[shadowspawn]

I got my TH-42PA20U in August 2003. Since it was obviously from the first three months of production, I kept waiting for the dreaded "shutdown problem" to happen, but it never did.


Then, this week, after 14 months and 3200 hours of service (per the internal service hours counter), the shutdown problem began happening. It's following the usual course. First one shutdown, then 2 the next day, then 4 the next day, coming more frequently as time goes on. It can be fixed by pulling the power cord out and plugging it back in.


Of course, it waited until the unit was no longer covered by the factory warranty. I did not buy an extended warranty when I could have, because I didn't think that this problem was going to happen if it had not happened after 12 months and 2800 hours of use.


So, two things:


1. Your TH-42PA20U is NEVER too old or too well used for you to feel safe from this problem. If you have a TH-42PA20U that might be from the first few months of production, be worried...


2. Has anyone had any luck getting Panasonic to cover this repair later than 12 months after purchase? This is a known, Day One defect that Panasonic has acknowledged, so I feel that they owe me the repair even though the unit is older than 12 months old. On the other hand, given everything I have heard about the poor attitude at Panasonic Technical Support, I'm not feeling very hopeful about this.


Any experience or advice?

 

[slb]

If you purchased it with a credit card, you may be able to effectively double the warranty period. Most of the major credit card companies have this provision, but it's usually not automatic, you must contact the provider's customer service to activate it.


Regards,

Steve

 

[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

 

[jdallaire]

I would contact panny right away. This is a known manufacture defect and I believe they may help you with this issue. Please post here what your outcome is as I would be curious to know how Panny will deal with there costumers. If I were Panny I would not leave you hanging with a $3000.00 TV with a known defect. Be courteous with them let they know your disappointed and good luck.

 

[shadowspawn]

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.....

 

[hiker]

For what little consolation it might be, I was quoted by an authorized panasonic servicer the cost of $165 for in home repair. At some point, your time and the aggravation is just not worth it. You might want to use as a learning experience so that next time you get an extended warranty.

 

[Clepto]

well 165 is still likely cheaper than the extended warranty...

 

[shadowspawn]

Well, it was a really expensive fix by most standards. The cost for an in-home fix was over $400. Why? I dunno.... I called four different service places; two would only do in-the-shop 2-week-turnaround service. The two that would do in-home were both over $400 for this little part-swap fix.


After a lot of talking and writing and faxing, I finally convinced Panasonic USA Customer Service to cover 50% of the cost of the fix, even though the display was slightly out of warrantee. Not an ideal outcome, but better than nothing.


I actually had the repair done last month (October), although the compensation from Panasonic arrived only recently. The repair was definitely the right one, for the same problem discussed in this thread. The display was spiraling into un-usability because of frequent power shutdowns; since that 5-pin power regulation IC was replaced last month, it has been rock-solid.


Now I have a dilemma. I was really interested in the new Panasonic HD displays with built-in HD satellite tuners, but having put a couple of hundred $dollars of my own money into this ED display, I hate the idea of getting rid of it and replacing it with a current-model HD display.


So, I think I'll sit tight and continue to enjoy my repaired display for a couple of years at least.

 

[R Harkness]

Glad to hear at least you have your plasma back. I understand how you'd be incredibly p*ssed off by the episode.


My experience with Panasonic Canada has actually been fantastic. I got my first 4UY plasma and after several months noticed what I thought then was a type of burn-in. Very subtle and mostly noticeable only when I turned on the white screen saver. I complained to Panasonic that I shouldn't have burn-in so soon and that I'd been careful. Burn-in was specifically not covered in Panasonic's warranty. However, they didn't hesitate much in replacing my display - even though the tech guys could barely see what I was talking about in the image when I brought it to the service department.


But, they made their customer happy and more loyal. (It turned out that it wasn't burn-in on my first panel after-all but that's another story). My friend has had similar experience with Panasonic too and they made a fan of him.


This just goes to show the effects of how you treat your customers. If Panasonic treats 'em bad in one branch it is very short-sighted. Luckily my local Panasonic branch seems to know how to treat customers.