Do all Sony LCD screens only last 2 years?

[unhappycustomer]

The screen is going on my KDL 40W 4500 after just 2 years. Sony refuse to contribute to the cost and replacing it is only slightly more expensive than the repair cost. This was a best buy in Which? magazine.

I am now going out to buy a new TV. It will be my first non Sony for 20 years. I am now a non customer for any Sony product and will share my experience widely.

[Boughtafewsonys]

Hi Garyallen

Can you give us details of how you achieved this?

I am about to 'go to guns' with Sony on my TV as they are taking the pee, given they obviously have a problem with these products

[Boughtafewsonys]

I spoke to CIC an they clearly have no briefing on how to deal with Bravia product defects. I was refused an engineer visit unless less I agreed to meet the full cost of any repair.

I even specifically asked if the engineer might visit and prepare a report on the device only.

No was the answer

This TV cost me £1000 and is 2.5 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[describbler]

To all who post on or read this thread,

If you have a TV that is out of warranty and has developed a fault it seems reasonable to me that you should pay for the first call of a Sony-approved engineer.  After all you have probably saved money by not having an extended warranty.

The (Sony-approved) engineer can then give you a written repair estimate.  You, and the Sony CIC, then can at least agree on the fault you are dealing with.

After all Sony need to protect themselves against people who might make erroneous or even fraudulent claims.  I am certainly not suggesting that anyone posting here falls into that category.  Just that, to get a goodwill repair, it is not unreasonable to have to prove that the fault is actually the screen - and to take the hit for establishing that in the first place.

[unhappycustomer]

Always good to get an alternative point of view describbler.

Imagine that you owned a car out of warranty and something goes wrong with lots of similar cars. The manufacturer, lets say Toyota, recognises the problem and recalls potentially affected cars and fixes them, even those where the fault has not yet presented itself. No charge, no paying for an engineer to look at it.  Isn't that what good customer service should be? Now compare this to Sony who in spite of many complaints do not "officially" recognise the issue even though some of their engineers do and it's widespread on internet sites.  This is called denial and it is toxic for Sony.

In pure commerical terms just imagine all of the people who were Sony fans who have said on this site and others that they will never buy another Sony product. Now imagine how many other people they have told about their bad experience with Sony. Now add all those who have read this string or others on different internet sites.  In financial terms the cost of the odd potential fraud starts to pail into insignificance very quickly in terms of lost sales due to bad reputation.  

Some people continue to feel very strongly about how badly let down they have been by Sony, a brand they once loved and trusted. One contributor to this string told me that whenever he sees someone looking at a Sony TV in any electrical store he quietly tells them his experience and they go and look at another brand.

The bottom line is that Sony unwillingness to recognise and fix a known problem with a specific model has already cost them many thousands of pounds and will continue to do so. Hiding under the covers and making it difficult for customers will not make this problem go away. I'm glad that I'm not a shareholder of Sony because companies that don't listen to their customer always end up in trouble.

I hope that this helps you better understand why the approach currently adopted by Sony is not just bad for once loyal customers it's also very bad for Sony.

What would you do if you worked for Sony describbler?

[ballamboy]

describbler,

Spot on (almost),

It seems reasonable that they protect themselves from the unscrupulous, but surely if the fault turns out to be theirs then they should foot the call out charge? That's proper customer service - they've sold something that could be argued is not fit for purpose and the customer has had the hassle of contacting them, and losing use of their set for several weeks.

You've guessed it - I'm another disgruntled owner. Finding this thread has been a great help. My 40W4500 is 2 years and 3 months old and is developing all the signs of a frazzled screen on startup - clouds moving across the screen, blurring, a horizontal line - and on a couple of occasions the picture looking as if a beige filter had been placed over the screen after about 15 minutes use. The set sorts itself out eventually but I fear the worst.

