I am close to biting the bullet and ordering an AE700, but given the cost involved, I'm plagued by worries that I may get a "dodgy" unit in terms of dead pixels and/or VB. I emailed Komplett about this to see what their returns policy would be in this situation. They didn't address VB at all, but regarding dead pixels, they said:

"Dead Pixels, if in small amounts, are usually not covered by warranty so can then not be returned."

To be honest, having paid €1700 on this, I don't think I could stand even one dead pixel (which wouldn't warrant a return, apparently). I have seen here that some retailers offer a free pixel check. My question is: if Panasonic's warranty doesn't cover "small amounts" of dead pixels, what do these retailers do with machines that have one or two dead pixels? I'm presuming that the point of doing the pixel check is to ensure the machine sent to the customer has no dead pixels at all - what do you do with those machines that do..?

I guess that leads me to my second question: how common are dead pixels? For those who've bought AE700s - have any of you gotten a unit with any dead pixels? I haven't seen any reports of any, so if the incidence is that low, I guess I could take a risk and order from Komplett..

Of course, that does leave the issue of VB unresolved, but I guess this is enough for one post..

Cheers

[joffonon]

I'm sure there'd be mention from someone if they'd found a dead pixel! Mine was checked by the retailer (Discount Electrical), and is absolutely fine.

[bentleg]

No dead pixels here I got mine from discount electrical too.
haven’t seen VB either

[benji_m]

Just work on the assumption that Panasonic are slippery and retailers are nice - choose your retailer wisely

Hehe, yeah. Judging by Komplett's email, I doubt they'd be very sympathetic..

That said, at €1700 they are the cheapest I have seen. I actually just checked your topic, benji_m, in the Special Offers forum, and you aren't as expensive as I had initially thought. The gap between yourselves and komplett is less than I expected, especially if you consider shipping. It's still a €140-180 difference, though. Hmm..I'm stretching myself as is, this will need some thinking about..

In terms of your checks - do you only send out units with NO dead pixels? Also, you talk about a "general quality test"..what is this? Thanks

[JonMace]

Brought mine from DiscountTv as well no dead pixels, but that was to be expected as they chech each machine for them before dispatch, it would be interesting to hear from Ben if they had to reject any of their stock?