Faulty Philips TV (50PUS7906/12)

WalterPuffin

Hi all. 

I'm really struggling with Philips Technical Support and its assigned engineers Equinox.

We bought a brand new Philips TV (50PUS7906/12) a few months ago from ao.com, which has consistently showed poor picture quality (flashing and brightness fluctuation) when watching anything via an HDMI source.  (Watching through the TV (without HDMI) is always fine).

Philips has shown no real interest in helping me, only in ensuring that its phone and email scripts match the prescribed "Under warranty, we can only repair and can't replace" mantra.  After four months of this constant struggle with Philips, they have again assigned the on-site repair to Equinox.  Equinox tells me that it will come and replace the motherboard, despite them having tried that twice before ! This will be the fourth board !  (think Einstein and his 'insanity' quote). 

Has anyone any tips on how I can bypass the robotic and scripted Technical Support team and actually get someone in Philips who has the common sense and the authority to realise that we've all wasted many hours and much money since November, and that a replacement is the more prudent and pragmatic solution ?  Philips Customer Support offers no hope and no confidence.   

(By the way, when the issue first arose, ao.com's customer support was poor, simply saying "Here's Philips' phone number, cheerio").

Thanks in advance, 

WP
 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

Your rights are with AO, did you contact them at any point? 

Alderbank

That TV is currently £449 from AO and the same price from Richer Sounds, which includes RS six year guarantee.
Some here will say you should have bought it from RS...

Rather than struggle with Philips and Equinox you should focus your efforts on the retailer AO because you have statutory consumer rights with them.
Start by telling them that after several unsuccessful attempts to repair you now insist on a refund.

How long had you had the set when you first reported the fault to AO's customer support?

TELLIT01

I may be wrong but I thought they were only allowed a couple of attempts to fix, certainly with basically a new TV.  BUT, as you purchased through AO you should have been dealing with them, not Philips.

I found this on the Which website.  "

Can I get a full refund? - the first six months

If you've owned the item for less than six months, the retailer must give you a full refund if an attempt at a repair or replacement is unsuccessful.

The retailer can't make any deduction from a refund in the first six months following an unsuccessful attempt at repair or replacement.

The only exception to this is motor vehicles, where the retailer can make a deduction for fair use after the first 30 days.

It doesn't matter whether you bought your goods before or after 1 October 2015 - in the first six months from when you buy something, the onus is on the seller to prove your defective product was of satisfactory quality when you received it.

It's not for you to prove that the faulty item was not of satisfactory quality in order to get it repaired or replaced during the first six months after purchase."

NOTE: this is with the retailer, not the manufacturer.

WalterPuffin

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Hello OP

Your rights are with AO, did you contact them at any point? 

Hi, only immediately after the fault was first seen, around four months ago.  However, after your reply (and those of TELLIT01 and Alderbank) I rang them earlier.  They're looking into it right now - fingers crossed.  Thanks.    

WalterPuffin

TELLIT01 said:

I may be wrong but I thought they were only allowed a couple of attempts to fix, certainly with basically a new TV.  BUT, as you purchased through AO you should have been dealing with them, not Philips.

I found this on the Which website.  "

Can I get a full refund? - the first six months

If you've owned the item for less than six months, the retailer must give you a full refund if an attempt at a repair or replacement is unsuccessful.

The retailer can't make any deduction from a refund in the first six months following an unsuccessful attempt at repair or replacement.

The only exception to this is motor vehicles, where the retailer can make a deduction for fair use after the first 30 days.

It doesn't matter whether you bought your goods before or after 1 October 2015 - in the first six months from when you buy something, the onus is on the seller to prove your defective product was of satisfactory quality when you received it.

It's not for you to prove that the faulty item was not of satisfactory quality in order to get it repaired or replaced during the first six months after purchase."

NOTE: this is with the retailer, not the manufacturer.

Massively helpful, thanks.  Awaiting AO's to get back to me (after a necessary 'managerial escalation').

WalterPuffin

Alderbank said:

That TV is currently £449 from AO and the same price from Richer Sounds, which includes RS six year guarantee.
Some here will say you should have bought it from RS...

Rather than struggle with Philips and Equinox you should focus your efforts on the retailer AO because you have statutory consumer rights with them.
Start by telling them that after several unsuccessful attempts to repair you now insist on a refund.

How long had you had the set when you first reported the fault to AO's customer support?

Comment noted about Richer Sounds  

Awaiting AO's feedback now (after a positive call)

WalterPuffin

UPDATE

After a couple of short phone calls with AO, and a very helpful young lady called Olivia, they are processing a full refund and will pick up the TV on Saturday !

Richer Sounds, here we come.

Many thanks to this forum and the three instrumental replies.  If only I'd come here a few months ago.

WP   

Alderbank

Thanks for coming back to tell us your outcome, Walter.

Appreciated.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

WalterPuffin said:

UPDATE

After a couple of short phone calls with AO, and a very helpful young lady called Olivia, they are processing a full refund and will pick up the TV on Saturday !

Richer Sounds, here we come.

Many thanks to this forum and the three instrumental replies.  If only I'd come here a few months ago.

WP   

Thanks OP for posting back, good to hear you got a result