Escort 9500i - False Lasers.....

[davahad]

Got the 9500i in November 2007 and has worked very well except the for the occassional false laser which are quite loud. I called Escort support and they said that some people see false lasers and it's a known issue with laser circuit and they can mod the circuit so that I don't get false lasers anymore.

I decided to keep the unit without the mod but then a couple of days later I'm in the Home Depot parking lot and laser goes crazy. I'm parked on the side of the building not facing there door radar and I get 5 false lasers in a row sitting in the parking lot. At this point I decide to return and get the unit fixed. A detailed note explaining the problem was included when I returned the 9500i and when I got it back a repair card was included that said "repaired laser ckt".

First day back on the highway I get a false laser. Then 5 minutes later in the parking lot of another hardware supply store I get 5 false alerts in a row. I keep using for 2 days and in this time I get no alerts except for the occassional false laser alert.

I called escort support and they troubleshoot and decide they have no idea why it's doing what it is doing and it needs to go back for more repairs. I asked to speak to a manager so I could try and get it exchanged and only got his voice mail and never got a return call. Then I call back to support the next day and speak to Aaron who says he will try and get it exchanged and will call me back at 12 Noon west coast time. When he doesn't call I called back to support and the guy who answers talks to Aaron and then transfers me to his Aaron's voice mail. Call back again and at this point just ask for an RMA# so I can return and get fixed again as I didn't want to waste anymore time waiting for them to call me.

For me the 9500i experience has not been good and based on my contact with support I would say they are definitely not customer oriented. Basically you can either get an RMA # from the person who answers the phone or if you want more than that they put you through to voice mail and never call you back.

So Don't waste your time asking for them to exchange, etc. as they will just put you in someone's voice mail and never call you back. Hopefully they will fix this time and not screw it up worse........

[CJR238]

I hope your area isn't infested with all the laser back up and cruse control cars, that could give you the problem no matter what.
I have had nothing but good service from Escort but when it comes to tricky things like your scenario they should be a little more helpful, even though its a difficult one.

[MEM-TEK]

I hope your area isn't infested with all the laser back up and cruse control cars, that could give you the problem no matter what...

This is what crossed my mind too. Davahad, try a test in your driveway. Leave the 9500i turned on for 20 minutes with your car turned off (but with the ignition switched to the ACC position if necessary in order to provide power to your car's cigarette lighter socket) and see if you get any false laser alerts. If you don't, then try the test again with the ignition turned on and slowly rev the engine between idle and 2500 rpm. If you get false laser alerts this time then you have noise in your car's electrical system.

Let us know and we can then suggest how you should proceed.

[Esoterica]

The only time I have ever seen a false laser from my 9500i has been when I'm in the vicinity of an airport, and even then its not all the time, just sometimes. Other people have reported the same thing with airports in all detectors. Someone said it was something to do with wind shear measuring equipment, but I don't understand how you could use a laser to measure wind, I sooner suspect its some kind of distance measuring being used by landing aircraft on approach to the runway. In any case, that's a known issue already by everyone.

As far as bad service from Escort support, you must have really pissed someone off, no one else seems to have that problem with them. You know what they say, you get more with honey than vinegar, what ever the hell that saying is supposed to mean.

We have confirmed here before though that such strange behaviors from your detector are due to RF noise and an electrical problem in your vehicle not the detector. Anything is possible so even known issues like this doesn't always conclusively mean thats the exact problem your having, just very likely.

Having your vehicle switched to ACC doesn't mean you've eliminated the potential source of the RF noise though, reduced, but not conclusively eliminated. The only possible way to conclusively be sure you are not obtaining RF noise is by directly connecting the detector to the battery with nothing else connected to it. Not a likely test the average person is going to be willing to do. Properly installing a ferrite bead choke though has in every case helped people and never hurt anyone.

[CJR238]

You would be amazed at what i have gotten by using the CS name and asking how they are today without getting into my real problem immediately.

I had a pair of PIA $200 light thats had a bad wiring harness and they sent me a hole new set of lights no charge.

Anyone ever watch the movie Tommy Boy with that seen where he wanted chicken wings and the waitress didn’t want to turn on the fryer?

[Kayrac]

as far as bad support just because someone makes you mad, thats kinda cheesy, i work in food service, at a dunkin donuts actually :P, theres a few people i hate, i just try to get them out asap, "hey, you want your food today?......make it.....bye" no regular chatter like i do with the customers i like

that aside, as i work in food service, i always try to be nice, i've actually talked to tech support quite a few times at escort, sometimes i ask the same questions, actually think i'm annoying them sometimes, however i try to be as nice as possible , that being said, Aaron has always been helpfull to me over the live chat, and Dave went out of his way to help me after having a live chat with him......i've received amazing support from those two, i actually believe there is another person i've spoken to online also, but i forgot there name, also helpfull

So dunno, there support has been top notch and polite etc with me

[MEM-TEK]

Back to Davahad's false laser alert problem. Davahad, have you tried the test yet which I mentioned above?

[TSi+WRX]

Like the others have suggested a "noisy" electrical system certainly could be the culprit.

This has been routinely reported on late-model Subarus, for example, for which I am intimately aware of such issues.

If this is the case (per MEM-TEK's "testing" ideas), you can try the Ferrite choke or in-line filter ideas that have been explored here (and proved useful). Search for username "Armscrafter1," and you should get the appropriate thread.

Later posts in that thread, though, also pose additional ideas - for example, it could be RF interference, too.

