Issues with latest (1/12) Vizio firmware update - Page 7

Ok, it's weekend 8 without being able to watch TV, movies, or play my video games.

I submitted a complaint to The Federal Trade Commission, I don't know how much this'll help but.....

.....I don't know at this point......

I could say, "I'm sad" blah blah blah. But that's obvious.

If I can take legal action I guess I can try, but I'd have to wait months for that. Towards the end of the year basically. Like Fall basically. Like, the year just started......and this's been my life for two whole months.

This would be different if this was a car. With a car, the issue would be transportation. But there's the train, a bus, your feet. You can do what you need to do without a car, for the most part.

I don't have any other way to watch TV if my TV gets messed up. And that's why this is killing me so much.

But that's it for now. It's another three day weekend. It's gonna suck. 8/52 weekends being bored out of my mind. Thank you Vizio. You're awesome as hell.

I bookmarked The Illinois Attorney General page, I think that'd be more help than The Federal Trade Commission as far as getting things done NOW. I'll probably look over that tomorrow, contact them, and tell you all what happens on here after I hear back from them. For the sake of records I guess. Sorry for all the long post.

Update:

I have seen the frame rate issue in 3D animation. My little brother is watching this Tinker Bell And The Secret of The Wings movie right now, and I've seen the frame rate drop plenty of times.

Also, I believe that I HAVE seen this issue in AVI's and MP4's.

But I can say that 3D animation is effected by this frame rate issue now. Which would include video games as well.
Edited by TheNeonBlueOwl - 2/16/13 at 11:46pm

Endgame, there's no hope:

I'm basically updating this for reference, for anyone else who might have issues with Vizio in the future. I hope no one does, but I'm just sharing this little bit of information.

Basically, I'm screwed. I feel like crap. I wasted $660, which......I don't know when I'll have that much money again. So....I just feel like crap. I'm in my room right now pretty much mourning my TV, which wasn't even good for two years.

I can't reproduce the email, but this is the final thing:

-I was told that since the TV isn't made anymore, the chances for a new firmware are extremely slim.

(But they'll make a firmware after most people's warranties are gone..............)

-He keeps mentioning the warranty and it's pissing me off. I told him, this TV came out in 2010, the firmware was released in 2011, most people would be out of the original warranty anyway.

This problem has nothing to do with warranty. And it just pisses me off that he keeps bringing that up. And gets upset with me when I basically tell him: the warranty doesn't matter.

-He said the problem can't be fully tied with the firmware. Like I said, he has no faith in the same claim made by everyone I found online.

And there's no one else to talk to. This problem goes to this guy. The same guy who compared the online complaints to Bigfoot. So....regardless.......

I get his point. But there's no freakin conspiracy against your company.

The other week, the heat wouldn't kick on, I smelled fumes at the same time.

One year ago, ALLLLLLL these people download a firmware, their frame rate gets messed up.

But he doesn't have any faith that this is an issue.

He's calling this "a few isolated issues". Which might be my fault for giving him the idea that maybe 200/500,000 might be effected.

But that just shows how things work. They don't care about the few people effected by this.

If 10/200 people in an office building have an allergy to something as simple as rubber bands, you help them out.

I've seen it plenty of times where a few people have experienced a glitch in a video game, so the video game maker makes a patch for those few people. They want 100% satisfaction. Vizio......they don't care.

-He offered one final offer: To send the TV in to be looked at. I'd pay for shipping TO, and they'd cover the return.

First of all, I threw away the box three months before this issue. It's in a landfill (I'm a hypocrite tree hugger). Second, shipping a TV would be super expensive.

Imagine getting packing material plus shipping a huge TV. If I thought $87 was a loss to maybe fix the problem, what makes him think I'll be able to do this?

He's pretty much treated me like.....every word that came out of my mouth was annoying and stupid.

I haven't liked the way I've been talked to this whole time.

I ask for specifics and he'll straight up ignore me.

Like a few emails ago I asked for a time frame on when I could hear from them.

He responds completely walking around my request.

So I send him another email, being a little more...not polite, and he finally says that he can't give me one.

I ask him how my case'll be looked at, he dances around my request.

It's do disrespectful. It's my TV. I paid for it. I wanna know stuff. Don't get angry because I ask for information.

