Television Repair

I speak of repair of the hardware, not the industry. A while back our brand spanking new Philips 27″ television mysteriously began denying that it had any knowledge of electricity. Our GE died after 12 years, so we expected the Philips to last a bit longer than four months. So, we called Philips regarding the situation, and, so sorry, we only cover labor for 90 days, feel free to take it to Stanton TV in Danbury, CT, for repair.

The unit has two components: the CRT television and the circuit board. It’s simply a solid-state, single-purpose computing device attached to various means of I/O. It took longer to unscrew the back than it does to remove the board and swap it. But, after arguing the point with “Support,” it appears Policy prevents them from sending me the part. I might shock myself, after all. (Maybe I shouldn’t mention the Macintosh SE/30 lying disassembled on the floor of the basement.)

So we took it in. It’ll be $75 for the labor, they say.

Time passes.

“What’s taking so long?” I ask. “We’re waiting for parts.”

Time passes.

“Well?” “We’re troubleshooting the problem.”

Time passes.

“And?” “We’re waiting for parts; they should be here by the end of the week.”

Time passes.

“Oh?” “We’re troubleshooting the problem.”

Right.

They called today to tell us that it’s ready. If they think we’re paying for four weeks of labor, they have another think coming. I can pick up a Bigger, Better, More Feature-Rich Boob Tube at Wal*Mart for under $300. Why would I pay to have this one repaired?

Why doesn’t Philips do as Dell does, and send a guy to swap parts? Or, like IBM, just send the part?

 

Read more about television repairs from here.