Valentine Research, Inc. Reviews

I have had V1's for many years. Have one in each car. The staff at this company has always been pleasant and efficient on the phone. The technical support staff is also phenomenal!!

Walked in their office and the owners wife introducing myself and our company and not only was she rude she said I bet you beat your wife. I replied you are a Pyscho blank.

Good product. Bad customer service. Ordered an "install kit" which is flat permanent wire instead of the curly cigarette lighter cord. 8 foot long. So far so good. Went to install. Needed at least 12 feet. Called customer service. Wanted another 8 foot cord and a coupler. Apparently they only sell the kits with the cord and not separate. Also don't have any couplers. So what do I do? The "customer service" (notice I put in quotes) girl told me to go to the store and buy a wall to phone cord. Ok, did that. Cord didn't work. Went to an office supply store. Bought a cord there. Didn't work. Finally tried a wire that goes from the phone to the handset (not a "wall to phone" cord. Worked perfectly. RJ 22. Called customer service back telling them what I found out. It isn't a "wall to phone" cord, that's an RJ45. She argued with me saying an RJ 22 wouldn't work. I had just tried one 2 minutes ago and it worked perfectly. THIS TIME she told me it was an RJ 11 and nothing else would work. She vehemently rejected my finding that a "phone to handset" cord worked. Said she told me when I had first called an hour before that she had told me an RJ11. She didn't. Kept insisting that an RJ22 wouldn't work after I just proved her wrong. This is what happens when you hire someone off the street that has no tech experience.

They've made an excellent product for almost 30 years. The detector sniffs out any source of radar up to miles away through trees, around curves etc. As of 1/17 it's still the best laser detector on the market. The advanced logic setting for elimination of X band in an urban areas is flawless only alerting to strong X band police radar. Unfortunately all of their detectors wo a Junk K fighter upgrade are obsolete. Between auto door openers, adaptive cruise control and other systems in new vehicles that operate on K band the false alerts on the interstate Highway are numerous and unacceptable. You are unable to get this upgrade alone and it costs 75% of a new detector. I understand money needs to be made but the false alerts on K band are a serious problem on newer units 1.8 POP2 and all but the newest have this upgrade.
The company will not fix it without $300 which is an unfair price. The detector is also flawed and the company is aware of an off axis attack Ka band 35.5. Used exclusively by NC state troopers. Range can be as little as 80ft or as much as 1400ft. To be fair ALL detectors 35.5 ka range is much less because it requires expensive materials and was chosen because it is harder to detect. Allowing customers with up to date units to add a single upgrade for $100- $150 and solving the off axis 35.5 problem will once again bring this great company back to the top of the market.

Valentine Research outdid themselves with the new initial release of the new valentine 1 gen. 2. This detector at the present moment blows the competition out of the water, and I am so thankful to be among the first to own one.

Thanks again Mike, and keep up the good work with future firmware updates and innovation.

I get the people complaining about the phone customer service but lets be honest ,when was the last time you purchased an electronic anything that was not obsolete before you got it home? In a perfect world Mike and his wife would loosen the reigns and hire and train customer service agents to represent Valentine Research but being a bit OCD and maybe a little controlling I do not think there will ever be a buffer between the owners and the customers. My only hopes are they have a new detector out before riding off into retirement . It's an amazing product that stood the test of time so lets look past the snippy customer service at times :)

Good product, bad customer service. Uncommunicative, argumentative call center staff. Buy a detector with the understanding that you will have no support down the road.

I placed an order and set my shipping address to my work address since it requires a signature on delivery and I m at work more than home. Three business days pass and I get no shipping notification. I called their number and ask for a tracking number and they said my order was cancelled for fraudulent activity. Because I had my shipping address as my work. Not only did they accuse customers of fraud, they didn t even bother to contact me for more information or to at least tell me my order was cancelled.

