I got a Westinghouse SK-32H240S TV about 5 months ago, and it died on me this week.

I had unplugged the TV, and then plugged it back in. After that I get the blue standby light, but the unit won't turn on. My reasoning was that either a fuse was blown or there was some other power supply issue with the unit.

At any rate, I called Westinghouse they offered to arrange to have me exchange out the unit. They gave me two options. Either:

Send in the unit to Westinghouse (and pay big $$ for shipping to them) and they will send me a refurbished unit back, or
Tell them which Best Buy location I wish to take the TV back to, and Best Buy will either exchange the unit (if in stock) or give me store credit

Since shipping for this thing can't be too cheap, I decided to swap it out at Best Buy. I called the local Best Buy and they no longer carry the same model, so I'd end up with a store credit. Unfortunately, the comparable Westinghouse model is a hundred bucks more than what a store credit would be, so I'll have to shell out some cash to get my TV.

Up until this point, I had been very happy with the Westinghouse TV, and also with Westinghouse's customer service, and would have recommended Westinghouse to anyone, but as I did some research online, I found more and more reviews about the short lifetimes of Westinghouse TVs (less than two years) and little options for third-party repair.

Many have commented that the low Westinghouse pricepoint is achieved by lower-quality components in the TV sets, and thus you really get what you pay for.

So now I'm wondering whether I should jump-ship to another brand with my store credit since I'll have to dish out money for the other westinghouse TV anyway. Having a TV die on me after 5 months really diminishes my confidence in the Westy brand. Westinghouse's low price point makes me want to get another one of their units, but I'm starting to wonder whether saving $200 on a TV will be worth it in the long run if the unit only lasts a year or two.

I'm not looking to start a flame war about brands, but how do you weigh price and quality when getting a TV, and does anyone have long-term success, or horror stories about Westinghouse TVs?

I'm mainly interested in hearing how long people's Westinghouse units have lasted.

I have a refurb Westy LTV-32W6 or that I bought a year ago that's still going. I have noticed image retention (4:3) as well as some possible dead spots in the corners. It could be nothing, but I knew it was a possibility.

It is okay for a bedroom. However, I'm glad I got the refurb not the new unit based on certain issues I have with it out of the box (related to HDMI audio--everyone has the same issue).

Bump...

any more advice on Westinghouse TVs and longevity?

Don't believe I would stick with this brand.

I would go with a different brand, too.

jump-ship

I'm not looking to start a flame war about brands, but how do you weigh price and quality when getting a TV, and does anyone have long-term success, or horror stories about Westinghouse TVs?


i go for the "best bang for the buck" type tvs. i'm not a videophile so having the absolute best picture doesn't matter to me (you won't get the best picture in an lcd anyways). imo, the vizios, olevias, and westinghouses fall into the "best bang for the buck" category to me. i have both a vizio and an olevia and have had no problems with either. i know it sucks that you got a bad westinghouse and it even sucks more that you're stuck with best buy store credit. if it were me, i would grab another westy (even though you have to fork out some more cash) or try to find one of the "major" brands on sale at BB in your price range.

How much store credit do you have? You could probably get a similar type of TV from one of the major brands for about the same price. However if you choose to go with a 2nd tier brand, I would recommend a Vizio. My sister has had one for about a year and it's still going great.

Well, I took the TV to Best Buy yesterday.

Although previously told that they didn't have the same unit in stock, when I went up they indeed had three in stock, so I got another one (I didn't have the option to use the store credit, which they said could only be used to buy another Westinghouse, and no other brand). I double check the model numbers, and they indeed are the same.

I get home, and the menus are different from the original unit's (they look crappy). As I start exploring the TV more, I find that a bunch of features that were in my old unit aren't there anymore. I call Westinghouse, and they say that late last year, they changed the firmware and features on the TV... for some reason they decided to change the decent menu to a crappy-looking one, and remove several features ("Favorite" Channels, Guide, Picture-in-picture [TV and Computer]... all software mods).

I take the TV to Best Buy and they say that since i'm disappointed with the unit, I can take my $550 store credit and get a different TV (not just another Westinghouse). Unfortunately, they didn't have that one in stock, so I have to go to another Best Buy.

The other Best Buy tells me that despite the fact that they didn't do the return of the TV, and didn't have the special authorization for the original return, they would let me upgrade to a different TV. I tried to see if the manager would give me a break on the TV but he tells me that he can't since he'll already have to sell my old unit as an "open-box" item.

I ended up paying $150 more to get the Sony KDL-32L4000 (just unboxed it). I think in the end this was a good decision.

Of course, the manager and another cashier tag-team me asking me about the extended service plan for only $90. Since I know about their 50% profits with these, I tell him no (they asked twice more)... they were really pushy with this. I think the reason he let me exchange was because he thought he'd be able to get his numbers for service plans up.