Approximately eight weeks ago, we bought Hitachi's 43" HDTV from Circuit City. We brought it home, hooked everything up (HDTV dish and receiver, surround sound, VCR, etc.) and everything seemed to be okay. Upon our return from visiting relatives for Christmas, we had a problem.
When we turned on the TV, the screen went red, faded to a black dot, and then the TV turned off. We read the manual, consulted the web, contacted Hitachi, and called Circuit City. The first three were not helpful, and Circuit City "washed their hands of us"- we missed the end of the 30 day warranty by 2 days. I was not pleased.
We contacted Hitachi who told us to contact one of their certified repair technicians. The nearest certified repair technician they offered was 1.5 hours away. When we called, we were told we'd have to wait a week for them to come out and look at the TV. We waited, still not pleased, until the following Saturday. The repairmen came, took one look at it, and said, "Yup, you've got a blown tube... Funny, we just picked up another one of these, the same model, one street over in this subdivision yesterday." NOT so funny to me. They then told us that they'd have to take the TV for two weeks. I still wasn't pleased.
[flash forward two weeks] My husband left my nephew's 1st b-day party to make it home in time to meet the repairmen with the TV. When they arrived at 4:30p, they dropped off the TV and told him not to turn it on for 3-4 hours because it was in the cold truck since 8:00a. He signed the receipt (we didn't have to pay anything b/c it's under Hitachi's warranty), they left, and we did not turn on the TV until 12:00a, over 7 hours later.
When we turned it on, yup, you guessed it, red screen, fade to black dot, and turned off just like before. My husband threw the remote. We were extremely pissed off. He called the repairmen and Hitachi Customer Service on Monday. They called yesterday - the repairmen are coming out again on Saturday. We asked Hitachi if they would just give us a new TV - same model and everything - they obviously said "No." The repair bill was for $638 (over $100 was for travel expenses to drive 1.5 hrs)- nearly half of the price of the TV.
We've had the TV for 8 weeks - it worked for FIVE weeks, sat broken for a week, was in for repairs for two weeks, and now is sitting here again broken. $1500 for FIVE weeks! Am I bitter? YOU BET! Will I ever buy a Hitachi piece of sh*t again? HELL NO! Their online customer service apologized for my inconvience. I can't even begin to tell them how pissed off I am that one of our HDTVs will not be working during our huge SUPERBOWL party. I will be telling EVERY SINGLE PERSON I KNOW and don't know not to buy a Hitachi TV. I am also not happy with Circuit City's response - they were absolutely no help at all. The certified repairmen can go to hell, too...$600 for a month of not being able to use my TV. I am definitely, absolutely NOT pleased with anyone I have dealt with - AND I work in the Customer Service business, so I am normally very forgiving and lenient. TO HELL WITH HITACHI!
For the record, the TV is Hitachi's 43FDX15B. Has anyone else had this problem?!
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