My Turn To Rant

[philw]

do you have anything like a statutory warranty (also known as implied warranty) in Australia under the law. The law says that all products supplied to a consumer must be fit for the purpose for which they were supplied.


take For example, a refrigerator is an expensive item. It is not unreasonable to expect it to last longer than 18 months before it’s ready for the scrap heap. Even if the voluntary (manufactures) warranty on the fridge has expired, a consumer may still have a valid complaint under the law if it had a structural fault eg. defective insulation not apparent at the time of purchase, which became obvious after only 18 months.  ( we get a few people at work using this one)  most people don't bother with it though


contact Costco & Vizio  and speak with there Customer relations people  and see what they can offer  as a TV  even a new Digital should last more than 24 months and 18 days   

might use a bit about what I have above     be polite however firm  another thing is see if they would do a deal  say they cover the part and you just pay the labour

[Johnny Bravo]

No such luck Phil. I've talked to 2 Costco reps and 3 Vizio reps. The Costco people act like they can't do anything about it even though they are the ones that extend the warranty to 2 years and the Vizio people aren't going to do anything. I thought Vizio was going to help after I talked to the first rep but they aren't. I was in shock thinking they were going to take care of me ( a customer ). I kinda gave up when I looked Vizio up online and the first site I found had 38 pages of people this year with the same type of problems with Vizio products. Tv's around 2 years old that had failed and Vizio didn't do anything to help. I gave away a 40" Sony Trinatron and a 32" Toshiba when I bought these Vizios. I thought they would last for years. I did report them to a consumer affairs group. They are VERY familiar with vizio complaints. I'm  just saying DON'T BUY VIZIO. Everytime I go to Costco I'm going to walk through the tv section and if anyone is looking at tv's I will warn them not to buy VIZIO. I gave them a chance to make things right and they didn't take it. They have pissed off an ole Texas boy now. They could have worked with me or helped me in some way and chose not to. This is going to cost them 50 times more than it cost me!!!

[tombogan03884]

Earlier some one mentioned things lasting only slightly longer than the warranty.
It is not that they build the stuff to only last for the warranty period, it is the other way around.
With modern QA testing protocols good engineers can predict fairly accurately what parts will break at what point.
Computer sims are incredible tools, they allow you to model and test, to destruction, before you ever take the material out of stock.
So then the Bean counters say, " the first major failures begin at 2.25 years, lets give them an unlimited 2 year warranty".
The fact that your TV's only lasted <3 weeks beyond date  is not the "Smoking gun" of built in obsolescence, but a tribute to the research that goes into a new product.
I know.
It still sux though.  

[tt11758]

I had a la-z-boy recliner that broke THREE FRICKIN DAYS after the end of the warranty!!  (no fat jokes, plz, it was the wife's chair)

Long story short, the person I talked to on the phone at la-z-boy was VERY helpful, and promised to take care of things.  His way of taking care of things was clarified in a "eff-off and die" letter that I received from him 4 days later.  I will NEVER own another la-z-boy piece of shit as long as I live!!

[fightingquaker13]

I had a la-z-boy recliner that broke THREE FRICKIN DAYS after the end of the warranty!!  (no fat jokes, plz, it was the wife's chair)

Long story short, the person I talked to on the phone at la-z-boy was VERY helpful, and promised to take care of things.  His way of taking care of things was clarified in a "eff-off and die" letter that I received from him 4 days later.  I will NEVER own another la-z-boy piece of shit as long as I live!!

See this is the thing. People are stupd. They generally think short term. They forget that the reality of the situation is that your stuff is broken. You're going to replace your TV or chair. Do you want it to be from them or someone else? If they'd just cut a deal, say sell you a new one at half off, they're still ahead  with one and half units sold. They don't help you, they've only sold the one unit, you'll never buy from them again and you''l bad mouth them to anyone who will listen. In the days of the net, if you piss off a humorous and creative SOB, that can bite you in the ass on youtube to the tune of millions of hits. I've longed believed that doing the smart thing is more often than not doing the right thing.
FQ13

[Sponsor]

[m25operator]

Johnny B, I feel your pain, before I tell war stories, my new mantra, BEFORE YOU BUY ANYTHING, GOOGLEFU THE HELL OUT OF IT. Now to stories.

1) Bought a 52" Mitsubishi LDP HD television, 1080p, real nice picture, since my wife was disabled, I figured she would watch a lot of TV, and she did, I did not buy and extended warranty, standard warranty 1 year, after about 15 months, a message would come up, " your lamp has exceeded its normal life expectancy, change now " well the picture and TV were working fine, until at about 18 months black screen, looked it up and got all kinds of horror stories, new bulb from Mitsu, 500.00, so I bought one off Ebay, no workie, other people on line say if the lamp actually go's out, it will take out the lamp drivers, local repairman, thinks he can fix it for 600 bucks, but of course does not no until he gets a chance to look at it. It has been a redneck souvenir for the last 2 yrs.

2) Next I was getting all these free or nearly free offers for stuff, one of them was Video Professor, you have all seen the commercials, sounds pretty cool if you want to learn more about computer use, so I got an offer, 30 days to use the product for 9.99, so I signed up, got the discs 10 days later, and on that same day, they took 399.99 out of my bank account, I went postal, reviewed the email confirmations and no where did it say anything about 400 bucks, called my bank, who issued my debit card, and they said try to reconcile with VP 1st, got at 1st a rude bitch on the phone, that said " oh no, it was a 10 day trial, and your on the hook " I told her I had contacted the bank, and she did not like that, offered a 299.99 deal with unlimited access to their website, I said no, I am burned I want to send it all back and get my money back, she gave me a return merchandise # and I sent it back, now it is 2 1/2 months later, still no money, funny thing as soon as I googled VP, the 1st thing that popped up was " Video Professor Scam ", now trying to work with the bank, be advised, if you use a Credit Card, you get more protection, than a debit card. Hard lesson not over, yet.

3) Not mad, bought a Panasonic 42" plasma, with 780p, with a 5yr warranty through Fry's, have had it now, 14 months, and it is great, better picture, even at 780, blacker blacks and the sound from the TV is good enough, I hardly ever use the stereo hook up, 1100 bucks with warranty out the door. So far I cannot complain.

Summary, don't buy S**t without googling or your favorite search engine what ever it is, you want to buy.

[Johnny Bravo]

Summary, don't buy S**t without googling or your favorite search engine what ever it is, you want to buy.


I feel your pain and I hear what you're saying !