Motorola Recall Ruffles Some Feathers

Cable World, July 15, 2002

Byline: K. C. NEEL

Motorola's plans to reimburse operators for the costs they incur in swapping defective DCT-2000 set-top boxes remain mysterious, and that's starting to tick off at least one operator.

Motorola recalled some 1 million set-tops in June after discovering a mechanical defect related to the detachable power plug.

While the company has been quick to send replacement boxes, some operators are beginning to grouse about the lack of communication when it comes to paying them for the inconvenience as well as the cost of the switch itself.

Neal Schnog, CEO of Uvision, is perturbed about the lack of information from the equipment manufacturer about how, when or how much of the cost of the switch-out it will reimburse. Uvision, with 23,000 customers in Oregon, has 800 faulty boxes in the field, and Schnog is worried the cost of the switch-out will hurt his operations if he isn't reimbursed soon.

Mark Bishop, NCTC's SVP of hardware, also says that the biggest uncertainty with the recall has been the lack of any public reimbursement plans. Approximately 80 NCTC members have been affected by the recall, according to the NCTC. That translates into 15,000 boxes.

"In the overall scheme of things, that's not a lot, but it is to our members," Bishop says.

"We have been working diligently with all impacted customers, large and small, to mobilize resources and respond to their individual needs as quickly as possible," says Motorola spokesman Jeanne Russo. "We continue to make progress with the DCT-2000 replacement program, and we will continue to work closely with our customers to meet their requirements."

Bishop and NCTC operations manager Brenda Blunt, the co-op's liaison between its members and Motorola, are hoping Motorola will announce some kind of reimbursement plan within the next couple of weeks.

To be sure, it won't be cheap. Many operators - both large and small - have already incurred costs that include researching where the defective boxes are located; notifying customers of the problem via mail as well as outbound telemarketing; and, finally, rolling squads of trucks to replace the set-tops.

Truck rolls alone generally cost about $30 to $40 each. For Schnog, that's a lot of money. "We haven't heard anything about how or when they'll reimburse us for that," he says.

Blunt believes Motorola is working hard to make the recall as painless as possible for operators.

"I think Motorola has been very responsive to our members' needs so far," she says.