Philips attitude poor on stand recall.

[onzey]

I would be interested to hear other peoples opinions especially if they have had their TV stand replaced because of this recall notice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/produc.../philips.shtml

(there's another here with a picture

http://bvcpnet1.mtl-acts.com/ACTSNew...400468BC9?open )

I'll be brief as possible

1. I bought my 32PW6517 on 21/10/03.

2. The stand came in a box marked ST326517/AF and the instructions for building the stand include (amongst other stand numbers) ST326517/AF. So on the face of it I don't have a faulty stand. It is worth noting that these numbers are on a box and a piece of paper, so if a faulty stand somehow got put in a box with new numbers with instructions with new numbers, how would you know?

3. My stand has a shelf with Philips on it. (see recall notice)

4. When building the stand there were 2 screw components which only managed to connect the corresponding part by less than 2 turns of the thread. I thought this odd at the time.

5. I first contacted the hotline number on 23/10/03. I am not sure if it was that time or a subsequent call when the person I spoke to said he 'thought' the stand had been recalled because of 2 short screws. I was told right from the first phone call that someone would call me to discuss the stand.

6, I have now phoned the hotline number on 23/10, 30/10, 5/11, 7/11, 10/11 and been told everytime that someone, from head office (where stand recalls are now dealt with evidently), will call me back. Nobody has ever called. I have supplied mobile and landline numbers.

7. The hotline number will not give a head office number so that I can call direct to them. (At this stage I only want to discuss the stand with someone who knows for definate how to identify a faulty one and will go beyond a simple stand number on the box)

8. I found a Philips number for their Croydon offices. When I phoned and they discovered it was not a trade enquiry they wanted to give an 0870 number (for consumers) but I protested and was put through to someone.

9. If she gave her name I missed it but she answered saying 'Trade'. I explained that I was uncertain about my TV stand and gave some details. Basically I was told (4 times) that a) My stand couldn't be faulty being bought so long after recall notice and b) as it seemed I was looking for a second opinion on the stand, to contact my retailer and get their service people to come and look at it. It was not Philips job to give second opinions.

10. We went round 4 times during which I tried to get across that I really needed to speak to someone from Philips with knowledge of the stands. Eventually she hung up on me. Before that I had also asked her to accept the possibilty that some error had occurred that led to me having a faulty stand but she said this was not possible. She said I had asked a question to which she had given an answer, 4 times, and therefore I must either think she was lying or I was not capable of understanding.

11. I rang back and said I had been hung up on but didn't know persons name. I said I wished to complain.

12. I was put through to another lady. I explained what had happened and we went on to discuss the stand. This person was more helpful and although the stand issue couldn't be resolved with her she has said someone will call me back. I hope they do. We will see.


I think I have acted reasonably and simply wish to talk to someone from Philips who has factual knowledge of the stand recall issue. Should this prove to be impossible I would like to hear from anyone on the forums who has either built a stand for a 6517 or had one replaced under the recall.

Thanks for reading

onzey

[blindlemon]

I think you should have titled this thread Philips attitude bad - period.

[gringottsdirect]

b) as it seemed I was looking for a second opinion on the stand, to contact my retailer and get their service people to come and look at it. It was not Philips job to give second opinions.
[/B]

The stands were recalled without quibble or question.
Replacement stands were delivered to retailers, the onus was on the retailer to contact their customer, arrange a convenient time to collect the faulty stands and replace with the modified item.
The obligation to do this lies with the retailer from whom you bought your TV not Philips. Although they offer a helpline number and mention direct delivery to your home in the bulletin, that wasn't typical.
I'm guessing but did you buy your TV from a mail order supplier, if so the events leading to Endeva cancelling all of it's contracts except Box Clever may have added to difficulties. If your retailer has now no means of collecting and replacing your cabinet it may be more sensible to chase a refund, future service requirements will be equally disappointing in their lack of resolution.
The main problem with these cabinets is when customers try to move them by dragging, because the weight of the TV pulls the legs apart causing it to collapse.
Contact where you bought it from it should have been sorted by now. Hope you have a speedy solution.