-Last:

This was a great TV. I have it on right now, just showing my PlayStation 3's menu, it looks so good.

Like I said, I put a month of research into this TV. All the reviews I read were valid. But they're not anymore. That amazing HDTV, my version of my first car, is gone. I don't have that TV anymore. It was taken away by the people who made it, which isn't fair because I didn't ask them to interfere. I was fine without YouTube and Skype. Whatever apps they added in this update that messed up my TV.

I was fine with this TV. I was happy with it. Someone I know just bought a Vizio recently after talking to me about it, before all this happened.

The company cared enough to add some apps that a few people asked for. But they don't want to help a few people having a problem. This is the lowest I've ever seen any company go, ever.

It's like....a new form of theft. This is not my TV anymore. This TV should be ok right now. I did pick the right TV. But...it's not here in my room anymore. And, I just hate that.

I would've much rather have waited a few months without a TV, save up a little more money, and bought a different TV, if I knew this was gonna happen.

The other TV's in this house, which aren't mine, Toshiba's. A decade old each, under the same series, both working perfectly. Every electronic in this house, a brand you recognize.

I took a chance on Vizio. I'd never heard of them. But based off of my research, this TV was amazing.

It had a slight lag for gamers, but from what I know a lot of HDTV's do, the same way a lot of HDTV's have motion issues.

And that was fine to me.

When TV first came out, it was in black and white.

Then we had antenna's.

Then we had digital cable.

Then we got HD.

Technology evolves, so the few problems this TV had, I was 100% ok with.

But this frame rate issue, makes it impossible to watch TV without....it just makes it impossible to watch TV. Play video games, enjoy my DVD and Blu Ray collection that I bought this once amazing TV for.

So....at the end of the day, Vizio stole my TV from me. Their representative thinks I'm annoying. And I'm pretty much stuck with books for the next few months. "Few months".....even if I could find a good job, I'd still be spending money I shouldn't have ever had to spend. And it's expensive. Re-buying a decent HDTV is way worse than re-buying a movie your little brother scratched up. Or the $200 that was spent replacing my PS2 slime twice.

I don't want to save up $660 again for something I already thought I had. It's just stupid, and I feel like crap.

This back and forth with Vizio really ruined the start of my year. I've been so bored and I've been on the Internet for about two months straight. I could've been reading, but it's depressing when you have comics and books that you have movie and cartoon adaptions of that you can't even watch if you wanted to.

I still have Christmas gifts I haven't enjoyed. And stuff pre-ordered that...by the time I get to it, the hype'll be all gone. Everyone else would have seen the movie already. Played the game.

I wanna write TV for a a living and this happens.....

Bottom line, if my post can help anyone in the future great. If this happens to you, I'm sorry. But if you buy a Vizio, and things go well for you, I'm completely happy for you.

Now I have to figure out what to do with this TV. I don't want it to be a total loss.

I hope I find a good solution like the rest of you. Maybe I'll use it as a computer monitor. But I don't think anyone should have this TV, I wanna sell it for parts.

Thank you. Everyone on this forum's helped sooooo much. Knowing I'm not alone made things so much easier.
Edited by TheNeonBlueOwl - 2/25/13 at 7:33am

I saw the Facebook page. I linked the post I put with all the firmware complaints that I found.

Also:

He said something really bad. I already said it, but he basically told me that because the TV's aren't made anymore, that the chances for a new firmware are slim. That basically means, and I told him this, that while the TV's were being made, you guys still didn't do anything about it. The reason that the opportunity for new firmware to be made is because you guys did nothing one year ago.

After the last email I sent, he hasn't responded. I've been so polite, all I did was point out the way that I feel about the situation, and putting more blame on the company, and he ignores me. Normally he'd have responded by now. Like I told him in one of the emails, it's obvious that he's annoyed by me.

If this is a few, small, isolated incidents, and there's 499,950 or so people who got the firmware update fine, then they should look at it like that. Don't make a new firmware, just give us replacement TV's. Or, our money back. It wouldn't be a huge loss. 50/499,950....that's not a big deal.

And that's the thing that's frustrating me. They're looking at the majority, completely ignoring us.

It would be a different story if we all unplugged our TV's while the firmware was downloading. Then they could say, "well, it's your fault". But the firmware downloaded "fine". They should care about us. Even if it's just a few people.