I contacted the CIC, and had the usual runaround to start with. When I mentioned this thread, and the fact that the problem was well-documented  I made some progress, although only after I asked the representative to speak to a supervisor. I also mentioned that there were probable Sale of Goods Act issues and that I'd pursue via the retailer if need be. Sony have agreed to review the situation after they receive the engineers report. 'Review' mind you, no promises - which I find galling. If the fault is as I described to them, and repairs in the region of £500-£600 why on earth should I foot the bill?

I found myself between a rock and a hard place - no report, no chance of a repair by Sony. I decided I could live with the cost of the engineers report if Sony covered the repair.

As an aside - they gave me two numbers for local Sony approved companies - one wanted £140 (+ VAT) to come and take the TV away and return - this included £100 towards any repair. The problem is that it may well not be economical to repair. Luckily the second firm wanted only £55 to visit, or would provide a report for free if I brought the TV into the shop and left it a few days. Bit of a no-brainer really - the TV will be in there on Monday.

Come on Sony! If you view these threads I suggest you bite the bullet and restore genuine customers faith in your products. I paid £1000 for the set and 2 years is ridiculous. Call me 'old fashioned' but I'd expect 10 years out of a good quality TV. I appreciate the technology moves fast but I'd certainly be unhappy with it breaking in less than 5 years. As it stands if I have to go for a replacement it will be John Lewis (5 year guarantee) and a Panasonic or Samsung.

All in all, less than happy with Sony at the moment......

[carrspaints]

Almost all of the screen faults described in this thread are REPAIRABLE. Sony and almost all tv repair shops will tell you the screen will need to be replaced. The screen should be replaced, but since Sony seem reluctant to acknowledge that some of their sourced screens are junk and break down after a year or twos use, you have two choices. Repair it, or chuck it & buy new. The 1st option will cost you nothing more than 30-45 minutes of your time.

The fault on all of these models (V, W & X series, e.g. KDL40X****, KDL46X****, KDL40W4***, KDL46W4*** etc) is with sleeves that connect the screen to screen boards. When facing the tv, the fault is almost always with the sleeve on the extreme left, or extreme right. Basically these sleeves are very thin plastic sheets that contain minute circuitry that connects the screen to the matrix boards. With the screens being subjected to significant heat over the months/years, the bond between the sleeve and the screen breaks down, which results in a bad contact.

The fix is fairly simple. You need to remove the frame that surrounds the screen (usually an aluminium frame held in place with some small but longish screws.) When the frame is removed, you will see the long retangular boards at the top of the tv, two of them, one on the left side of the screen, one on the right. You will also see the sleeves that connect these boards to the screen.

With the tv on and showing a picture (which should be distorted, dark, shadowed, with horizontal lines etc), lightly press the sleeve on the extreme left of the screen. (or right if nothing happens with the left) Press the sleeve gently towards the frame, or downwards. You will note the picture miraculously works!!!

So the cure? You need to put some padding between the frame and the sleeve so that when the frame is screwed back into position, the padding presses down on the sleeve and corrects the issue with the bad contact. Job done, it is that simple! The hardest part is taking the tv apart, but that should only take 20 minutes. 10 minutes to use some padding, 10 minutes to put the tv back together again.

To clarify, the fault is almost always with the 1st or last sleeve, i.e. extreme left or right. It is usually the left sleeve that creates the problem.

Try this, it works. Alternatively, stick your tv on ebay so I can buy it, fix it and make some pocket money.

[StartTheCar · Accepted solution]

Hi

It is always disappointing to read of any product failure, and with so many of you sharing similar experiences this is clearly something we need to address.  However, while I fully understand your concerns at both the failure of your products and the consequent repair costs, I am not convinced by some of the comments and advice offered.

In an effort to clear up any confusion and in order to help each of you get your specific issues addressed, here are my observations:

Firstly, and this should really go without saying, do not try to repair any product yourself under any circumstances! 

