We purchased a Panasonic VCR PVV4612S, which we tested with a new videotape when we set it up. About 2 1/2 months later, we tried to play an older tape we had used to tape a show on a different VCR only to find that the Panasonic VCR rejected (immediately spat out) this tape and all of our older tapes, which our other VCR had no problem playing and recording on.
Panasonic told us it shouldn't be rejecting tapes in this way and told us to take it to an authorized repair center (Consumer Electronic Service of Cary, NC), which we did, but the authorized repair center used new videotapes to test the machine and told us there was nothing wrong with it. I brought in an older tape and showed them the problem, but they insisted that their (new) tapes were the only valid test.
We called Panasonic back and now they said that they would have to accept the diagnosis of the repair center. They said that if the problem with the machine was a tape incompatibility problem that there would be "no solution for that." We had the option of shipping it to arrive in Texas by the end of that week to meet the 90 day warranty period for them to repair the machine. They also gave us the option of accepting a "refurbished" (i.E., used) machine. Since the VCR as sold was unfit for its ordinary purpose, the solutions acceptable to us were for Panasonic to give us a refund or to give us a new machine, at no additional cost to us. They were not willing to do this and their consumer support personnel only spout various lame excuses phrased in quasi-legalese which amount to a bunch of garbage.
This practice of passing off unfit merchandise to the public is at best a misleading and unethical business practice. Don't risk being treated like this—boycott Panasonic.
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