One more:

If 500,000 copies of a book are printed, and 10 people say that their pages skip from page 210 to 220, they should matter. They did everything right. The bought the book, shrink wrapped or not. Online or in the store. The book came out years ago, but this is a new printing. It doesn't matter. They should have compensation.

That's not how Vizio sees it (or the guy I've been talking to):

1. The guy I'm talking to doesn't look at this issue beyond me. Like I said, he said something like "If 10 people say something, that doesn't mean that there's a problem." That just pisses me off. As long as he's the only guy that I talk to, what can I do? As long as he has that opinion, that mindset, nothing's gonna happen.

2. Also like he said, he doesn't see it as a widespread problem. SO WHAT? Something doesn't have to be widespread to be a problem. If 100 people live in an apartment building, and only one complains of flickering lights, then their problem doesn't exist!? That's such a crazy way to look at things.

3. I'm out of warranty. SO WHAT? Everyone was/is. I've had plenty of out of warranty iPod's and a NO WARRANTY iPhone. I had a problem, I went by the Apple Store. BOOM! I got help. This isn't a warranty issue! It's not a parts issue! It's a basic service issue!

And let's say our downloads "glitched". They don't have a way to re-download it? Anything they can do on their end? It's crazy. It's stupid.

Hey guys. This update is overdue.

But about a month ago, the situation was "resolved" in some form. I don't have the XVT TV anymore, but I have some way of watching TV (which is having problems of its own right now).

But as far as this situation goes, basically, the bottom line that I was told is that the engineers can't be "forced" to write a new firmware for the XVT TV's.

(And if they do make a firmware, I'd be pissed because that was a great TV.)

What I will say is that Vizio DOES HAVE my jacked up TV. For "research". So...if any of you guys call and they STILL say that they don't see the problem, then we really do have a problem.

It's one thing to not know why a problem exist. But they can figure that out, since they built the technology.

But to deny the obvious....

So just remember that you all. THEY HAVE MY TV. So try again, if they say they've never heard of the problem. They're lying. If they say no one's reported this. Lie. If they say......they've never seen this in a TV before. Lieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

But overall, Vizio doesn't handle their crap. So they can't be "forced" to write a firmware. SO WHAT? You guys still didn't fix a problem you had SO MUCH TIME to fix.

And like I told the guy, this is one if the top results on Google. So for anyone who sees this forum in the future, THIS PROBLEM WAS NEVER FIXED.

And if Vizio continues to release firmware based TV's, PEOPLE WILL SEE THIS FORUM. Y'know, I thought that pressure would be enough for them, but I guess this isn't seen as a threat.

And remember, THEY caused the problem. Not only did they NOT own up to it, they really didn't do crap to fix it.

I would keep fighting. But I'm so tired of this. Maybe I'll see what else can be done later. But for now, I'm just tired. And I have problems to fix on my new TV.

P.s. The TV I'm using now is a Vizio unfortunately.

It's a little newer, LCD (boo). But just last night, it started buzzing. And it's not coming from the speakers. It's like, damn, can I get a break from these guys? Y'know?

And it has 3D so...even if I wanted to sell it for parts, I don't wanna give that up.

And just to back up that Vizio doesn't handle their crap, look at what their website says about the problem I'm having with the new TV:

https://vizio.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/41/~/my-tv-is-making-a-humming-sound.

It starts off saying "There are a few things that can cause your TV to make a humming sound." but NEVER says what can cause it.

Just like this situation. I asked and asked and asked, they couldn't give a straight answer about the power or picture problems. And I look on their website. Even it can't explain anything. I want REASONS.

But even their WEBSITE dodges explaining things. Like what the heck? Is that a part of their business model?

Anyway, I have a new problem to fix. I got a one month break. It took three weeks to find the right picture settings. Then after one week of non-tinkering, just watching TV, the TV starts buzzing. That's great y'know?

I still have a limited warranty but my gosh....I hope it can just be fixed in the house.

Sorry to hear you are having problems with the new Vizio. My 552 XVT is still sitting in my basement waiting for the day when a new firmware comes along that fixes the problems. Every time I walk by it, I am reminded that I will never buy another Vizio. Ironically, the television is protected from dust by the plastic foam covering that my 70" Sharp shipped in.