The official Epson 8700UB thread - Page 92

Any feedback from Epson about the PJ shutdown and flashing red light ? I'm having the same problem !

I should get my PJ from the service center next week and will post what they did. Epson told me it was a lamp problem and send me a new lamp and still had the same problem.

Interesting... thanks for the info Tinman. How hard would it be for them to also fix the convergence? It's not horrible but its off by enough to be noticeable and seems like a good time to get it fixed as well.

Convergence is much harder to fix. It involves aligning the 3 LCD panels respective to each other through the beam combiner block. It was doable with older larger panels, but now they are so small that the TINIEST movement makes a huge visual difference. It's doable, but can take many hours to get perfect. It's also likely that it drifts a little with heat. Remember, the mechanical tolerances are so small that just thermal expansion will move the panels enough to be "visible". Most techs won't want to bother with this.

This type of job is ok if YOU are the tech and it's your own unit. I have fiddled for DAYS on some of my own stuff to get it just so.... but there is no way I'd do that for a customer, as it's not economical to compensate me for the time involved.

This was so easy on the first sharp projectors with it's huge 4" panels. That thing was like working on a car compared to today's projectors.

I just lost my first bulb. It had about 1400 hours on it.

I had the second lamp from the purchase rebate. The projector isn't 2 years old until July.

Have any of you gotten Epson to replace the lamp for these conditions?

Call Epson and I think they will replace your lamp.

Nice! I called, and they are going to replace the lamp.

Is there any way to get the serial number of the unit from the menus? I didn't see it in there. My PJ is about 12 feet up in the air!

If you still have your box it should have the serial number on it.

I always keep my box for any electronic thing. I use it as shipping and it adds to the resale value too, believe it or not.

It can, but for those of us living in the city, we don't have storage for empty boxes!

Got a call from the service center about blinking red lamp light problem. The service center said it's a power problem or optical block. They called Epson and where told to just replace the projector.

Got my replacement projector on Friday and just installed it and it's DOA. What a joke Epson's QC is, going to call on Monday and deal with these idiots.

Wow... that's just not acceptable. Give em hell!

I asked the CSR about there QC and he said they inspect all projectors to make sure they are working properly. Even the service center where I took my projector to said good luck because there QC is bad. They had one guy exchange his projector about 3 times before getting one that worked.

well, I finally have my setup back up and running with my now 3rd 8700ub and so far so good. The image has no issues at all, very satisfied there. I occasionally feel like the iris is a little louder on this unit than the other units I've had (the 2 previous 8700ub and an 8500ub) but it's still acceptable and to be expected to some degree.

Hopefully this one will last me but I definitely wonder about replacements/repairs in the near future with the supplies on these rapidly dwindling. If we have an issue in 6 months will they have any replacements left for us? Will they provide a discounted upgrade path instead or just make us take it in to a service center and hope they can fix it?

The way they are sending bad projectors to us means we are screw with Epson. They just don't care and will keep sending us projectors until we get a good one.

Will guys spoke to Epson today about the DOA projector they sent me. I was told that they do inspect the projectors before going out. I told the CSR that's not true that others are getting bad units just like me. They are going to send my next replacement to Long Beach, CA for inspection before sending it to me. I should get it by Wednesday and will report back.

I think Epson channel their resources into customer service rather than quality control. In some ways it's a more sensible business model because in all likelihood only 1 or 2 in 100 customers actually rattle the cage. The discerning 1% therefore gets all the attention and I am sure the company uses sophisticated metrics to calculate the potential for business lost and associated risk. I have been dealing with Epson over a number of bad 8700UBs and they have been extremely helpful and eventually upgraded my unit. I have heard that some of the other PJ manufacturers are not so accommodating with warranties/returns, so it's worth keeping that in mind.

that's part of the reason I ended up buying the 8700UB despite knowing about the possibility of several lemons before getting an appropriately working projector. Their customer service is easy to work with and definitely helps minimize the frustration of the return/exchange process.

Don't you think Epson should channel their resources into better QC than customer service. With all these bad projectors out there people will think twice before buying anything Epson. .

I think they definitely have big QC issues, but the matter is amplified with the refurb 8700UB's at this point. Their supply of this model is small so your chances of a bum unit are much higher, especially considering most of us are doing the projector carousel with them rather than putting up with a defective projector and all those projectors we reject are going back into the supply pile.

I've read there are still some QC issues with the new models, but I imagine your chances there are much better.

After going through many hassles before with other companies on other products that had worse problems where they wouldn't replace the unit, I do value Espon's willingness to make that process relatively painless for me. I don't know if I'll buy any from them again, but I'm not completely soured on them.

Yes, you a right even the new projectors from Epson are having problems. Those people will also be having the same issue as we are with the 8700ub. When I get one that's working properly I'm going to sell it and move on.

Well, that's the point. How many of us out there really do think twice? We on these blogs are much more fastidious than your average consumer. I will wager that 90% of Epson's customers are buying 8350/8700 projectors to watch Monday Night Football on a painted wall in their living rooms and have little or no interest in black levels, calibration, aspect ratios etc.

Make sure you ask to be escalated from the Philippines-based Level 1 Support to Advanced Support in Long Beach and they will help you find a good unit. Keep a note of all your phone calls, ticket numbers and serial numbers, and let someone there know the whole history. You may have done that already, so apologies for the advice if so, but at some point one of the staff will be assigned to your case and will deliver.

