Last week was a bad week.. the second half of the week was totally out of action and was on MC from Wednesday onwards. Stayed at home throughout the 3 days, totally knocked out by the medication. Lost my voice too after the meeting on Wednesday morning with the group of people who aim that day was just to push everything out of their court. Anyway, I think I managed to recover about 70% by today and thought should just put my energy now to good use by talking about the excellent customer service I got from Logitech.
People who know me knows that I always have a soft spot for Logitech products, ranging from their keyboard and mouse to their universal remote controls. My first experience of their universal remote was when I first got know and use their Logitech Harmony 525 Advanced Universal Remote couple of years back. Back then, it costed me almost S$200 and had to place a special order for it as many shops in Singapore do not carry this. Anyway, this remote lasted me quite a while until I chance upon the Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote after a couple of years during a PC show. At that time, it was also the launch of the product in Singapore so they have a special deal at 50% discount. Unable to resist the temptation, I bought one and has been using it since then.
Recently, I realised that the lifespan of the battery of the Harmony One seems to be getting shorter and shorter. Previously, I was able to last 1 week of usage before require to recharge it. This was cut to about 1-2days recently and that is without much usage. I was thinking that maybe the rechargeable battery has lived up to it’s limit finally after so long. So I wanted to take it out to look for the model so that I can get a replacement for it. To my surpise, I realised I was not able to eject out the stupid battery. I dare not use force or tools to get it out for fear of damaging the remote, something that will certainly cost more than the battery. I then did a quick search on the web and found quite a number of discussion about this issue. Apparently, the battery has bloated and is now stuck in the remote’s casing. The only way out log a case with Logitech Support and it seems that in most cases they will send you a replacement set since the battery cannot be removed from the existing one.
Since I got nothing to lose, I thought I would just give this way a try. I quickly log a case with Logitech Singapore and that was on a Saturday. By Monday afternoon, I got a reply from the Support Desk asking me for some details of my current unit and by Wednesday, I received a reply that they will ship a new set to me!
Very excited, I was looking out very anxiously for this new unit to arrive. It didn’t really take very long and Logitech was nice enough to event provide me with the package tracking number so that I’ll know exactly where the package is going to. To my surprise, they actually shipped the new set from Germany routing through half of th world instead of getting it from local Logitech Singapore. Something I dont really understand…
Anyway, the package came in a small brown box. Inside was the brand new Harmony ONE, complete with its sealed packaging. It’s really a brand new set as you can see from the pictures below.
I very quickly unboxed it, charged it overnight and then transferred all my settings from the old remote to the new one easily using the the Logitech Harmony Remote Software. It really feels good to use a new remote again after so long. 😀
Anyway, since I got my new remote, I thought I’ll just give it a try to see if I can manage to remove the bloated battery from the old one. After much digging and poking using some “tools”, the stupid stubborn battery finally decided to come out from its shell. You can see how bloated it has become from the pictures below.
I’ve tested the old remote, less this battery issue, it is still in perfect working condition. Hence, I’m now looking around on the web, to see where I can get a cheap replacement for the R-IG7 Battery. Then, I’ll have 2 sets of Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote to use.. 😀