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Lol some funny errors and wording in these letters.
\"At this point I contacted Best Buy customer service to fail a claim under the \"No Lemon\" policy of the PSP for a replacement TV\"
Lol. Ironic word choice.
\"I wanted to reach out to you surrounding the email you had sent to\"
I'm not sure but I think Nichol is coming on to you..
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You just know that \"reach out to you\" language came from some team building/corporate exercise :)
But good for Matt! I hope he nets a much better TV!
P.S. Sounds like he had a DLP. Can someone confirm or deny?
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@dohtem: DLP is texas instruments' micro-mirror chip/projection system. He says this is an LCD projection TV which technically uses a similar but different technology, they are both projection based though. I still don't know why people are buying projection TV's in this day and age, just completely not worth it compared to LCD or Plasma.
@dohtem:
For a lamp like this, its always a DLP. Those lamps are huge power drains, and cost several hundred dollars to replace. The lamp for my Infocus is $500.
They also extremely fragile, and if the PSU inside the TV starts to go, it will blow the lamp before anything else. A $50 PSU taking about a $500. Got to love DLPs!
First off the tone of this posting isn't helping anyone Consumerist. BestBuy could have ignored the guy and you would have posted with the same evilness.
Why ruin the effect of an EECB with wording like \"forcing\" and \"finally\"?
Secondly, when the lamp keeps popping thats usually a bad PSU. For future reference for future customers.
@OminousG:
\"Why ruin the effect of an EECB with wording like \"forcing\" and \"finally\"?\"
You dullard, what do you think it is? A \"final\" last resort to \"finallY\" get the business to do the right thing themselves without being forced by a court, chargeback, etc. No business deserves praise for a positive result because of an EECB, an EECB means that the business did a major SUCK and failed to correct the problem through consumer channels.
@OminousG: Because an EECB shouldn't be necessary. This underlines the pointlessness of the Extended Warranties since the try to weasel out of them. It's not like \"EECB Gets Amazing Service that Customer Had No Reason to Expect\", it' \"EECB Gets Best Buy to Do Their Fucking Job After Being Paid\"
@Megalomania: @wvFrugan: @katstermonster:
The wording also undermines the effect of the EECB. If the company is going to rake over the coals even after the big wigs stepped in, whats the point of them even stepping in, in the first place.
If consumerist continues with the negative tone on EECBs, you can damn well bet consumers will lose that avenue as well.
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@OminousG: So it's your opinion that we should kiss BB's ass because they were essentially pestered into doing what they should have done from the start, because not doing so would possibly dissuade them from doing it again in the future? And this is your opinion irrespective of the fact that we wouldn't have to go this route if they were doing their jobs effectively at the retail level from the start?
So you're just arguing for the sake of it then, right?
o_O I'm starting to understand why the consumerist posts in the manner it does. Its feeding the lowest common denominator.
What I'm saying is that the person that does eventually do his/her or job shouldn't be chastised. Which is exactly what consumerist is doing. Consumerist keeps that attitude up and the EECB will end up being as useful as a phone call to a call center. Consumerist has already seen this once, they attacked a company because it took a tweet to their tweet helpline before something got fixed. So that tweetfeed got ignored by the company.
Why would any company already successful despite its lack of customer service continue to put effort behind a resource thats just going to get slammed whether it pleases the customer or not.
Consumerist is ruining the effect of the EECB.
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@Megalomania: Exactly. An EECB only comes about because the company has already failed in a pretty big way. He did have to force them. It was his last resort. Thus, the wording.
@OminousG:
I agree - why stoop to the lowest common denominator like the rest of the press?
\"Successful EECB helps consumer get defective TV replaced when in store employees wouldn't help\" would be just as good.
I don't know whether his model was covered by the class action lawsuit, but I had a Panasonic TV with the same problem. There was a class action lawsuit where I got reimbursed for all the lamps I purchased plus a brand new Panasonic TV to replace the old one which had repeated lamp bulb burnouts.
