTV is 2 for 2 this week. Wonder what other surprises are coming by Saturday?

 

[fluffybear]

If this is true, the only reason I can think of that would prevent them from upgrading in the field is the unit either crashes on boot up or can not handle the download. If it was not a major problem, you would just get a software download and upgrade during set-up (as has happened in the past).

 

[DTV TiVo Dealer]

I have not been informed by my distributor or DIRECTV. I'm not saying it's not true, but I am telling you this is the first I am hearing of this. I'll be on the phone with DIRECTV and my distributor the first thing tomorrow morning to see what's up and post whatever I find out.

If we have a delay of this magnitude I will refund everyone's money at a cost of over $2,000.00 in bank processing fees and a tremendous amount of labor by my entire staff who stayed late on overtime to process all of our orders.

-Robert

 

[sonofjay]

I have not been informed by my distributor or DIRECTV. I'm not saying it's not true, but I am telling you this is the first I am hearing of this. I'll be on the phone with DIRECTV and my distributor the first thing tomorrow morning to see what's up and post whatever I find out.

If we have a delay of this magnitude I will refund everyone's money at a cost of over $2,000.00 in bank processing fees and a tremendous amount of labor by my entire staff who stayed late on overtime to process all of our orders.

-Robert

Thanks Robert for the update. Our friends over on DBSTalk have locked the threads discussing this topic and Earl has gone silent. I'm glad you participate in serveral forums.

I hope you get compensated by DirecTV for any loses you incur because of their mandatory recall. (assuming it definitely exists)

 

[Questioner]

This is it, I've had it, switching to dish if this is true. My mpeg 4s are full of problems anyway.

 

[JamesJ]

Robert, can you send out the DVR;s and then maybe see whats going on? as I would rather have a faulty dvr, and get a replacement over night then keep waiting and waiting as like you I know have fees through ebay for 2 HDTivos that I have sold and this is getting ridicouluS!

 

[charper1]

if the recall is true why would they lock the threads talking about it?

 

[JamesJ]

it is not true, here is earls quote, I Dont think he will mind



"Okay... here is the deal.
I went into my Outlook to send my email... and guess what, I already had an email waiting for me... (I told you they read the forums).

1) Best Buy is basically "out of stock"... basically they have gone below their threshold for the Best Buy.com the instore stock numbers to guarantee in store stock.

2) DirecTV and PACE are still producing the unit, and in fact have increase the production rate to meet the demand.

3) No explanation of why BeachAudio would send the letter that they did...

THERE IS NO RECALL OF THE HR20-700
Period. With a capital P

I can't say it any straighter fashion then this.

Thank you to those that have posted the letter you received.
I can guarantee you that in the morning, that someone from DirecTV will be contacting BeachAudio to find what prompted that email.

I'll let you know when I find out more.
" Earl

 

[charper1]

Hmm? Maybe some big chain vs mom & pop bitterness/revenge? That would be weak; if so. This is another small example of bad things about web board rumors as opposed to waiting on real official information. If it pans out; everyone gets in a snit and a panic.

 

[DTV TiVo Dealer]

I know Earl knows what he is saying is 100% accurate as we have the same very high level contacts at DIRECTV.

I purchased all of my distributor's first allocation and still expect to be shipping every order tomorrow.

-Robert

 

[ebonovic]

if the recall is true why would they lock the threads talking about it?

We locked while we where trying to get some confirmation for either side of the story... We didn't want it to get too out of control, before we had some more information on the issue.

But as stuart posted;
As of the email I got at 9:20ish tonight...

There is no HR20-700 recall.
Robert has also posted in a few threads now, he has not received any such communication to recall or cancel any of his HR20-700 orders.

 

[charper1]

Thats what I figured. suspect info so wait and find out approach.

 

[sonofjay]

Cool Earl. Thanks for the follow-up post and confirmation. There were reports of BB stores packing up HDDVR's and shipping them back. I also find it odd that instead of the "not currenlty available" that BB usually have on their website, it says "coming soon". That on top of the email set to customers from BeachAudio. But you've spoken to people who know more than anyone here, at BB, or BeachAudio would so "no recall" it is then.

Thx -S

 

[geaux1]

They just need to cut a deal with Tivo, theit software is the bomb, or is that just not possible for reasons I don;t udnerstand?

 

[joedekock]

I have not been informed by my distributor or DIRECTV. I'm not saying it's not true, but I am telling you this is the first I am hearing of this. I'll be on the phone with DIRECTV and my distributor the first thing tomorrow morning to see what's up and post whatever I find out.

If we have a delay of this magnitude I will refund everyone's money at a cost of over $2,000.00 in bank processing fees and a tremendous amount of labor by my entire staff who stayed late on overtime to process all of our orders.

-Robert

This is exactly why I get all my D* products from Value Electronics. They have the best customer support in any business!

Thanks Robert!