Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased the Logitech Harmony Ultimate back in December via another Amazon account. When I first got it I loved the fact that I could get a dozen remotes out of my living room including the bluetooth Roku remote and all of the infrared line-of-sight remotes that required a infrared-to-RF repeater to reach my electronics hidden away in a remote wiring closet. Within a few hours I had setup all of my devices and stored the remotes in a box in the closet. Everything was great for a few days. Then I started to notice some quirks. The devices were not turning on or off when I expected them to. Volume controls were not working as anticipated. After I got used to the new remote I realized I needed to refine my setup and reprogram some of the device sequences and re-assign buttons. A week alter and another few hours of updating the remote, testing, updating the remote, testing, things seemed to be working much better. I did not take my old remotes out of their box for almost a month. Then weird things started to happen. I would click the TiVo event on the remote and the Wii U would power on at full volume. I would go to watch the Blu Ray DVD and the TV would not turn on. I checked-and-rechecked the script sequence and it was correct. After hours of research I found a post in the Logitech forums about doing a hard reset of the remote and the hub. It did the trick. Everything started working again. For a while. Up until last week the remote continued to have these odd quirks. I've been on Logitech support forums, had several email conversations, and have completely reset and re-programmed the remote at least 4 times since December. I've updated firmware, done hard resets, and finally realized that I am just going to have to live with the fact that sometimes the Logitech Harmony Ultimate will "go off the rails" and decide that the Wii U should be on at full volume every n-times I tell it I want to watch something on TiVo. Unfortunately n-times is completely random, or at least appears to be. Maybe it is based on some prime number square root derivative function that is noted in the footnotes of the online documentation. Note I said "up until last week". That is NOT because the problem has been resolved. Actually, let me rephrase... the problem has not been FIXED though I have "resolved" the problem. Last week I dropped the remote off the arm of the sofa. Well, my $350 remote is now DEAD. After spending a lot of time going through rather useless "did you plug it in" email conversations with Logitech "support" (the script-readers from India) we have finally arrived at the conclusion that "I broke it". As it turns out it only takes a few, and I literally mean a FEW as in 2 or 3, drops of this remote from counter height (32 inches or less) to render it useless. The screen when full white and is completely unusable. Unfortunately with this remote the screen is a KEY COMPONENT and critical to the usability of the system. Yes some of the hard buttons still function but good luck figuring out which device or activity it is "talking to". The best part of this, and the big reason for 1 star is that Logitech support is HORRIBLE. There is no easy way to call them. Their email forms for support (warranty support or otherwise) don't work in all browsers. When they do work they put you in a generic email queue with script-readers on the other end. The other big reason for 1-star rating is that LOGITECH WILL NOT REPAIR THIS REMOTE. That's right...a $350 consumer product WITH NO REPAIR OPTIONS. Not like anyone EVER drops a remote. I mean, this is my first time I've dropped one myself... but if that does happen you are out a $350 product. If you are going to buy this ABSOLUTELY get a third-party warranty with damage protection. Pay the extra money. Just be aware that all of those plans (squaretrade, etc.) have a deductible you need to pay, usually $50 or so, for damaged items and that it will be AT LEAST 4 weeks without your device while they work on getting a replacement. If you don't want to spend $350 PLUS the extra $100+ for the damage-protection extended warranty then look elsewhere. IMO a $350 remote MUST have a viable repair channel. Sadly I really like Logitech products. I've purchased literally HUNDREDS of Logitech branded products from sound cards to speakers to keyboards and mice for myself and my 20-person office over the years. Logitech keyboards and mice were my corporate standard for the past 8 years. Their keyboard and mice were simply the best available. Now that I've had to deal with their support and repair process first hand I will have to give serious consideration to using other brands. Especially now that others have figured out how to build quality computer peripherals. In the meantime I will likely be going with BlueMoo for my remote bluetooth remote control setup. I prefer hard buttons over my tablet or phone but at least I know both those devices have repair options AND the extended warranty with damage protection. Logitech - you need to step up your game if you are going to enter the high-end consumer products market. This is not a $120 keyboard or $80 mouse!