I found it rather ironic that he claimed it was \"stupid\" to buy an exteneded warranty, but it got him a completely new TV.
Is it still stupid? ;)
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@Bush2008: It would have been stupid had he just accepted the warranty folks statement and been p-o'ed at Best Buy for the rest of his natural life.
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Where bulbs are supposed to be replaced every now and then, as they are for some devices, they should be doable by the owner with minimal effort. If a service tech is required, it is clearly not intended for routine replacement.
The bulb should have lasted 20,000 hours. That's well over two years even if the TV is left on 24x7. One bulb dying early is a lemon bulb. It was replaced and things should be good now? No. The problem isn't that bulbs are burning out. The problem is that something is wrong with the TV causing bulbs to burn out early, or something is wrong with all the replacements Best Buy has. Just because the tech could not find the cause doesn't mean there isn't one. Hopefully the problem is not present in the replacement Bryan gets.
@Skaperen: Bulbs are affected by the number of times they're turned on and off, and they can be pretty sensitive when they're hot. They also don't like to be turned back on shortly after being turned off. It's possible that this guy bumped his TV a lot while the bulb was hot, or that he turns it off and on a lot... It would be a good idea to consult the manual to see what they recommend as the best way to get that 20,000 hour bulb life.
I don't know anything about this \"LiFi\" light source though. If they brag it up so much, saying that you may never have to change it, then there had better be some magic secret sauce that keeps that light working no matter what. And if it fails, and the customer can't use his TV 20% of the time, plus he has to take work off to get it fix and wait around for a month at a time, then I'd say it would be a better world if he could get at least 20% of his money back... plus the extra money he paid for the PSP.
Ironic that you can pay a lot of money for a nice, expensive TV, pay additional money to insure your purchase, and still not be able to use what you bought so much of the time, and only have things made \"right\" when you take drastic measures like e-mailing all of the store's company executives.
I believe the bulbs are a 'consumable' under the protection plan. Other consumables which do not count toward the repair count for the no lemon policy are things like laptop batteries.
@econobiker: Besides, as Skaperen said above, your average bulb should last 20,000 hours. That the TV burned through four of these things in such a short time is indicative of a problem with the television.
@FDCPAGuy: \\
Just an FYI, I purchased a laptop from Best Buy in 2005 (ducks shoe thrown at him) and bought the warranty and the warranty covers 1 replacement laptop battery a year, I called every year and they drop shipped a new battery to my house no questions asked, they didnt even want the old one back. This paid for the warranty in the second year.
@usmcmoran:
Yes but they've since changed it to one replacement during the life of the plan. But my point is it didn't count toward you no lemon repair count.
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Yeah, except 4 bulbs in short order points to a bad ballast or other part. I'd like to say I had a similar problem with a Panasonic tv from a few years ago and had to do exactly the same thing (EECB) to get it replaced. Funny part with mine was they fixed the ballast but broke the LVDS cable delivering the picture signal to the LCD. Waited *six* weeks and they still couldn't get the part.
In any case, since our original tv was very expensive we got a quite reasonable allowance for a new one, which is an LCD panel, which at this point is all I can recommend people do... RP-TV is really not worth it anymore.
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I'm glad he got his desired result, but the interesting thing to me is...Best Buy is still saying he was wrong and they were right. They're just helping him out of the kindness of their hearts now.
@coren: If they admitted he was right, they would most likely be opening themselves up to everyone who had burned out bulbs coming in to get them replaced.
In my experience with Panasonic they will go out of their way to avoid honoring any warranty claim. Anyone else had a problem with Panasonic?
As to Best Buy - due to all their evil practices published on Consumerist, I NEVER buy there. Hello Newegg!
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Hello Bryan,
I wanted to reach back out to you.
The TV was is defect at all.
