It’s the Leslie Knope of universal remotes – dedicated, hard-working, eager to please, loves Adam Scott. It makes any home theater setup idiot-proof: you push the button that says “Watch TV” or “Watch DVD” and the remote automatically powers everything up with the right settings in the right sequence. Perfect. Easy. It even feels nice in my hand. I recommend it to all my friends. It’s so obviously better than other remote controls that I wouldn’t want to use anything else.

She has a name. I call her Vera.

I also have a dog. His name it Otis.

I’ve mentioned here that he likes to chew things.

I think you can see where this is going.

Yep, Otis got ahold of Vera, punched through one of the buttons, and signed his masterpiece with some tooth marks on the back.

This left the remote totally nonfunctional: if a button is pressed down, the remote can’t register any other button presses. This is typically not a concern unless your dog starts munching on it.

I was extra-pissed because this wasn’t the first time he’s destroyed one of these. This was the second in as many months.

Side note: when you try to buy something that you’ve already purchased, Amazon pops up an alert that you’ve already bought it. Although they’re trying to help you avoid a mistaken repeat purchase, I felt like they were mocking me. “Seriously? Again?”

Anyway, before plunking down $160 again, I figured I might as well see if this was repairable.

All the advice on the Logitech forums was to just call support. Unfortunately, Logitech’s warranty does not cover acts of dog. It’d have to be replaced.

But a few more minutes of Googling turned up this listing on ebay from user blueturningleaf: to-order repair services for Logitech remotes. I hadn’t read any accounts of Logitech repairing these things, so this service must be filling a gap.

Intrigued, I described my problem in a note to blueturningleaf. He responded in minutes:

It seems to me that we should be able to open the H1 up and reposition the rubber key and perhaps replace the underlying button pad if needed. I may also replace the whole lower keypad if it has cosmetic damage - no charge for any of the parts.

He was polite and sounded very knowledgeable about the inner workings of the remote. All told, a repair seemed worth a shot, particularly with his quoted price of $24 for button replacement – a bargain compared to replacing the entire remote.

I sent out the remote. He emailed me when it arrived, and 68 minutes later sent another email that it had been repaired, inspected, tested, and mailed back out.

I got the repaired remote in the mail two days later. It was well-protected, looked like new, and worked better than new.

He even included a report with a detailed inspection and thorough explanation of the work he did.

And – AND! – he replaced the battery cover for free because it had tooth marks and he couldn’t stand to leave it that way.

That, my friends, is service. Above and beyond.

blueturningleaf, for saving me $150, for top-notch customer service, and for dedication to your craft, I give you this site’s highest ranking of 5 gorillas dunking!!! Kudos, and thanks.

(For anyone interested in picking up a Logitech remote, Wirecutter just posted their review of the Logitech Harmony 700, which is cheaper than the Harmony One and probably better for most people.)