Im new to this forum, but it seems Im not new to the Mitsubishi dlp problems. I posted this on Cnet forums, but I see a lot more tech savy people here. Im hoping this community has more insight to the issue. Here was my Cnet post:
Greetings to all Frustrated Mitsubishi TV owners. I have a 52725 that just went out with the fast blinking green power light (DM module, circuit board, thermistor, or whatever?). After reading this and other forums, Im thinking I have a piece of junk that is more expensive to repair than its worth. And Mitsubishi seems unwilling to stand behind it at all!
Sooo, the next question that comes to mind is what manufacturer is there for you after the sale? I would prefer to avoid a company that has Mitsubishi's attitude toward problems that I believe to be design flaws. I am aware that new technologies bring assorted problems, but when a manufacturer is unwilling to support the customer after the warentee runs out, the frustration meter pegs fast. And when a $3K tv is junk after 4 years, my next one wont be Mitsubishi. Does Samsung, Sony, LG, Pioneer, Toshiba, et al back their TV's with decent support and recognize/address design flaws or is this the way all the Asian companies think about the US consumer?
Im impressed by the level of expertise shown by the members here. And Id like to get some some feedback from your experiances, at both the professional and consumer level. And if any of you out there has a diagnosis for my original problem, that would be appreciated too. THanks, Mike
Mike, I think it is difficult to get objective opinions from reading forums. Forums, by nature, are usually frequented by people who have had bad experiences with their product. Not many people take the time to post, "Gee, I love my tv and the service is terrific."
My experience with RCA was a miserable excercise in futility and grief. In a five year period I had four tv's (three were replacements) and finally a buy out. Now some may say wow, they gave your three tv's and then bought the last one back you must be really happy.
I was not. For fully nine months of those five years I had no tv and a parade of people coming in trying to diagnose problems. Did I mention I must have spent a month, in total, waiting on the phone to talk with someone?
Anyway, I think it is a crap shoot when you buy a tv today. The best advice that I can come up with is to treat today's televisions as a throw away product. You got four years? Thank you very much and go get a new tv.
Sets are really expensive to fix these days and parts delays and aggrevating 'help centers' and time you are without a television is a real beating.
Having said that I did notice that Walmart has really inexpensive extended warranties. Dont know how good they are, but it does give some level of comfort. Now, whether you can find the tv you want there that is another story.
I agree with you about the new tv crap shoot. And I see you went through all the agravation of dealing with a defective tv too. Yes, I am fortunate to get the 4 years that I have out of this set, based on the horror stories Ive read online. Because of that online research, Im going to look long and hard about keeping this set at all, no matter how cheap it is to fix. And I havent even got an estimate yet, I just stumbled onto this issue with Mitsubishi while I was looking for advice.
But 2 class action suits in California, plus internet calls for class action suits who knows where else tells me what brand not to buy next. I didnt find that level of frustration about any other brands. Thats why Im looking for feedback on people's experiances, both bad and good. Im really hoping to see some good ones to form an opinion here. Whatever help I can find to lessen the odds of the "crap shoot" is my goal. You are right that many people who post on forums are venting about their bad experiances, but ther are many enthusiasts, professional people and techno geeks that frequent these forums too. And they have more objective opinions than just a pissed off customer's point of view to express.
Im seeing a few posts on other sites that say Panasonic has good support for their Plasma tv's. One user said they got 2 different software updates in the form of memory cards. Ive seen some reports of bad support on Samsung tv's too, but nowhere near what people are posting about Mitsubishi.
THe new TV's are so good for picture quality that brand name loyalty is less of an issue than it once was. SO my objective is to find a manufacturer that will support their product afterwords. Maybe Im looking for the impossible in this age of built in obselescence, but I dont think its an unreasonable request from the US consumer. Plus, in this age of "Green", what better way to minamize waste than to be able to repair appliances rather than throw them out.