[ibrox]

I bought the 6517 from Empire Direct.
I was told T.V in stock when news broke to me through Onzeys original post that stand was on recall.
After another 10 days or so following several phone calls Empire Direct told me that all their 32" 6517`s had faulty stands which was the reason for the delay in delivery.
They could not give any indication when philips would replace their stands but gave me the option to have T.V delivered + for me to arrange with philips to have the stand replaced through the free phone number.

I did so as I had been waiting several weeks on T.V and they promised to deliver the TV the following week and gave me an date of delivery as Thurs or Fri.
I then phoned philips immediately to report the faulty stand as I had a good idea there would be a delay in rectifying this problem.

The TV arrived on Thurs evening at 9.15 p.m and the stand was unpacked by a joiner friend on the next night and in his opinion the stand was fit to be erected which he did.

The T.V was then set up and I phoned philips again which was 10 days from original call and they indicated although they had note of my complaint they could not understand why I had not been contacted by the courier who was going to replace stand.
They undertook to contact courier and I received a phone call the next day from courier who arranged on the same day to do the job.
Stand was changed over but unfortunately I found had not been reconnected properly.I phoned philips again and they sent a T.V repairman 2 days later with Sony overalls on to check the installation which he made good.

At no time was there any question from philips or courier whether I indeed had faulty stand although I had been informed by Empire it would have been.
The courier when he exchanged stands indicated my stand was faulty but how he could tell I know not.
Both the faulty stand and new stand have philips imprinted on shelf.
IMO Onzey the focus of your attention and I` don`t mean to be rude is to get the bu**er exchanged whether it turns out to be absolutely necessary is irrelevant.
I would not get immersed in the issue of how can you tell if a stand needs replaced and make numerous calls to find out or in other words go round in circles waiting on philips finding someone suitable to discuss the issue..
If exchanged it would simply ease your mind.

I think you should ask if the courier is aware of your problem,authorised to exchange the stand and obtain the phone number of the courier + phone them as opposed to philips to obtain a resolution.I.E New Stand + Date job to be completed.

I hope you get the matter sorted quickly to your satisfaction.

[onzey]

Thanks for replies people.

Yes, sorry I left a snippit out of my tale. Philips suggested early on contacting the retailer (Costco, therefore not mail order) to see if they could verify anything, which I did. The actual branch I purchased from knew nothing and could only refer me to head office. Costco head office said they would not be faulty stands so had no further interest. However I was left unconvinced, hence back to Philips. Philips surely are the people who can tell me what I want to know. All I am seeking is to speak to someone at Philips who can describe the reason for the recall. If there was a fundamental design change tell me the difference. If it came down to a couple of screw components in the bag of fittings tell me what changed and the length of old and new components. It seems to me perhaps improbable but not impossible that if it is down to the fittings then stands could have been boxed with bags of fittings still containing the faulty components. I suppose if it was just faulty components then you might expect Philips just to send new fittings out but I do not know how things like this are handled. Perhaps there would be more problems (maybe injuries) with owners rebuilding their stands and they thought it better to send people out to build the stands.

For all I know I may be doing Philips a favour by chasing up something which has slipped through quality control. I think my Costco had about 250 of these TV's and may have sold the lot by now, and that's just my branch.

Philips offer a helpline and regardless of anything else have offered to get someone to contact me. That was the 23/10/2003. I am still waiting.

By the way the 2 screw components which attach by less than 2 turns hold the metal brackets on the legs to the shelf the TV sits on.

[onzey]

Hi ibrox and thanks for comments.

I think in your case you at least had a confirmation from Empire Direct that the stand you were being sent was a faulty one. In my case on the face of it my stand is not faulty and my starting point was a stand that looks like the one in the recall and has a shelf with Philips on, and when I built it had 2 short screws which made me think that the attachment of the legs was not very good.

I don't know if the helpline people would know the courier number as I think everything to do with the stand recall is now dealt with at head office. I could try asking.

[gringottsdirect]

Originally posted by onzey
Yes, sorry I left a snippit out of my tale. Philips suggested early on contacting the retailer (Costco, therefore not mail order) to see if they could verify anything, which I did. The actual branch I purchased from knew nothing .......

