Happy Ending

Julie and I have two cell phones. A good one and an old one that barely gets signal even in town. To get cell service at home we must have an antenna plugged into the old phone and it works fine. The new phone does not get signal at home.

The problem is that the old phone must be replaced and new cell phones do not have an antenna port. The only viable solution is to purchase a wireless extender or repeater that has external and internal antennas. The cell signal is picked up by the external antenna on the roof of the house, is transmitted to the repeater via coax cable and is broadcast inside the house via the internal antenna. This solution gives us the ability to use both phones at home and for guests to receive phone calls. The downside to this solution is that wireless extenders are not inexpensive and they require a constant source of electricity.

In June we purchased a unit after doing research and reading product reviews. The price was excellent. After receiving it I waited until the weekend to test it. We ran the coax out the door and I moved the antenna around the roof to make sure it worked adequately. The following weekend I bought the materials to mount the antenna on the roof and installed the system. It worked for four days and the power supply failed. I phoned the manufacturer and they agreed to send another power supply at no cost to me. By the time it arrived it was more that 30 days since we purchased the unit. We could no longer return it for a full refund.

The new power supply worked less than a week. I bought a replacement at a local business. I intentionally bought one with a slightly higher output. Two and one-half amps rather than two amps. It worked less than a week.

I phoned the manufacturer and arranged to return the unit for exchange. The new unit with a new power supply arrived and worked less than a week.

I emailed the manufacturer to put the sequence of events in detail and asked for options. I received a reply that I was being shipped three new power supplies. While waiting for their arrival I purchased a UPS specifically for the unit in an effort to insure the unit would work. The new power supply worked for seven days, the longest of any power supply and I was hopeful. Then it failed. I plugged in a second power supply and it failed within twenty-four hours.

I emailed the manufacturer and requested they buy the unit from me for the original purchase price since I couldn't return it to the merchant. In all of my conversations and emails I tried to be factual, courteous, straight forward but not demanding or angry. A few days ago I received a reply, a portion of which follows.

I spoke to our head engineer about this issue and he suspects the problem may be caused by an abundance of RF energy at your location. This could be overdriving the unit and burning out the power supplies. Since it doesn’t seem like the product will be able to work at your location, we will do what we can to fix this. We will be sending you a return label to have our product returned to us, at our expense. If you will provide your proof of purchase along with a mailing address, a refund check will be issued to you. We apologize for the inconvenience you have endured and regret that our product could not help you in your situation.

I really didn't expect to get my money back. In the end I have no complaints.