Quote:
Originally posted by hiker
I also had a failure after the 1 year warranty had expired but have an extended warranty. I suspect there will be more failures. There is a special thread where these experiences should be documented:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=302017 |
When I have more data, I'll update that thread.
Since I made my original post, not so many hours ago, there is new data.
The display has, in just a few hours, become essentially unusable. It shuts down about every 10 minutes. I now have a $4000 Panasonic boat anchor.
The local authorized service places are happy to service it, because they have seen LOTS of this problem, and they know all about it. But none of them have the part in stock, and they don't want to order it until I can tell them whether I or Panasonic will be paying for the fix.
The World Series is about to start. I live in New England. I am SERIOUSLY pissed off at Panasonic.
I had a long talk with a Panasonic Customer Service fellow late today. It went about as well as could be expected. I was kind and courteous -- I began my adult career in customer support on the end of the phone line, so I have some idea what the Support people are up against every day, and so I did not want to bust this guy's chops. He had had never heard of the problem, and he had no clue, which was about what I expected (Panasonic's fault, not his).
He told me to FAX piles of documentation -- my receipts, serial number, credit card slips, etc. -- attn: "ERMEINE" at Panasonic, and a Supervisor would get back to me within 2 weeks to tell me their decision.
This is at the start of the World Series, of course.
At this point, I think Panasonic may have lost a LOT of money from me (in the future).
I used to be a Sony bigot -- Sony gear covering the wall. Because it was high-quality, high performance, and high reliability.
I chucked Sony overboard when those essential qualities stopped being true.
Now, I have a Panasonic display, fed by a Panasonic XP-30 DVD player, and a Panasonc DMR DVD recorder. And, ironically, when I talked to Panasonic today, I was talking on a Panasonic 900Mhz wireless phone.
But, now I am in the process of being soured on Panasonic, and am starting to look at Hitachi and anyone else who will take good care of their customers.
It's not like I cannot afford the cost of paying for this fix myself. But it's the principle of the thing. Whether or not Panasonic will stand behind a product, which their NE Region Senior Technical person admits has a factory defect.
I'll keep people here updated as to what happens. At the moment, I'm not feeling optimistic. The vibes feel like, many $$$'s out of my pocket for this repair, and lots of $$$'s to ANYONE but Panasonic in future years.....