Warehouse Clubs, supermarkets and so on have no service network of their own but allegedly rely on third parties.
Invariably these " third parties " couldn't care less, but will instead simply advise you to " take it back for a refund or exchange ".
Now that Endeva has collapsed a lot of people are going to experience similar situations.
Philips are well aware of your problem, don't let that worry you too much, all you need is to find someone interested in helping you.
Honestly, you could spend months chasing your tail and waiting for the phone to ring.
Costco have an excellent reputation for exchanges and refunds, that's definitely your best solution.

[ibrox]

Hi onzey;
philips were not aware that I had a faulty stand or attempt to check this out so the confirmation to me by Empire that the stand was faulty is largely irrelevant.
I merely quoted the model number and philips freephone indicated would replace stand
My original stand(faulty) looked exactly like the diagram.

My belief is that anyone who had a 6517 who requested a replacement stand would be provided with one.
The risk of not replacing what could be a faulty stand would be too great if an accident occurred + the person pursued legal action against them.

As regards the courier when I had my stand replaced there was one courier responsible for carrying out the work all over the country.
The reason I know this is the guys told me they had just returned from a job in Carlisle which is well over 100 miles from my home.

If you wish I could check if I kept courier details but its probably best that you corroborate with Philips that job to replace stand passed on and obtain phone number in case different arrangements have been made.The freephone service gave me the courier details so it should be easily obtainable.

If you are happy with your T.V I would only be looking for a refund as a last resort but I do agree + indicated earlier that chasing up philips to see whether your stand is satisfactory is an exercise in futility IMO.
Replacement stand=Problem solved.

[ibrox]

Hi Onzey;Just a quick note to let you know the courier employed by philips is called Hays or Hayes but unfortunately I do not have a telephone number.
Their Head Office is based in Scotland.

[gringottsdirect]

Hays Distribution Services,
( Philips Consumer Electronics Outsource Handling )
First Avenue ( Off Forge Lane ),
Minworth, Sutton Coldfield
B76 8BA

Customer Contact Tel: 0800 7315244
or 0121 351 5541

[onzey]

Thanks for all the interest and info guys.

I've had enough of this nonsense for this week so will leave it now until end of the week to see if anyone calls me. If not I will try to get confirmation next week if I am listed to be getting a replacement stand or not.

Cheers

onzey

[onzey]

Well nobody rang.

So I rang hotline again, Monday (the hotline is actually just customer service centre but I hope I am getting free calls as it's 0800 instead of 0870). I spoke to a guy who assured me he would talk to his manager and get back to me by end of day. I waited till about 5.30pm and no call. Rang again and got a different guy who couldn't find the guy who was going to ring me back. New guy seemed keen to find out what is going on and told me if someone from head office had not contacted me by Wednesday to call and ask for him again.

Well someone from head office did ring, today (Helleluja!) and is going to ring again tomorrow when they have made arrangements for someone to come and look at my stand. Some progress at last.

[onzey]

Well it took a while and the odd phone call but eventually a new stand was delivered Monday 8/12. (I started enquiries on 23/10)
The new stand looks identical to my old stand with identical labels on the box (the box was used to protect the already assembled new stand) and Philips etched on one shelf. The delivery people (Hayes) seemed to think my old stand was not a faulty one. Anyway, after they left I decided to unscrew the 2 screw components that I thought seemed a bit short and compare the new with the old. Well the new ones were slightly longer, not by a lot, just another turn or 2 of thread. So I am left wondering if these are deliberately longer or perhaps the length varies slightly from one stand to the next anyway. Needless to say I will use the longer ones.
The reason the Hayes driver thought my old stand was not a faulty one was because it had these 2 screw components, giving me the impression that the faulty stands did not have them. Do the van drivers really know? If he's right then I have indeed had a new stand all along. You would think though that if the presence of these 2 components clearly identifies the 'new improved' stand, that somebody could have told me that in the numerous phone calls to Philips and saved a lot of time and frustration. I guess I'll never know for sure.

I think that draws this tale to a close.

onzey

[Sly]

i have a faulty dvd player and need to contact philips about it which number did you use?

[onzey]

Try 0800 444 261 It's the number given for the stand recall hotline but seems to go through to normal customer service (but hopefully is free). Should it no longer be working I think actual customer service number is 0870 900 9070