I think stoo-pid is the right word as my mother taught me never to use the word stupid when talking about other people, in fact, she didn't like the word stupid at all, and ultimately these policies are made by people. :)

I'm with you, if the clock had the right time, it wouldn't be a big deal, but making us feel stupid because we can't figure out a clock is a royal p-i-t-a. And I have tried to turn up the volume too many times without success. imho, those radios look like a good idea, but don't quite deliver.

I had the same experience at an airport hotel - in another time zone than my home zone, and departing the next morning on a transocean flight, a week after the daylight time change. I was a technician in another life ;) on global immediate response / troubleshooting alert - no way to change the time without going to the internals. IMO they either have to make the time user-adjustable or be very strict about setting these to +/- the correct time.

(You have to wonder how much more expensive it would have been to volume purchase these clocks with a requirement for "Atomic Clock" once-a-day setting, in this day and age, and how much housekeeping staff time that move might have eliminated.)

The DST problems were because USA DST rules changed this year to start earlier and end later. The Hilton clocks have a built-in DST change based on the old rules.

I have one of these at home, and for about a month it was wrong until the "old" DST weekend, when the clock automatically adjusted. Same thing is going to happen this fall when it falls back to Standard Time on the "old" weekend while the US is still on DST another few weeks. Unfortunately there's no way to download a patch to the clock.

I have run into a lot of hotels where the Hilton clock radio's volume wouldn't adjust. That's plain broken. I'm pretty sure the guy at the desk was just making up a story to avoid having to send up a new clock.

Thanks.

The young woman who answered the phone first seemed quite certain that the volume was locked-on-low on purpose as per management policy, which immediately made me think "Oh? You cater to inconsiderate people as regular guests at this Hilton? Do you 'lock' the TV volume, too?" Not the impression I'm sure they'd like to give. For what it's worth, the volume could not be lowered on that original clock either - neither UP nor DOWN worked.

I would like to know, from someone who has actually unscrewed the control panel, whether it is possible to "lock" the volume?

Just an FYI - the manual for the retail version of the Hilton clocks can be found here:
http://www.timexaudio.com/pdf/T622_IB58972_84.pdf

The "lock" button seems to be intended to disable the changing of the presets. There's no mention of it locking a maximum volume level, but that could be an undocumented feature.

Note that on the retail version there's a nice thumbscrew which holds the top cover in place. On most Hilton clocks I've seen, there's a Philllips screw.

Thanks for the link!

I'm going to assume the volume thing is a defect in this model (as I have encountered this issue a couple of times elsewhere); tough to believe the hotel staff would outright lie to guests with such a story, but I became quite suspicious when the "supervisor" told me that only the radio volume was "locked" and that the AUX was supposed to go to maximum. That made no sense to me whatsoever. I would now put my bet on the housekeeper having been instructed to bring me a radio from an un-occupied room.

very infomative post. I alawsy noticed that my alarm wouldnt play load enough (i am a heavy sleeper) never once thought it was intentional.

No if only the guy in the room next to mines cell phone wouldnt keep ringing all night and morning I had no trouble hearing it

Yeow! Great info; thanks for that! ^

(Prefers 777-223ERs) ;)

I stay at a Hilton property about once/week and like the fact that all properties use the same clock. They are easy to set and reliable. I have never had one fail on me in the past 2 years. I have noticed that they tend to run a little on the fast side. I don't see what the big deal is...these clock are 10 times better that the crap they used to have when all the hotels used a different clock and you had to figure out how to set it after flying and dealing with the airlines all day. :p

Triple 7's - they're all good! ^ My personal favorites are the ones that take me to The Hilton hotels in Hawaii. :)