Got my replacement today and it's working for now and with a letter saying they inspected it before shipping. I've told they my story and got level 2 and they did overnight it to me. I'm keeping notes of all my phone calls, ticket numbers and serial numbers of the projectors.

The reason that I and others continue to buy Epson is they never give up when trying to solve your problem. However it is painful it takes 3 replacements to get it right, so eventually even the best customer services can not compensate for that, but for now I am OK with the trade off.

On the refurb side i think the problem is they are QC'ing with the smallest possible image - zoomed to the extreme with short throw. I got a refurb where the zoom and focus rings were stuck - likely over tightened and another where the convergence would not show on a very small projected image. If they QC'ed in a realistic environment both these problems would have been caught.

With very minimal effort in the QC and refurb process, I think this can be solved.

Just for the record, I personally have installed over 20- 8350s and 8- 8700s, and gosh, golly....none of them have had any single issue so often related on either Epson 8000 threads.
No Dust. No visible color banding or shadowing on sides or edges, and no noticeable Convergence issues.

At least 4- 8350s have in excess of 4000 hrs on the original lamp...one has almost 6K. To date, not a single 8700 has had a premature lamp Failure ( - 2000 hrs )
1 8350 did have an electrical failure after a surge from a lightning strike, that blew out both HDMI inputs, but it was exchanged for a Refurb that also has performed with distinction.

8350 Lamps that have failed at 1800 to 2300 hrs and were replaced @ N/C

Most all of the 8350 units installed are used daily....lot's of TV viewing. The 8700s are to a one all installed in "Theaters"

I did just replace one of those (8700) for a 5020, but it's still cherry looking in every respect, still has it's original Lamp in place, and still has it's freebee lamp in the Box. Gonna list it up on AVS Classifieds soon.

As Musicalfox stated, the Threads on AVS contain activist individuals who are both adept at searching for a venue to find solutions to issues, and VERY adept at expressing their dismay if such relief is not had.....yesterday. They are by far the most outspoken, and usually the most antagonistic as far as the content and expressed feelings contained within their posts.*** Such is the nature of such Forum venues, and while they most certainly do NOT represent the mainstream of consumer experience, they can indeed influence a Mfg attitudes and effective actions. I've seen it happen, as have many others. One cannot discount the effect even a limited number of complaints coming from such "activist" quarters have on the sensibilities of a Mfg who actually cares, and it's quite apparent that Epson USA does care..

What is lamentable is how all too often, a few individuals take personal affront, and become determined to ward off any / all others from even considering the same purchase they themselves made. Usually it's really all just a case of frustration *** (...some have had to get 3...even 5 units replaced...) and in such cases some "Mfg directed" ire is absolutely deserved. But in the end, even after having finally gotten resolution, even a upgrade, such response that would NOT be expected from any other PJ Mfg, still they continue to rant against the Mfg / product.

Redundant expression of a personally developed attitude is also a Internet standard. Subjectivity and objectivity flies out the window if anonymity can be / is used as a shield. But what I see happen the most on the Epson Threads is just a case of continual Venting to express ire by a relative few.

So are you calling me out for not been happy with the whole process with Epson. So now we cannot express our dissatisfaction with a company that is having QC issues. I'll stop posting don't want the fan boys getting upset.

Not a fanboy, but 2 out of 4 HT projectors owned are Epson.

Every company makes mistakes - what sets the good companies apart from the bad ones is how they are dealing with it. Ideally there would not be any problems with your projector, but when there is a problem I don't know anyone who takes better care of you then Epson. Annoying to have to go through a couple of refurbs? Yes, but you still like the end result. I had another mainstream brand projector with several problems - the same caliber as with the Epson, however the company decided to ignore the problems and release a new product and leaving existing customers with a bad product. I take Epson's approach any day.

I think one of the reasons companies are improving their customer service is because of forums like this, so it do think it is healthy to share good and bad experiences as long as we don't get into vendetta mode ;-)

jsil, I just looked at a couple of your posts and they seems pretty constructive, so keep them coming ;-) When I had projector problems, I found it valuable to read about other peoples experiences and what to look for to assess if your replacement is OK.

An update on my Blob issue with my 8700 UB. After speaking to epson which recommended I bring to projector doctor(in warranty). Well...PJ lost my proof of purchase, failed to call me about that they did so, so they just had the projector sitting there. I had to call them 2 weeks later to find out why nothing has been happening. So, after I send them another copy, it then takes another week for them to eval it, after they said they would call me the next day.

Now they are saying it needs a lamp replacement and want to charge me 300 dollars, because its not covered "under warranty"????

What the heck!!! Arg!

I've contacted Epson again to see what the deal is, but its been over a month now!

I've read all over this forum that Epson with replace this for you? Its got about 100 hours on the orignal lamp, unit is less than a year old. Any thoughts??? Should I call them again ... and I hate to, but "raise a little stink" ?

Just out of curiosity: why did you decide to have it repaired instead of taking a refurb with a new lamp? I was a bit torn as I had perfect convergence on my original 9700 and it took 3 attempts to get a a good replacement, but it doesn't seem like your repair experience is particular nice either.