I purchased a Tri-tronics Pro 500 trainer a few years ago. I had a
young lab that I was working with and I was just starting to get good
results. My training and relationship with the dog was cut short when
the dog was stolen out of my back yard. All attempts to find and
retrieve "Jet" were to no avail.

I really did not have enough time for another dog until my situation
changed. That occured a few months ago with the retirement of my
girlfriend. Now there was someone around mid day to help with and be a
co-companion to a dog. I found a GSD breeder and brought home a male
German Shepherd puppy.

In a couple of months I will be ready to begin some training with a
collar. I am doing motivational training with food now and the results
have been encouraging. I brought out the Tritronics collar, charged it
up and it would not work.

A call to the customer service department returned the following
information; The receiver and transmitter MUST BE CHARGED AT ALL
TIMES. If the batteries ever go dead, the "software" is lost. The
unit must be returned for service and a $125.00 charge to your credit
card will be made before the unit is accepted for repair.

The agent smartly stated that the manual says to keep it charged. I
checked and my manual says "you should remember to keep the batteries
charged up. ...full charge every 4 months." It says nothing about
loosing the program.

With flash eproms this is unnecessary and an unacceptable design.
Unless of course you are Tri-Tronics attempting to bolster service
department revenue.

Robert Leonard

On 18 Jan 2005 18:32:22 -0800, wrote:

A call to the customer service department returned the following
information; The receiver and transmitter MUST BE CHARGED AT ALL
TIMES. If the batteries ever go dead, the "software" is lost. The
unit must be returned for service and a $125.00 charge to your credit
card will be made before the unit is accepted for repair.

The agent smartly stated that the manual says to keep it charged. I
checked and my manual says "you should remember to keep the batteries
charged up. ...full charge every 4 months." It says nothing about
loosing the program.

With flash eproms this is unnecessary and an unacceptable design.
Unless of course you are Tri-Tronics attempting to bolster service
department revenue.

So...*every* unit they manufacture gets sold within four months? Yeah,
right, they have "battery elves" prowling the aisles of the warehouses
and retail stores late at night, charging up the batteries.

They're feeding you high-grade bullshit: try not to swallow.

Lee

"Lee DeRaud" wrote:

Yeah,
right, they have "battery elves" prowling the aisles of the warehouses
and retail stores late at night, charging up the batteries.

A, most Tri-Tronics collars aren't sold in retail stores, and B, IIRC the
programming of the chip occurs at first use/charging.
The manual *should* be clearer about the fact that leaving it uncharged
for extended periods of time will wipe the memory, but apparently they don't
expect people to put the collars in storage.

"Sionnach" wrote in
:

A, most Tri-Tronics collars aren't sold in retail stores, and B, IIRC
the
programming of the chip occurs at first use/charging.
The manual *should* be clearer about the fact that leaving it
uncharged
for extended periods of time will wipe the memory, but apparently they
don't expect people to put the collars in storage.

That said, the Collar Clinic in Northern Michigan might be able to make the
repair for less than Tri-Tronics is charging.

http://www.collarclinic.com/

--
Kate
and Storm the FCR

Thanks Kate, I'll call them this morning

Bob

Collar Clinic is the same price as Tri-Tronics for repair, $125

Bob

wrote in news:1106148991.393815.148010
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

Collar Clinic is the same price as Tri-Tronics for repair, $125

Oh, well. It was worth a try. Good luck!

--
Kate
and Storm the FCR

Jack,
Thanks for the info. I called Tri-Tronics back, got a RMA and shipped
my unit to them. It should have fresh batteries anyway.

Now I know why it is necessary to keep the unit charged. Not having
that info disclosed in the manual is negligent on their part. The
product works as advertised and is well made. However (IMHO) failing
to disclose critical maintenance information is improper and fraudulant
on their part.

At this point, I hope that someone else can learn from my experience.
Life goes on..

Bob

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 17:33:10 GMT, Handsome Jack Morrison
wrote:

I have to disagree with you on that one, Robert. Sloppy, yes.

And I have to disagree with you on that one. It goes way past "sloppy"
to design in a "feature" that would be unacceptable in a $25 clock
radio, much less something costing an order of magnitude more than
that.

Lee

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 23:40:02 GMT, Handsome Jack Morrison
wrote:

I'm no electrical engineer(nor am I a marketing guru, but I'd think I
know how to use this "feature" to my advantage, if I made another
brand of e-collar, if I could, etc.), and I've never played one on TV
either, but I think (prior to the now common practice of using trickle
cell technology) the problem has something to do with the receiver
always requiring a signal of some kind to continue to operate
correctly. Or even at all.

But how could it be fraudulent, if they *clearly* disclosed in their
manual, on their web site, etc., that the owner MUST keep the battery
charged?

I don't get it.

Jack, I'm not saying it's fraudulent, just really *really* bad design.
And yes, I *am* an electrical engineer by training, even if I've
worked the software side most of my career.

You're apparently trying to make it sound like Tri-Tronics somehow did
this on purpose, hoping to sell additional receivers.

No, actually I didn't. The original poster implied that and you
disagreed; what I disagreed with was your characterization of the
design as "sloppy", which to me equates to "eh, could have been
better" rather than the "gawd, does *that* suck" that it deserves.

Well, *I* have
had nothing but *fantastic* experience with the folks back at
Tri-Tronics, and they've often went waaaay beyond the norm (or what
was legally required of them to do) to satisfy their customers,
including myself.

And they're to be commended for it: it sounds as though they've as
much as admitted that the design is suboptimal and are trying to make
things right.

Lee