Left half of my screen is white! (plasma)

[goooose]

Ive got a 54" plasma (dont want to throw the manuf. under the bus). Got it new in December. Today, was playing some Red Dead on the 360, and out of nowhere the left half of the screen goes pure white??Checked all the obvious things, repowered a couple times etc. Anyone had a problem like this before? Obviously its under warranty so im not to worried, or should I be. Well I tried to call the manufacturer earlier today but no one answers calls on saturday! WTF! So I fired off an email, and I did get a quick response saying 'sorry but your tv needs servicing'. Ya think? Regardless, thats probably as far as we can get before monday anyways. This is why I dont want to bash the manufacturer just yet....atleast not for customer service. However, for what I paid for this tv, and to have problems already..... I have a 27" Konka tv that is about 7yrs old, paid $200 for it new (times were tough back then!)and it still runs like a dream. I never thought my brand new plasma would be out lived by that old piece of shite!

End rant and back to original question, has anyone had a problem like this? and is this a sign of things to come? should i be happy with just a new part?

Thanks in advance

 

[Seth=L]

I don't have the answer to your problem, however I do have a question for you.

If a product fails with normal use who is responsible? Would you say it's the manufacturer that is most likely to blame? For a company to have a product fail is certainly not good for them, but some of the worst companies deserve the wrap they get.

I'm not saying it's your duty to tell people the brand of your TV, but I do think it's quite silly to say "(dont want to throw the manuf. under the bus)" if they made an error. Now if you work for the company that makes the TV it would make sense, otherwise there's no reason to not announce the manufacturer as that information could be beneficial to the consumer. I don't know about you, but I'm more concerned about the consumer.

With only a handful of manufacturers still in the plasma television business my educated guess is that the television is a Panasonic. My short foray on google indicates that it's directly related to the panel or one of a few parts that control the panel. Repairs are expensive and not recommended unless you have the knowledge, skill, and proper schematic for the unit. If the television is under full warranty have it serviced by a Panasonic approved service center with a good reputation. A poor repair will lead to other display problems in the near future if the proper parts are not used.

 

[goooose]

I agree with everything you say.

Now, when I bought this set I did a fair bit of research on quality and performance. If I had bought a PRIMA set and it broke right away I would have no problem calling them out. However, I bought a brand that has a good track record and probably doesnt deserve to be labled because of one incident. Thats the other reason why I asked if anyone has had a problem like mine, maybe it isnt the only incident and the company needs to be called out for it.

Nobodys perfect, I realize that. There is a margin of error in everything thats made. I just dont want to be the guy whos tail light goes out, then says the car company makes junk.

 

[Seth=L]

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a big fan of Panasonic. If I was to buy a new TV it would be a Panasonic plasma. I wouldn't buy any other brand plasma that anyone makes now. Pioneer and Panasonic were it, now only Panasonic is left.

A problem like this could detour someone from buying the product, but that's their choice. I think in the perfect world we would know how many times a product failed for a particular brand. It's not a perfect world so we go off statistics. Statistically Panasonic has high reliability for a majority of their products, including plasmas, however there could be others that are more reliable. That's tough to say though since Panasonic consistantly does well in this regard.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Not only should you let us know the brand/make/model of your display, you should also let us know how well they take care of you with the service request you will HAVE to put in for this failure of the electronics.

It is BS politics to not point out that companies fail all the time. Just say what you have and what went down, then go ahead and let us know how they took care of you when you called.

I've had product go bad from Panasonic, BenQ, Sony and others. Electronics generally have about a 3% product failure rate out of the box, so this is not at all unusual or horrible, it's just what the electronics industry is.

But, how they take care of you after you find that you have a problem with a product which is less than 1 year old is incredibly important.

My example: I had a water cooler for those 5 gallon jugs of water. After about 18 months it started freezing up, so I had to unplug it to stop it from freezing the water. After another couple of months it then started leaking, dumping several gallons of water on my hardwood floors... which leaked to my basement. Two very serious issues and I decided to not buy from that company again...

The next cooler I got was from a different company and had good reviews. After 8 months it started freezing up. Guess what? It turns out that it was MADE and OWNED by the original company I had decided not to buy from. In none of the literature I read did it mention that it was just another product by the same manufacturer. Nice.

So, our water cooler is now out for repair, under warranty, where it has been for the last 45 days! We dropped it off at the service center ourselves. Why does it take over a month and a half to repair a product which was purchased less than a year ago?

Greeway HP (Greenway Home Products also dba Vitapur & Watermaxx) - can go screw themselves and they happily threw themselves under the bus.

Hey, I feel similarly about my GE appliances which I got brand new with my home of which I've had 4 repairs on in less than 5 years of ownership/use. GE has lost my business moving forward and rightfully so.

 

[Seth=L]

I could not have said it better myself.

Although we probably just scared him off.

 

[Tarub]

 

[Seth=L]

He must not have liked the idea of the converter box either.