Great technology, really, really poor operational management of the business and customer experience. So tone deaf to the realities of the marketplace their on-hold message has Mike Valentine saying "...or maybe some strange new flu has all my phone reps sick in bed at home..." or words to that affect. Really? In the meantime, product received for upgrade 75 days prior sit unattended in their shop with not even an email acknowledgement. Truly an opportunity for massive improvement.

They make the best radar detector out there, but the operational management and customer service of the company are some of the worst I've ever dealt with. My radar detector goes off when a bright light is shined on it, rendering it worthless to me, and I can't even get it fixed or upgraded at the moment. Not to mention issues I had getting my money back on a savvy I purchased years ago from them and had returned after their customer service said it was OK, then when they received it, brand new in the box, they refused to return payment stating that it was beyond the time frame to return. I even went up the chain and spoke with Mike himself and he treated me with such disrespect, I had to reach out to my credit card company to get my money back. I'm fed up with the company right now and debating if it's even worth waiting for the upgrade, or looking at the other top radar detectors. Only reason they get the 2nd star from me is because the product works so well. I guess if you make a great product, you can throw the rest of the operational management to the trash.

Great product with exceptional support. They have helped me with minor issues with the remote display and always with a good attitude. They have never taken advantage of an opportunity to sell me (or my dad) something we didn't need. Cudo's to Mike for a company that performs as well as his product!

So, I'll try and be concise. I have owned Escorts, a Passport and the old Cincinnati Microwave's Solo. Most recently I have owned an original V1 and a then a more updated version. I loved the V1s (well maybe not the ridiculous and embarrassing flashing lights and cacophony of beeps and braps it hurls as it locates a lot of non threats) but honestly (on the interstate) they are no match for a community sourced app (I'll call it "W"). The officer sitting down in the median at the crest of a hill with his radar off is invisible to all radar detectors but he can't hide from the app user that taps the screen and reports him. He is then visible 5 miles away and announced before you come in range. Has he moved? Maybe but now you know he is in the area. I'm sorry and it's sad to say but there was a time I would never travel without my V1 but today it's at home in the closet next to my turntable and flip phone.

Bad customer service. They simply care about money and not customer satisfaction. Should have kept my R7 instead of this new detector that came broken out of the box. V1 Gen2 Screen Bleed, how do you send out a new product without checking it for quality?! Awful, no sorry, no remorse just money grab n go.

Very weird experience. I want to buy their product and they just say that they won't sell me their product because I am a fraud. Don't know where they get that, but that's what Martha from customer "service" says.

Mike Valentine should get himself some good and new employees if he wants to sell his product and fire Martha Johnson.

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While the detecter might be good (see below for more on that), the people that run Valentine are incompetent and arrogant. Read the reviews on the BBB and you'll know something is off.

I tried to buy a Valentine 1 and ordered it on their website, giving them my credit card number etc. Well.... After my order was confirmed, I received an email from Martha Johnson from customer service. She said she needed a Texas phone number - as I live in Texas and the delivery address is in Texas. I only have a cell phone with a DC area number because that's where I got my phone, back when I lived there. I emailed her my cell number a couple of times, but she just ignored that and kept asking for a Texas phone number. I was wondering why.

"You can give a work phone number, but it has to be a Texas number or I'll have to cancel the order", Martha mailed. Ok, that is strange. Anyway, I was at the Four Seasons downtown Houston for a business meeting so I gave her the number of the Four Seasons. She apparently called the number - god knows why - and of course the receptionist never heard of me.

Martha mailed me back, saying she had to cancel my order as the receptionist said that I didn't work there, although I never said I worked at the Four Seasons. Copy/past from her email: "The hotel says there is no one there by your name who works there. Unfortunately we will not be able to process the order." Because of a phone number, I asked? "We have very strict fraud control here. Unfortunately being untruthful in our inquiry for the necessary information puts this order in that category", was her response. Excuse me?

I thought "I'll give her a call and explain what's going on." When I got her on the phone she accused me of being a fraud. I asked her if she was interested in selling her product, but all she said was "this conversation is not helping you" and "your account is now registered as fraudulent." WHAT?!