I have an older version of the Panasonic LCD projection TVs. The bulbs manufactured for the USA, in Japan are specifically made to fail after a very short period of time....unfortunately you can sue panasonic because they are in japan. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS BUT THE SAME EXACT REPLACEMENT LAMP FROM EUROPE.
The one that Panasonic should be sued for is made in Japan and has soldered-on contacts.
The one that Panasonic makes in Germany for the European market has screw on contacts. You have to mod the cartridge slightly.
In my case, Panasonic replaced 4 within 2 years.
I bought the German made bulb and it has been in there for 4 years....and going !!!!!!!
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There's a lot of misinformation in the comments here. People are suggesting that this is a DLP tv, but it isn't. It is an LCD Projection TV. There is a very small, translucent LCD screen inside with a light source behind it, probably an LED. The LED light source is designed to far outlast a regular DLP bulb, and isn't a consumable. The OP is absolutely right in wanting a replacement TV...I just hope he doesn't have the same problems.
@RamV10: Technically correct, but LiFi bulbs are technically solid-state plasma, not LED. I am sure that as a previous poster mentioned, there was a problem with the power supply to the lamp, not the lamp itself, as they are actually pretty reliable (I personally know most of the scientists/engineers that developed it).
Good thing he DID get that service plan, or he would have a useless hunk of plastic still sitting in his house! Most manufacturer's warranties only cover a year, 2 at most.
I handle these calls all the time when our customer finally get sick of dealing with 888BESTBUY and call the store looking for help. To me, even as a lowlife Best Buy employee, a light source, or bulb, that keeps going out indicates another underlying problem like a bad ballast or PSU. Unless these light sources are so poorly made that they don't last more than a few months at a time, there is no reason for them to go out like this. So, as an employee, it just bewilders me when I have to call our corporate team and argue with NEW (our warranty company) about how it's unreasonable that a bulb keeps burning out every few months.
While I strongly believe in service plans, and I bought them on my plasma, my Mac, my phone, camera, etc., I believe our fulfillment when it comes to televisions has cost us millions in lost loyalty and reputation. It is our number one fail. I have helped customers who had to go without a TV for 2 months and had to argue with mind-numbing idiots to the point that we just take care of people in the store outside the warranty company altogether.
Another poster on here said it best: nobody should be congratulated for responding to an EECB. The customer should have never had to forced to jump through hoops to get his TV replaced. Someone should have used their breinz and said \"hey, we keep replacing these bulbs that are supposed to last 20K hours, maybe something else is bad\".
When we fix the PSP fulfillment side of our business, I strongly believe we will begin to earn back our lapsed customers. I feel embarrassed and ashamed every time I hear from a customer who had been without a working TV for 40 days. All the employees I manage feel the same.
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@wellfleet: It's good to know there's still some people working at BB that give a shit.
Are you a manager? Cuz I can't see a sales employee having that kind of sway.
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@JustinSane07: Key word detected in last sentence: \"...employees I manage...\"
So I think yes, wellfleet is a manager.
I wonder even after all that, is the local store going to honor the replacement ticket issued by the execs, or are they going to bull up and refuse?
I would like to point out (except for the minor spelling mistake) that this is how EECB should be written. Good job Bryan!
I would never again buy a best buy warranty after dealing with one in the past. They set me up with a repair man who kept my tv for 3 months literally trying and failing to replace various parts. Every few weeks i would get a message from him saying he ordered another part as the last one didnt work.
It took a few calls to corporate to finally have the repair guy return the broken tv to my house he couldnt figure out how to fix and let me exchange it for a new one in store.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-477924-100x100.png\")
Sounds to me like the movie \"The Rainmaker\" Where Matt Damon's character proved that the Great Northern Insurance Company had an internal policy of rejecting all claims \"to weed out the frivolous ones\"
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so i guess EECB is the future if companies don't ramp up their first-line customer service
//me cringes when he has to buy a high price item in the future