PT-50LC13, POS bulb blew, again
That is IT. I am going to war on Panasonic.
I bought my Pany LC13 on 04-30-2004. Within 6 months the ballast went out. Naturally my in-laws where visiting at the time, just make my life even more miserable. This rendered the TV out of commission for a month, and it would have been a ‘lot’ longer if I had not called and made a big fuss with Panasonic. The service department was claiming 3 months to get the replacement part. Magnolia would not step up to the plate and give us a loaner even though this turned out to be relatively well know issue and common failure (yet Panasonic kept shipping?).
OK no more business for Magnolia, apparently they would have done something if I had shelled out an extra five hundred bucks for an extended warranty, what a joke, it was like a $3k TV full retail. This was all a total pain in the ass but I wrote it off as water under the bridge.
05-23-2005. The bulb blows. Just poof, gone. No reason. It had less then 2,400 hours on it. This clearly is a serious failing on the design of all rear projection sets be they DLP, LCOS or whatever. A single major point of failure like this is totally unacceptable in design when it is subject to totally random regular failure. The Bulb is supposed be rated to 10,000 hours, not great but a manageable life. Sure some things might cause that to be a bit lower but anything less then 80% is nuts.
Notice the date, this was almost exactly 13 months after purchase and just outside of the Panasonic warranty window. They warrant the replacement bulbs for 90 days. 90 days on a critical system element that apparently is heavily prone to spontaneous and seemingly regular failure with only a small fraction of it’s rated life spent. A part that is expensive and can be time consuming to get. This is absolutely unconscionable. This also demonstrates that Panasonic knows the bulbs won’t come close to living their rated life.
Magnolia service (*sigh*, the only one’s who had the part or I never would have given them more money), charged me $325.16 for a new bulb, on my just over one year old set.
I was pretty mad but stuff does some times happen. I did some research and apparently this has been sever enough of an issue that some Pany Consumer Affairs anger (Michael Marino Jr.) had made an open statement about what they will do for poor folks like me who apparently are just unlucky (because this is not some huge profit maximizing scheme designed to defraud customers out of money… hmmm 90 day warranty, $325.16 part, hmmm). He stated they will warrant the sets for 18 months and that all new bulbs will have a 18 month warranty. Mine said 90 days on the package and that is what Magnolia stated too. He also said in his open letter that Panasonic would reimburse anyone who had premature failure.
Anyway, so I called and tried to get reimbursed for the bulb. Panasonic was amendable enough on the phone and asked me to fax over my recites and what not. I did so. Nothing, not a word, not a hey we can’t read the fax. Not a we looked this over and just going to say no. Nothing, zip, zero zilch. I have a case number though, so I guess on Monday I will start there. Like I have time to chase people *sigh*
Why make this fuss, because tonight 11-05-2005, less then 6 months after I threw good money after bad, because I was just ‘unlucky’, with their bulb, the dam POS blew out, again.
Now I’m going to have to endure god only knows how many days of Kaily crying because she can’t watch Sesame street.
Anger does not begin to describe my state of mind.
Do not buy Panasonic rear projection TV’s. They are rigged to fail regularly and cost you hundreds of dollars out of pocket.
Don’t give companies money that act like this, vote with your dollar or they will not learn. That is what I will be doing from now on. Panasonic is dead to me regardless of how they handle this situation, which given past experience I suspect will be poorly. Another $325.16 out of my pocket? This set is not even two years old and I’m going to be into it for over $650 in repairs? I’m coming for you Panasonic and I’m bringing hell and possible (is that implicitly?) lawyers with me.
These bulbs should be warrantied for their full rated life, nothing less should be considered remotely acceptable on such an expensive TV set. The fact that they claimed to have changed their warranty shows this type of failure is clearly either a design flaw or revenue stream mechanism. This should be addressed through offering customers a full refunds or replacement/upgrades to new sets.
I’ll update on Monday I guess when I have had a chance to grind the bones of the customer service person, naturally they are not open for business on weekends.