The Television

Hey team,

I want to run a 'problem' by you all if I may.

I bought a 50" LG Plasma television about 14 months ago from Curry's, and for 10 months it was amazing, but after that 10 months it started flashing loads of red dots all over the top 1/4 of the screen.

They would come and go, but most of the time they weren't there to be honest. They would vary in amount and position, but all be pretty much in the same ball park area, and when they were there they were extremely noticeable.

I could pause Sky+ and they would still flicker and flash. They do it on any connection from the Sky input, DVD input, PS2 input etc.

I called Curry's up who got an engineer to come out and take a look, he said it required some new boards that 'may' have gone. I think he replaced 2/3 circuit boards within the TV, and then he left and the set was repaired. Yay.

Not so yay. After about a week the problem returned as bad as before. So I called them up again and this time they wanted to take the set away to replace the screen.

Okay, fair enough, they replace the screen, and then it comes back to me... Fault there the second I switch the set back on!

So, I call them up and they once again send someone round to take a look and make sure I'm not a lying bastid. I'm not, they saw the problem was still there.

Cut to now. They are coming over Sunday to take the TV away and try one last repair on it, failing that they will be replacing the set.

Fair enough you may think, BUT after some slight detective work on the internet this is a BIG problem and affects alot of Plasma TV owners. This forum here has alot of people discussing these flickering dots. They can range from red, green and blue mostly:

LG 42" plasma - are red dots normal? - AVS Forum

It would appear that on here, the only repair consists of replacing some of the logic boards (Or all) and if that fails to change the Voltage setting on the rear of the TV.

Do you think my best bet would be to ring Curry's up, explain all of this to them, and have an engineer come out who can once again replace (This time all) the logic boards, AND also do the Voltage test to see if that requires changing? On site ideally, I don't want to have to lug the old 51" rear projection set out of the garage AGAIN!

The issue that concerns me is I don't want them giving me a replacement that's only going to have the same problem happen after 10 months. And I don't believe for a second that they'll give me a 12 month warranty on the replacement, do you?

Have any other large Plasma screen owners had this problem arise?

And what are my rights here? Can I contact LG direct? Or does my beef remain with Curry's?

Help appreciated.

Cheers,
Darren

Right, after much further searching as to the rectification of this problem it is apparent that there are about 8 possible reasons for the fault and none of which actually seem to repair the set.

I plan on heading down to the Curry's store I bought the TV from and demanding that they collect the TV and refund my money as this is clearly not a problem that can go away with either A) A repair or B) A replacement set, as the issue will return with a new one.

I know exactly what will happen though: Nothing.

And that really sucks.

Bad news Darren.. But I think you have no choice other than to accept a repair at their cost, or a replacement screen if they choose. You don't really have a right to demand a refund.

However, I think a replacement screen will still come with a warranty.

Hmm, fair enough I suppose. I'll give them a call tomorrow, list all of the 'possible' repairs and see if they can send an on site engineer out to me instead, as the only major job was replacing the entire sceen. Which has already been done,

I don't really want the TV going off for another month.

I don't think I'd mention anything on the phone to them about common failures or whatnot.. Just tell them the problem has re-occurred and you need it fixing. Hopefully it'll be so much hassle they'll just get you a new one sent out. Finding the problem and fixing it is their job, I'm sure you'd rather have a new one than get your old one repaired again.

Makes me glad I don't have a TV, my housemate sells them for a living and he says he wouldn't buy one without shelling out for the 3 or 5 year warranty, but they are usually another 20 or 30% extra on top of purchase price

My retort was that if these new TVs are so unreliable you need an expensive warranty to back you up they aren't worth owning - which is why I won't buy one. I've got an old 15" CRT portable in the shed, if I ever decide I want a TV again.. Its proper old school

See if they will exchange it for an LCD screen. Dont see why they wouldnt, and I think you can demand your money back as the TV has never been right. The managers in these stores are usually young inexperienced lads and a good shout usually goes a long way to getting what you want. They just want an easy life. Dont give in to them.

Darren Curry's (in my opinion) are terrible to deal with when something goes wrong, they are great at taking your money, but not so keen to give it back even if your product is faulty. You google 'Currys' and 'customer service' or something you'll see what i mean, they are a shyte company in my opinion really really nasty to deal with if you have a problem. I got a 42 inch screen from them and it was faulty, so took it back they sent it away, came back, same problem, sent it away..............came back, same problem, so eventually i went in and said this is it i want my money back i was fed up, que loads of hassel and threats of them calling the police because i was shouting (i wasn't and even people in store were sticking up fro me). Anyway spoke to manager and got money back eventually.....

Sorry rant over, i hate Curry's, good luck with them dude, i only use Richer Sounds now for stuff like that, Curry's are bunch of chancers .....in my opinion....

Cheers for the support guys.

After playing my new X-Box 360 tonight on the beauty that is HD the problem has come back worse than ever, almost as though the harder you make the TV work the worse it gets.

I'm heading into Curry's tomorrow morning to see the bloke that I bought it from and will see what he can do in the way of a replacement / money back.

Heads might have to roll sadly,

Curry's are pretty damn shyte with customer service, or a lack of to be fair, so they better give me what I want as I won't leave until they've given me a decent enough outcome.

Even if that consists of them taking the TV away one last time for repair, and if it still comes back faulty THEN I can have a free upgrade to a better TV, or my cash back.

Until you get into any extended warranty (if offered by the manufacturer) or you are out of any warranty at all (and trying for goodwill) I think you should deal exclusively with Currys.

Hi David,

I went into Curry's today and spoke to one of the managers who said that if the TV came back faulty once again I could pop back to the store and he'd sort something out in the way of a replacement.

