My TV was Sony kd-f50we610 a Sony Grand Wega, It was a wonderful TV until the Optic Block went out in it. How do I know that was the problem, well after several internet searches I came across a Facebook page called "I Have a Defective Sony TV" after my Lamp went out in the TV. Like anyone would I got a new lamp for the seven year old TV. Well when I put it in, I did notice some melting around the area where it went in and on the lamp door. Actually a small piece of plastic came off when I took the lamp door off (very small). The new lamp went in and the TV came up fine. I noticed a slight tinting around the edges of the screen. I'm pretty Technical so the next morning I went on the internet looking for info on cleaning the set, I figure the melting was because the fans might be clogged, and I wanted to make the set last as long as I could. Right now I couldn't afford to replace the set.
After about 10 minutes of searching I was Reading the facebook page called "I HAVE A DEFECTIVE SONY TV" and some other sites about lawsuits and class action suits. Well Suing a company like Sony over a 7 year old TV that was out of warranty seemed totally a waste of time. Even if I won, my time involved would not equal out what the tv was worth if I got the original purchase price even. Than and I'm not a lawyer so I would have had to pay someone to help me. So I read on, seeing what other people have done, still looking for technical info. Well on the facebook page I noticed people were getting TV's replaced, and a lot were being offered Free refurbished replacement "Accommodations" Well as advised I posted up a picture of my optic block area, and I emailed the Sony Listeners team at SonyListens@am. Sony.com with the subject "I Have a Defective Sony TV from FACEBOOK" with all my information, including the Model number, and my phone number, and a description of my problem. I went to lunch shortly after that, and I had a voice mail to call a 1-800 number when I got back from lunch. I called them, I spoke to someone I forget who but They set up a technician to come out to my house to look at the TV, and SONY was covering his visit. This was on a Tuesday, The technician called me the next day to set up a time to come out, he was available as soon as the next day but I had to work and couldn't take the afternoon off. He offered to come Friday morning First thing, so I made it work.
He arrived at my home promptly at 8 AM. He spent about 30 minutes taking the back off the TV and examined the optic block, fans, lamp area, lamp door, etc. He called his office, and I over heard him telling them the issues, I never did see the report, and he said to the phone "and the customer hears someone from Sony will contact them with 2-3 business days" He told me the set really wasn't repairable, the optic block had issues, etc. HE then went beyond the call of duty and set the fans to run cooler, and set it for high altitude so they run faster. He also cleaned the fans as part of his examination, I saw them and they were clogged pretty good. I thanked him and shook his hand and he left for his next call, I turned off the lights, locked the door and went to work.
On Monday morning when I got in the office I had a voice mail on my phone, It was someone from Sony asking me to call a 1-800 number. Which I did. The person on the phone started offering me choices of tv - The first one was an upgrade for something like 400$, then something for $250 and then a 150$ choice - I thought great I got to take a 40 inch tv because no way can I come up with more. The gentleman on the phone then offered me a refurbished 55 inch tv kd-l55ex510 was it's model number. I've had good luck with refurbished and didn't want to take a smaller set then my 50 anyway, So I jumped on it.
They told me the next step was to send in the serial number sticker on a 8.5"x11" piece of paper. They emailed this too. So at lunch I went home and took the sticker off, and that afternoon I got it sent to them via FED EX. Which they signed for the next morning (Tuesday) I didn't hear anything from them, but as people on the facebook page said it can take a day or two for them to check it in, I waited. Wednesday morning I got an email it was accepted and it should take 2-3 week for my replacement to arrive. I was very content with this. That evening I received another email, this time with a tracking number, that didn't work right away, Again this was expected because of reading the Facebook page, well the next day I was able to track it. My TV was on it's way. I was excited, I check the tracking It went from California to Chicago by Sunday, and Sunday night it left there, Monday morning I got a call about them delivering it to me. That evening I was watching my NEW refurbished TV. I say new because the only way I would know it was not new was on the back it has a little sticker that said refurbished. The Tv was made in December I got it in the beginning of March maybe it was just a TV the went out for the superbowl, or maybe it was just a opened or damaged box. Anyway that new set is a better set than my old set was from day one.
Now for why I wrote this - Not only am I totally happy with Sony for how they handled my TV replacement, I want to help others get the same help. I have helped a few people already that I have found with these TV's. There is a lot of misinformation floating around a lot of Mean nasty people making personal attacks on the Facebook page. I want people not to be negative about this process. Sure not all the TV's are offered a FREE refurbished replacement tv, but they are offering some great discounts, on two to three thousand dollar TV's for people with different models than my set with a problem like mine with the tinting. The Melting issue is limited to a couple Models my WE model is one of those. And if they are melting issues You generally get offered some really great deals which might include a free refurbished replacement.
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