Usually, sending your unit into Escort will result in it being "tuned" to report less laser falses. To this end, it is reported that this is done by "increasing shielding" around the laser sensor, and that specific to the 9500i, this will reduce laser sensitivity by appx. 1/3 (no, I'm not making any of this up - this came straight from Escort's Technical Support, and was information relayed to me by a fellow BL/BP-chassis Subaru Legacy enthusiast and long-time Escort detector user, who recently switched to the 9500i, himself, and was experiencing such issues which could not be resolved with the typical DIY methods here).

---

Of potential laser falses, we now know that many major metro airports will set off such alarms due to the various electronics/laser-mediated safety systems (there's a cross-wind warning system using lasers).

Similarly, "strobing" lights, such as various LED-strobes and/or even LED-based brake-lights can elicit such falses, as can "strobing" sunlight under certain scenarios, and also the screen refresh rates on various vehicle's OEM or aftermarket Nav/entertainment screens (i.e. this has been routinely, repeatedly, and consistently reported of the BL/BP-chassis Legacy's Nav-screen, and the V1, which is *extremely* laser sensitive).

In addition to these concerns, the usual laser-assisted safety systems on various high-end vehicles can also trigger such falses.

One very strange thing that happened to me, with the 9500i, was a laser false which I experienced while heading toward a vehicle fitted with an aftermarket HID system - the driver engaged the system as the 9500i passed within its output field, and the detector falsed laser alert. :shock: My best-guess is that the visual "flicker" at-startup of the HID system (or perhaps a momentary output of the systems' lighting that neared IR) likely caused the 9500i to false. It was most strange, and I've yet to experience a similar circumstance. And no, my 9500i doesn't false to oncoming vehicle's HIDs - be they aftermarket or OEM.

[davahad]

Haven't tried any of the suggestions yet as I shipped the 9500i back to Escort yesterday for repair. I did get a call back today from a manager who offered to send out a new unit which I accepted. When I receive it I will try the suggestions and post back.

I drive a Ford Explorer 2000 so pretty basic vehicle with no bells and whistles (ie., no backup radar, etc.). And again, after I got the repaired unit back last week I only got false lasers. No KA, K or even X band alerts at all. So whatever they did really screwed up the 9500i or perhaps it got trashed in shipping by UPS?

Don't know but when I pay to have a 4 month old unit shipped back and repaired under warranty, I really do expect the unit to not come back working worse than when I shipped the unit. And if it does happen (which it did) it would be nice to think that the Tech support people are well trained or experienced enough to know that the matter should be escalated vs. a first time call problem. In my business we don't dump customers into voice mail for a call back in a day or two when they received back a repaired system that doesn't work.

And to those that said I must have done something to piss them off all I did was ask for the unit to be replaced. I was told it was Monday, they were very busy and that Aaron would talk to his manager and call me back the next day at 3:00PM East Coast Time. He didn't call me back as promised and when I called at 3:30 and spoke to Chris he said Aaron was right there and would take my call as he just explained that he didn't call me back as promised. I asked Chris to make sure that I didn't go into his voice mail when transferred but when I did get transferred it was to his voice mail. After gettting his voice mail I called back again and whoever it was that answered I just asked for an RMA # so I could return the unit as I had given up on trying to get it replaced.

So how exactly should I have handled this differently? This was clearly a case of bad support and not doing what they said they were going to do. This may not be typical of Escort support but it was what happened.

[CJR238]

Haven't tried any of the suggestions yet as I shipped the 9500i back to Escort yesterday for repair. I did get a call back today from a manager who offered to send out a new unit which I accepted. When I receive it I will try the suggestions and post back.

I drive a Ford Explorer 2000 so pretty basic vehicle with no bells and whistles (ie., no backup radar, etc.). And again, after I got the repaired unit back last week I only got false lasers. No KA, K or even X band alerts at all. So whatever they did really screwed up the 9500i or perhaps it got trashed in shipping by UPS?

Don't know but when I pay to have a 4 month old unit shipped back and repaired under warranty, I really do expect the unit to not come back working worse than when I shipped the unit. And if it does happen (which it did) it would be nice to think that the Tech support people are well trained or experienced enough to know that the matter should be escalated vs. a first time call problem. In my business we don't dump customers into voice mail for a call back in a day or two when they received back a repaired system that doesn't work.

And to those that said I must have done something to piss them off all I did was ask for the unit to be replaced. I was told it was Monday, they were very busy and that Aaron would talk to his manager and call me back the next day at 3:00PM East Coast Time. He didn't call me back as promised and when I called at 3:30 and spoke to Chris he said Aaron was right there and would take my call as he just explained that he didn't call me back as promised. I asked Chris to make sure that I didn't go into his voice mail when transferred but when I did get transferred it was to his voice mail. After gettting his voice mail I called back again and whoever it was that answered I just asked for an RMA # so I could return the unit as I had given up on trying to get it replaced.

So how exactly should I have handled this differently? This was clearly a case of bad support and not doing what they said they were going to do. This may not be typical of Escort support but it was what happened.

I agree it shouldn't of happened and you didn’t do anything wrong, i would of given him more than 1/2 hour passed when he was going to call back :roll: Its tuff to know how busy they were that day or if he was on the other line discussing your exact problem. We have to assume the best till we really have a reason to be pissed off. Hay you got a new unit so apparently Aaron, Chris or whoever went to bat for you.
However for other people wanting good results from CS: I would have told Chris I could hold for my buddy that was very helpful last time, Aaron, and that he was suppose to call me back earlier.
I would have then proceeded to see how Chris was doing today and asked if he had herd of my specific problem before. Most likely Chris would of ether helped me out or got Aaron to pick up immediately because his nice buddy that was also nice to him was on the other line.