Question by California MAN: What’s the best HDTV brand for customer support/warranty?
I am researching HDTV’s and have come across some reviews of brands that have bad customer support and broke on the customers after 4 or 5 years. I don’t want to put $ 1,000 into a TV to have it break a year after the warranty ends. I’m wondering what brand would be best to go with since I’m concerned about things like that. I had initially wanted to buy a Vizio but that is one I’ve read bad things about. I heard good things about Sony’s service but not sure about what they do after warranty. Thanks for any input!
Best answer:
Answer by Matt I have a Samsung TV that is absolutely amazing. I have had it for a year with no issues, and whenever I had questions about features, or programming, Samsung’s customer support was excellent. The live online chat was especially helpful, and unless you enjoy sitting on hold for hours, was much better and timelier than phone support.
I can’t say I know much about my warranty, but all my previous TV’s have been Samsung, and they have always lasted long. I have never had a TV “break” per say, but have had them become obsolete. I would recommend the new LED TV. My friend bought one, and besides the higher picture quality, his electricity usage from the TV is much lower than mine. Also, we accidentally dropped it while mounting it on the wall, and because it was so light it barely even left a mark on the TV.
What do you think? Answer below!
UPDATE-9/21/2011– Had to send photos of unit to Vizio via email. Vizio is giving me a new unit which they said is “re-certified” which means it’s a unit that was sent to Costco- Costco could only fit so many in warerhouse and the rest are returned – unboxed -double checked for damage- computer diagnostic- then reboxed. Is this really new or not? Anyone trust the explanation? Our recent January 2011 purchase from Costco has started acting up. When you turn it on, the screen will do the following: -phase from a section of dark to a very light gray with small white lines going vertical across the entire screen. -all black screen broken into thirds with just 2 white small lines going vertical. -screen will have tv program on but image will phase in colors like “solarization” but it will effect specific colors like darks will look neon-ish green. We had a Panasonic with problems and now we have this Vizio that’s getting me pissed. Anyone with similar issues? Any idea what to do? I called Costco and we phone conferenced with Vizio support. Did the old unplug of units and wait 15 minute BS. Can’t return after 90 days. Have to go through customer support. Also, don’t know if this is important but I have Comcast cable. Could they be the ones making problems for me? Video Rating: 0 / 5
Question by Fu Manchu: Vizio: Poor Customer Service? Problem honoring Warranty?
I have a TV problem and after dealing with customer support, and all three tiers of technical support, they are fixed on not honoring my warranty.
I ran into this quote online, “True enough, but the fact remains that Vizio does not maintain a spare parts inventory for their panels. The 90 day return is just that, (obviously) no longer useful after 3 months. The one year warranty includes in home service, but any failure during the extension period means swapping for a refurb, with all the RMA/transport/shipping/delivery hassles and expenses that go along with it. Should anything fail beyond the extension, you’re still stuck with a $ 1200 ashtray/coffee table, while footing the bill for a new (probable tier 1) flat panel. This is not some far fetched scenario; there are (former) Vizio owners out there dealing with this dilemma.”
Have you had a problem with Vizio honoring their warranty? Or had repeated repeated attempts made to fix the same problem?
Best answer:
Answer by R T I understand your problem and you have my sympathy. This is one of the reasons that many of the top contributors on this board, including me, advise against Vizio, Olevia, Insignia, Durabrand and many other “off” and house brands. You are best to stick with an established leader, Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Sharp, Pioneer, etc. You get what you pay for.
Give your answer to this question below!
I absolutely love this TV. It has a fantastic picture, lots of great apps, the remote is great, everything about it is fantastic – except for one thing: the TV is unwatchable. This TV has a major firmware flaw. When the TV encounters a significant scene change, particularly if the scene change involves a sudden, black image, the TV turns itself off. Pulling the power cord for a few seconds to reset the TV fixes it for a while – but the problem eventually returns. Watching a Blu-Ray disc is impossible – the TV turns itself off almost every 30 seconds or so. It happens when watching something via HDMI, it even happens (less frequently) when watching something on the internal built-in Netflix app. Obviously there is a firmware problem in the code that is decoding and displaying the image – I suspect when an exception happens in this code, the TV turns itself off. Doing a Google search for “M550SV” and “turns off” you can see that this is not an uncommon problem – it’s quite widespread. It is also happening to the M420SV, the 42 inch version of this TV. Repeated calls to Vizio customer support result in denial of any known problem, and claims that it must be “power related” – telling me to go buy a surge suppressor (I already have one on the TV). When I pressed them on the issue, they agreed to send a repairman to my house to “replace the power supply.” Replacing the power supply is not going to fix a firmware problem. The problem can be easily demonstrated by playing a pre … Video Rating: 5 / 5