I mentioned to him everything about it being a really common problem and instead of being like most electrical store manager's I've come across who are smarmy, arrogant and condescending he was a really decent bloke. He said that every time it comes back to me it comes with a 3 month warranty, and that if the fault occurred again after the 3 months I could still bring it back in and get a replacement.

Although, and I'm going to be honest here, I dont like the fact that this TV would have been torn apart and tinkered with 3 times, so even if it comes back repaired I might push for a replacement anyway. Even if I have to lie to the bloke.

Even if it does get repaired, there's no gaurantee the fault won't come back in 6 months time or so anyway.

They had a 60" LG there that I was interested in mind, and if all goes well I might be able to give them a few extra hundred for the exchange of my faulty one for that one.

Then again, Curry's may talk a big game, but what are the chances of me getting diddly squat? Quite high really. But, he did tell me he'd replace it if it came back faulty again, and said I wouldn't have to have more engineers out either, he'd take my word for it and sort it all out for me.

We shall see,

The TV goes off for repair for it's second time tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Darren156

Hi David,

I went into Curry's today and spoke to one of the managers who said that if the TV came back faulty once again I could pop back to the store and he'd sort something out in the way of a replacement.

I mentioned to him everything about it being a really common problem and instead of being like most electrical store manager's I've come across who are smarmy, arrogant and condescending he was a really decent bloke. He said that every time it comes back to me it comes with a 3 month warranty, and that if the fault occurred again after the 3 months I could still bring it back in and get a replacement.

Although, and I'm going to be honest here, I dont like the fact that this TV would have been torn apart and tinkered with 3 times, so even if it comes back repaired I might push for a replacement anyway. Even if I have to lie to the bloke.

Even if it does get repaired, there's no gaurantee the fault won't come back in 6 months time or so anyway.

They had a 60" LG there that I was interested in mind, and if all goes well I might be able to give them a few extra hundred for the exchange of my faulty one for that one.

Then again, Curry's may talk a big game, but what are the chances of me getting diddly squat? Quite high really. But, he did tell me he'd replace it if it came back faulty again, and said I wouldn't have to have more engineers out either, he'd take my word for it and sort it all out for me.

We shall see,

The TV goes off for repair for it's second time tomorrow.

The only place to buy a TV is John Lewis - they throw in a free 5 year no quibble garuantee and will price match as well... Currys as with the rest of DSG quite frankly are a bunch of chancers.

I'm on my 3rd TV from JL's in about 10 years - buy a lot of household stuff rom them as the service and warranty is second to none...

Simes.

They sound great, never thought about buying a TV from JL,

rather than demanding a refund, ask for store credit. it would be much easier for them to approve. Also, buy a sony LCD instead. Plasma's are old technology and should be buried (i would take LCD over plasma anyday).

Hey! Forgot about this thread,

The guys showed up Sunday to take it away but had it written down as a 28" instead, They then asked me if I had 'Anything to wrap it up in',

When I said no they informed me that it would probably get damaged if they took iot away due to them not being able to protect it and the fact the 'clamps' would dig into it and scratch it.

Excellent, we are off to a winner here,

The smarter blokes of the two asked me what exactly is wrong with it, when I inform him of the 'Red Sparkles' issue he said he's had absolutely shed loads of LG's returned with this problem and that there's never been a single one fixed / cured Off the record of course...

Clearly, they didn't want to have to take it away so we decided that they would leave it and that I'd go back to the manager at Curry's, explain the problem in more detail and that there wasn't a repair for it, and see what he could do.

The delivery bloke wrote on the collection note that it couldn't be collected due to the fact I'd read up the issue on the internet and that I basically didn't want it removed, Hmm, slight fabrication / lie mate, but alright...

So anyway, I take all of my documents, reciepts, repair sheets etc back to Curry's to see what the manager can do.

We head into one of the little desk spaces they have and I explain everything to him. He's baffled at the whole situation and pretty much thinks the same as me as far as the delivry guys are concerned.

Right then! Down to business, he say's he'll call The Tech Guys and get them to give him a replacement code number so we can get it replaced. Brilliant.

Nope, not brilliant, he speaks to them, and it's clear the conversation has gone down the pan from the off, they are basically telling him that as it's out of warranty I can't get anything in the way of replacement or anything even though it should have a further 3 months on it!

Once he got off the phone he said that they were trying to give him and myself the brush off.

Now then, this is where 'Andy' really comes into his own,
He says to me that under 'management discretion' he can sort something out, and goes to speak to one of his own managers.

To cut a very long story short, he said I could in fact swap it over with another television within the store of a similar price and that he'd 'sort something out'.

So, I go straight to the 60" LG and have a little think... Nah, too big...

I then go over to the Pioneer 50" Plasma, it's priced at £1800, but he could knock £250 off for me. Hmm, fair enough, but I don't want to have to spend any more money.

I then go over and take a look at the 50" Samsung, 20,000:1 Contrast, 3 x HDMI, 3 x Scarts, 2 x Component. Job done.

My original LG was priced at £1250 inc stand, this one is £1100, so he is going to credit me £150 for the fact the Samsung is cheaper, and also knock off a further £100 for the hassle (Not much but the TV was only £1100 after all).

I am extremely happy and grateful that I finally met a manager at Curry's who helped me out, he wasn't the usual pompous dick I usually meet, he really was great.

The TV arrives next Friday (With another 12 month warranty) when they'll be collecting the LG, I still get to keep the stand though from the original deal over a year ago, so I think I made something there too,

I know what alot of you will want to say, that I didn't get enough considering the problems I faced, but I'm more than happy to be honest.

After all, the TV was technically out of warranty,

The Samsung picture quality looks alot better than the LG's and with the 20,000:1 contrast ratio it should make for some great viewing.

Wish me luck!

Great news Darren, lets hope it comes good for you