I bought (2) 43FDX01B a televisions back in 3 (with a 24 month warranty) at Rex Tv and appliance center. The salesman on the floor, at the time, told me this TV would be HDTV ready and it was the new standard to evolve with. HDTV was not readily available to many areas at this time, and I never expected to have the serious issues that would eventually rear-its-ugly-head. I don't necessarily center the blame on Rex T.V. For the problem, as they offered me a refund for a service call up to $49.99 or offset the cost towards a new purchase of ANOTHER T.V. The offering of $49.99 (which is relatively rediculous) compared to what the actual service call expense would be, to get the field technician scheduled (which was referred to be out of my immediate area) and over to my house, and do the actual repairs.
Having the complacient retail store Regional Manager on the phone, had already pulled my records and verified the warranty and purchases I made at the time.
The warranty is not valid now since it expired in 3.
I explained the results of my own initial investigation to the Rex manager on the problems that I was having with viewing HDTV signals while DVD movies were being played, where the HDTV picture would go blank several times during progressive scan DVD playback modes. I also told him I discovered a service bulletin labeled "HITACHI SERVICES BULLETIN ptv0017" dated for December! - Home cinema problems discovered and released fixes for specific models manufactured by the Hitachi projection T.V. Products division. They even list many other models ranging from 43FDX01B, 53FDX01B, and 61SWX01W" in this Service bulletin report to QUOTE:
SUBJECT: COMPONENT INPUT UNABLE to DISPLAY 480P INPUT
Details: "Reportedly, when certain models may be unable to display the picture, due to the signal to noise ratio of the video signal, most notably in the vertical sync interval portion to display a 480p signal." / QUOTE
The rest of the bulletin describes a detailed fix for the problem and this needs a service technician to perform the repairs.
THe Rex manager informed me to call the Hitachi service center and told me Hitachi and there Reps were GREAT! To answer concerns and help resolve issues, "we never have problems with them!" *the inspirational speech that was contrary to my following experience. (Keep in mind, I was civil, and never got angry the whole time all this was going on)
Apparently, REX T.V. Is not responsible for following-up on service bulletins as participating in faulty consumer product vendor notices for the uninformed buyers. Which leaves the responsibilty on HITACHI for not resolving the issues especially (or at least) BEFORE or AFTER the consumer has puchased the defective product "knowing" to have defective service operational issues with it's inherent built-in HDTV progressive scan features.
Now the adventure begins:
I sent an email to the Hitachi Website customer service and they emailed me back after a week with the following reply:
"Thank you for visiting the Hitachi website and for your inquiry. We apologize for the delay in our response. We have been inundated with product information requests, and we are dedicated to answering each inquiry.
I apologize for the inconvenience. Due to the nature of your situation, I recommend contacting our Customer Relations Department." / END
SO, I called the customer service center for Hitachi of AMERICA on 11, they ended up passing me to a extention number to leave a message to the person who handled these type of claims. Nobody was home, left message on ASW machine. I waited till the next day or Two, as I did not hear back from them for 2 weeks so I called again asking for this person, got connected, The rep answered the phone this time, and asked me a series of questions and I told them of my problems and findings. During this time of conversation, I was asked who I bought the T. V from, Etc. All the facts were given and then was told by the REP "I will have to investigate this matter" ok, and? When will I hear from you? No answer was given as to WHEN they would be replying to me.
And then the classic: How did you find this service bulletin? AS if, they had no clue as to what I was referring to.
I do have it in my possession, and it's an official PDF document: "Hitachi America, Ltd., Home Electronics Division National Service product Bulletin".
The documentation written therein is a discusting reminder of corporate greed and the characterization of using and ignoring the consumer as a conveinient mainstream money machine. Currently, Nothing has ever been resolved and I never got any of my calls back. I initiated every call to them, dispite the promise of getting the issue resolved.
Based on my personal report and findings my reasoning for the this report in conclusion:
1. HITACHI, knows! Of VCR to TV playback problems, involving; inherant 480P HDTV playback ability being crippled in their product. Not to mention, how many were also being sold to millions of unaware and uninformed consumers.
2. I puchased 2 of the 43FDX01B home cinema TV's that were not in compliance and are faulty, based on a report and technical proof that was issued (by THEM) 4 months before I ever puchased!
3. And now, The run - a - round, They never even tried to help me find a way to get this resolved through their customer support channnels!
No call backs, phone tag, ingnoring the issues. I offered to send faxes and copies of the reports and my proof of documentation, they did not provide me with anyway to get it done. I do recall the response by one of the HITACHI customer Rep., "we don't need them?" WTF
WEll, maybe this report will inform others experiencing problems with their projection TV and see the mysterious
BLACK OUT - Black screen - on WIDE SCREEN wisdom, which by the way, is your DVD player skipping climatic scenes; bright explosions, visual sequences skipping over video tracks and cut scenes, which pretty much causes you to miss the important events of movies on "480P (or Higher) progressive scan modes".
Deception and "business as usual" is what matters most, at the expense of the consumer. Just go buy a new T.V.? Nope. The consumer has all the power and it can be expressed by not continuing to upgrade products or purchase from stores or brands that let these kinds of scams continue to go unresolved.
There comes a point where no answer is determined to be HITACHI of AMERICA's solution for the customer.
Jeff
Wenatchee, Washington
U.S.A.
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