Open Letter to Panasonic Re: Plasma Televisions
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am emailing Panasonic today to follow up on a problem I recently had with my Panasonic TC-P50G25 plasma television purchased on April 14th 2011 (Serial Number: LB00500675). Besides needing to change the power board a few weeks after receiving the unit (Case Number: 27502943) I had been quite happy with the television.
Unfortunately, on the evening of June 9th 2011, I went to turn on my television and heard a popping sound followed by a sequence of 10 blinks on the TV’s red LED. As the screen wasn’t turning on, I was quite concerned and attempted to contact Panasonic Customer Service (which was closed at the time). I subsequently unplugged the power and all cables from the television and waited approximately 1-hour. I then plugged the power back in and attempted to turn on the television at which time I began receiving a sequence of 4 blinks on the LED.
The following morning I contacted Panasonic Customer Care via online chat and reviewed the situation with a Jose M. who was very courteous. After we went through the various testing procedures, I gave him my previous case number and he suggested I take the TV to NU-SONIC RADIO in Hackensack, NJ (who did the original repair). I asked if they would have the updated information and he assured me they would. Before going through the effort of taking the large TV to NU-SONIC, I called them to confirm they would be able to see the TV that day. Besides being rude and exceptionally disinterested, they told me that they were no longer ‘Panasonic authorized’ and couldn’t help me.
Naturally, I then called Panasonic customer care and reached a representative who totally blew me off and told me that as the TV was out of warranty I had to take care of it myself. I explained that the TV was less than 14 months old and she said that it was still out of warranty and I would need to take it to a local repair shop and pay all repair costs (parts and labor).
I called several repair shops recommended by the representative and they all said I would need to bring the TV in for them to look at it (which would take a couple of days) and pay a minimum charge of $75. They also mentioned that a typical repair would run between $250 and $500 (and perhaps even more).
Needless to say, while I understand that technically the TV is out of warranty, there is absolutely no reason why a $1,200+ television would need such an expensive repair after 13 months of use. I proceeded to do some research online and found that these problems were in fact quite common with Panasonic Plasma televisions.
I then purchased the service manual online and was horrified to find that the 4 blinks signified that the very board that was replaced in my initial service was going to need to be replaced again. Even worse, it looks like a number of boards may need to be replaced running my repair bill to over $500 in parts alone. Should there be any question of how prevalent this issue is, the fact that so many of the parts are on backorder should settle it.
How could these board failures happen so often (see AVSForum.com and HighDefForum.com) and how can they occur to such a new television? It is nothing short of disgraceful that Panasonic would expect their customers to cover the costs of these repairs. Panasonic: you should be absolutely ashamed at the quality of your products and, even more, at the way you treat your customers.
I personally will make sure to steer clear of any and all Panasonic products in the future and, as a highly respected technology consultant, I will take some solace in making sure my clients follow suit. My first order of business will be to switch a $10,000+ deal we are negotiating on for a Panasonic KX-TDE100 VoIP Communication System to a Cisco solution and that is only on my first day! While I understand my efforts wont make any difference whatsoever in Panasonic’s bottom line, the cumulative affect of people such as myself doing so very well may.
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