You don't buy a Valentine, Valentine decides if they want to sell you their product or not. Or maybe it's a cover and they're actually dealing drugs or so?

That said, search the web and you'll find a lot of stories about warranty problems as well. People ship their Valentine for repair and they'll say they never got your Valentine. Other times they'll say it is registered as stolen and won't return it: you'll be out of money AND the radar detector. Don't say I didn't warn you! :)

Now, I've only used one radar detector and it is a used Valentine One. I got it on eBay. Is it good? Yes, it saved me over 5 times here in Texas. But you can't used it in the cities, because it'll be just beeping ALL the time. I only turn it on when I'm on the highway and out of the city. It won't even work properly on a highway that runs through a city.

The people at Valentine are horrible but I would understand why you still want to buy their radar detector. Just know that if you have an issue with the detector, you'll most likely be out of luck.

So I have a V1 that i have enjoyed for many years... sometime ago in the last 2 years my detector would beep non stop. i kept forgetting about sending it in and i left it in my glove box. Finally i got around to checking and it was at some point prior to January when i reached out and they said that everything was back ordered. i have called into and spoken to the same lady 4 times between December and July 15th and she kept telling me that they were delayed for parts... i filled out an online form and finally got a notice that they are available on 7-32-2020. I was travelling so i was unable to get my unit turned in. So i checked it on 8-10-2020 and the upgrade is no longer available for a period of time... so i called and spoke to the same lady again and she told me i was able to upgrade then looked up my serial number and said that they had to pull it back for no upgrade again due to the enormous amount of requests... i asked very politely if there was a way to just help me understand the timing and she said that i have to keep checking. Then I asked if there was another way rather than me keep checking every single day for a window and she said that i sound like "Eeyore" the character in the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. I took that to be that i was perhaps wining about their repeated delays and inability to keep parts in stock. then she went on a bit of a bender telling me about ho Corona has affected not just them but everyone (as if i did not know) and she kind of beat on me by saying, it is not in my control so what do you expect. i guess i was taken back by the fact that she said it was NOT their problem she said that they were waiting on parts from China.. The issue is that it is THEIR problem and she should be taugh to take responsibility rather than pass the blame for their inability to run the business.

A bit frustrating as i have been a very loyal customer and personally I can account for 12 friends that have purchased them due to my personal raving about the product from Valentine Research... Additionally i am in customer service and if i heard that anyone that works for me treated ANY of our customers the way she talked to me i would fire them instantly... no question. The proper response should have been "i am really sorry and wish we could get the products out faster, can you try back in 4 weeks and feel free to call me personally and perhaps by then i SHOULD have a better understanding of timing by then."

so for product 5 stars... service i would give them 0 stars if i could.

Hats off to Mike & his team

Original owner of a Gen1 and pre ordered my Gen2 before launch day Radar worked great but I happened to get one with a bad circuit board that does 3 months later so what did they do, overnight shipping back to them and overnight shipping back to me with a 1 day repair time And no charge to me this radar is awesome and I still would rank Valentine One the best radar on the market today they are backed by years of development and support there product.

Thanks Valentine Research

Excellent products and open ESP specification. They even have sample code on GitHub!

Just called to see if there are any instructions to hard wire and her response was to take it to an audio shop. She also kept repeating red is hot and black is neutral. This is not some cheap brand. If you don't have the instructions than may be transfer the call to some one who can maybe guide me. Let see if you guys call me back to possibly guide me a little better.

Valentine 1 user for around 16 years. I personally have had zero issues or negative feedback regarding Valentine Research. I've owned around five to six Gen 1 units over the years (sent two for upgrades) and any servicing needed for them were smooth. I did purchase the Gen 2 prior to public sales and in the two months it has served me extremely well (just needs a software update which I hope will come out soon for KA ghosting) but other than that it's a solid detector. My unit is issue free at the time of writing this review.