I appreciate the good intention of the post above and I also understand that there is plenty of similar threads on other forums regarding this “repair” However while it is true that some panel failures are due to the type of bad connection that carrspaints describes, and in theory putting some kind of extra padding or ‘cushion’ behind the affected connection may make the set work. It simply cannot be considered an effective, permanent, safe repair or indeed a 'catch all' and/or appropriate solution

In the words of a Sony BRAVIA specialist Engineer "when this connection is properly made, on a good LCD panel, the wires are bonded to the glass, so while you can push them back against the glass with this “padding” and it may work for a period of time, it is likely to fail due to oxidisation or repeated thermal cycling.    Put simply, the only long-term solution is to replace the LCD panel".

This comes with a repair cost, which brings me on to my second point; what to do next.

If the product is still under guarantee, your first port of call should be your supplying retailer.  After the Sony European guarantee period, and assuming you do not have an extended guarantee, I would always recommend contacting our Customer Information Centre (0844 8466 555).

Though I appreciate that some of you have done this already, but were not overly impressed with the reply, it remains the single most effective point of contact within Sony. Having said this, there are inevitable limitations, for example it is simply not realistic to expect my colleagues there to be able to effectively diagnose complex faults over the phone or to instantly recall every product and issue we have ever had.  However, they have access to all of our service support departments as well as a very effective escalation process (should it be needed).

If you want to ensure your issue is dealt with a little quicker, I would recommend that you get a written estimate from a Sony authorised repair agent.  This is usually the first thing we will ask for when looking to provide any level of assistance outside of the guarantee.  Along with a copy of the receipt, an estimate allows us to make an informed decision.

It would be remiss of me to offer any guarantees on how my colleagues will address each of your issues.  While they all appear very similar, on closer inspection they could differ greatly.  I can however assure you that each case will be judged on its own merits.

In addition, I will speak to the Customer Service Manager and ask that his team keep an eye out for any escalations relating to these model numbers.

Any specific questions please feel free to PM me and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as I can.

Best regards
Lee

[Boughtafewsonys]

Comet want me to pay £189 to repair it, on top of the £60 I've paid for someone to tell me it is broken(!)

Clearly i am not going to pay that and have asked for a consideration under Goodwill.

To my mind both Sony and the retailers are making it as difficult as possible to get this sorted.

I'll phone Sony Customer Services with the good news that it is a TConn failure. Woohoo.

Am I able to reject the goods under the Act by returning them to the retailer?

Sony has been my brand of choice for many years and I think that might be about to stop.

[leonintelex]

Hi everyone

This is a big problem,  I am trying to get everyone experiencing this in the same place.  
Can you please post on the following link:

https://www.sony-europe.com/discussions/message/643410#643410

Also  to keep this at the top of the forum can you please try to post as  often as possible on threads,   we all need to work together on this and  make sure that Sony cannot simply sweep this under the carpet or fob us  off!

I WILL BE TAKING THIS AS FAR AS POSSIBLE UNTIL WE GET A FAIR RESPONSE

Thanks

Leon

[leonintelex]

Sorry I am not happy with your response. 

Why is it so hard for Sony to admit this is a common fault with this TV set,  you are still making customers chase round the houses to get this resolved. 

You want us to

• Send the TV in and pay £70 for it to be looked at.
• Then wait anxiously for Sony to decide if its a manufacturing fauly with no guarantees that the customer wont end up with the bill (notice how they say we NAY decide to fix it free of charge)
• Wait 4 - 6 weeks for it to be repaired with no TV 

This is the service I get for sending countless e-mails, huge amounts of my time and 12 months trying to get this sorted!

The TV has a clear fauly, there should be an official procedure we should follow, acknowledgment that this is a fauly with the set,  guarantee's that the TV will be either fixed or replaced at no cost to the customers, a replacement TV while the TV is in for repair. 

This is not much to ask, all we want is the TV we bought to just work as it was intended with minumum amount of fuss.

This would be a good gesture which would restore a little bit of customer satisfaction and faith in Sony as a brand.

Sorry but this is not a resolution, it is simply a fob off.