Dead W/S TV: Take £915 or try to find exchange at John Lewis?

[Wendelius]

As has been mentioned in another thread, I was the proud owner of a Hitachi C32W35TN for about 2 years, before it blew up, in December.

The features of the set were:
- 32", W/S
- Progressive scan
- 100Hz natural scan
- DD5.1 surround set-up

This TV cost me £1300+ when I bought it from John Lewis.

It's taken 2 months and numerous phone calls for John Lewis to tell me it was uneconomical to repair and that the set they wanted to give me as a replacement, the Hitachi C32WF810N (similar features to above with flat widescreen and DTS processing) is now a deleted and can't be obtained anymore. If they had been a bit faster, this wouldn't have happened by the way but that's another story. :mad:

Apparently, back in December, the C32WF810N was listed at £915. So John Lewis is telling me to either take that money or come to Kingston to see if we can find any other replacement. I've moved quite a way away from Kingston since I bought the set so I'm loathe to do that.

But what is your opinion on the matter? Are the features on my TV worth no more than £915 these days (with the excellent picture quality that the Hitachi displayed during its short life)? If so, what 32" TV set should I be looking at in the £1000 price range?

Can I do as well as the C32WF810N spec or should I try to force John Lewis to help me find another replacement?

To be complete, I don't care at all about the surround sound set-up as I bought my own since then (based on excellent advice in this forum :) ).

Any advice no how best to proceed would be appreciated.

Wendelius

[scjunkie]

Do you have an extended gaurantee or are you proceeding asuming the set should (rightly) have lasted more than 2 years.

If you have a gaurantee I would assume you should be entitled to better or the same spec, at something more like the price you originally paid.

Whatever it is going to be very difficult to look at them without a visit, given you have been messed about do they not have a more local store where you could make you mind up? I certainly would not accept £915, not given the orignal price.

Thinking about it, prices will of come down and spec/quality should of gone up, but a refund should be of the purchase price NOT of the current value of a similar spec at todays prices.

cheers
simonD

[Bapapapa]

but a refund should be of the purchase price NOT of the current value of a similar spec at todays prices.

The policy is more than likely underwritten by an insurance company not JL themselves and IME they payout to the value of current retail prices, not the original purchase price.

I'd take the money and buy a Tosh RPTV, my 32" WS is far too small. :p

[Wendelius]

Hiya SCJunkie,

Thanks for the reply. It looks to me like JL is working more along the lines Bapapapa described. They will provide a set with equivalent spec or refund you the money for the nearest equivalent they found.

I believe that, by asking for an exchange, they might be forced to go slightly above that value of £915 (which was for a TV which came out more than a year before and was about to be deleted from the catalogue the next month).

I need to check with them if there is any other store as big as the Kingston one closer to my place and see if they would be willing for me to choose there.

On the other hand, and that's why I asked, if the features and quality of my TV could really be found on a £900 set nowadays, then I might be better off ordering from a more local retailer.

The 5 year warranty at John Lewis is good but the past 2 months have proved to me that it's also a lot of hassle.

Choices, choices.

Wendelius

[Wendelius]

Originally posted by Bapapapa
I'd take the money and buy a Tosh RPTV, my 32" WS is far too small. :p

He, he. Only problem is that my TV room ain't huge. My wife is already giving me grief about the 32" W/S. Am I likely to end up single if I go for the RP (I've never really paid attention to the size of those)? :)

Also, while I mainly watch DVD's on TV, my wife is an addict to many TV series. I'm concerned about quality of the image for those and the fact that Sky and E4 keep their logo on the screen.

Out of curiosity, how does an RP TV compare to a traditional W/S one as far as image quality is concerned? Is it more affected by lighting conditions (e.g. you can't see a thing during daytime) or similar to a "normal" TV?

Wendelius

[scjunkie]

Thank the lord (expression) you did not just stick with the manufacturers waranty:) If you can get like for like then great, but I would be more inclined to take the cash, replace quickly before missus gets hands on cash, and get a different make. You do not want to have it go bang in another two:D

And of course don't forget extending that waranty.

Good Luck

SimonD

[Wendelius]

After some more discussion with a helpful JL CS employee, they accepted to look again at providing me with a replacement. I simply asked them to disregard the surround set-up (superseded by my own installation anyway) and go for a basic NICAM set. Miracle, they finally came up with 3 possible choices (listed in, what seems from an initial search to be a "from best to least interesting" order):

Philips 32PW9536 (plenty of features, apparently a very nice picture and 3 scarts (2 RGB))

Hitachi CL32WF720AN-300 (not an outstanding set but good features and picture, 2 scart only)

Panasonic TX-32PL10 (no progressive scan but good picture. 2 scart)

I've started looking around the AV Forums but have found very little on those. So I thought I'd ask here. Do any of you own one of those and what's your opinion of the set?

I'm very tempted to ask for the Philips. Would that be your choice too?

Wendelius

[Wayne Moule]

http://www.whatvideotv.com/testbench/Televisions/Philips/Philips32PW953605.shtml


http://www.whatvideotv.com/testbench/Televisions/Hitachi/HitachiPlataraCL32PD2100.shtml


http://www.whatvideotv.com/testbench/Televisions/Panasonic/PanasonicTX-32PL10.shtml

[Grumpy]

I would have a look at the other cheaper TV suppliers and see what type of TV I could get for my £915.00 and try to get John Lewis to price match it.
I managed to save nearly £400.00 an the TV I bought from JL recently.
It's worth a try.