Discount Electric

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mcmullanbrush

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I purchesed a Panasonic Pt Ae100 from Discount Electric on 30 July 2002.

On 30 Nov 2002 it stopped working, I returned it, via next day delivery, on Monday 2 Dec and it was duly received by the retailer on 3 Dec 2002.

I was assured that it would be checked immediately and should an in house repiar not be possible, it would be sent to Panasonic without delay.

On 5 Dec I telephoned to find out what was happening, I was told that my projector had not been unwrapped yet. I was able to hear the assistant unwrapping it as we spoke:mad:

The following day I called again and was told it had been looked at, but it would need to be returned to Panasonic for repair.

I called again on 11 Dec and was informed that it was with Panasonic and I would be called back that afternoon with a "tracking number".

I did not receive a call back so phoned again on 12 Dec and was told that it was still sitting on a shelf at Discount Electric. I was told that thier senior technician had hurt his wrist:confused: .

My projector has now been with Discount Electric for 10 days and is no closer to being repaired.
Do I have any legal rights? As it seems the retailer is unable to honour the terms of the guarantee.

David McMullan
Rotherham
[email protected]
 
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Message from admin - several irrelevant replies have been removed from this thread on the grounds that people shouldn't comment until they have heard both sides of the story.
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I have had no response from Discount Electric. This is the fourth time a promised call back has failed to materialise. They have my mobile and home telephone number. Maybe they are waiting until something actually happens before they call me:confused:

I will possibly get a call some time in the new year, telling me it has been moved to a different shelf.
 
At the moment, my only problem with Panasonic is they have sold a very large number of AE100s that were clearly unreliable. My model was made in July, they had known for months about problems, but they seem to have continued to make it to the same shoddy standards.

My main problem with Discount Electric, apart from their complete lack of action with my projector, is their inability to telephone me with an explanation or apology. I have called them seven or eight times and have been promised call backs on at least four occasions. They have my home and mobile numbers but I have heard nothing. I was also given false information on two occasions, which I will assume were genuine mistakes as I have a charitable nature.
 
my first ae100 was of april 02 which after 88 hrs started with colour uniformity.2 nd one was august 02 which had colour problem as soon i oped the box.is this the standard of panasonic,they should tell coustomer that this projector might give colour problem,so we can decideto buy or not.
any how they have taken both of them back,and delear is giving me the 3rd one.i will try last time if this gives the problem i will take them to court (dealer).
 
Products should not fail like this and after reading quite a few posts I decided that it was too risky for me to go with a panasonic. I should of found the search button on this forum earlier :blush:

Anyone have some good alternatives to the AE300?
 
Steven, the sanyo Z1 is getting good comments and is in a similar price/performance class as the AE100.

Try a search :p
 
I have not yet been called back by Panasonic. However, within a few hours of calling them, I did get a message from Discount Electric informing me that the projector had been collected by Panasonic.
I do not know whether this call was prompted by Panasonic contacting the retailer or a coincidence. I do know that the time elapsed between Discount Electric receiving my projector and it being looked at by someone who may be able to repair it, was at least 13 days.
I know that in the greater scheme of things 13 days doesnt sound that long, but I see no reason for this delay and I do not yet know how long the actual repair may take.
 
good news mcmullanbrush :), Im thinking about the NEC HT1000 now...bet that has problems too :devil:
 
Three weeks on.............

Panasonic have now had the PJ for a week. I called Discount Electric today, but they have heard nothing.
I have been promised a call back on Monday with the repair time.

I will let you know if they do.
 
Originally posted by mcmullanbrush

I have been promised a call back on Monday with the repair time.


No call back by 3pm so I called them. Seems they couldnt get through to Panasonic:rolleyes:
I will deal direct with Panasonic now, I sent an email to their customer services dept and I am waiting.
I can see it being the end of Jan at this rate.
 
Its a tribute to this Forum that we are allowed to criticise sponsors and that my fellow Forum members are offering such support.

It has been difficult returning to a rear projection tv after getting used to a 7ft wide image, but worse things happen.

As I mentioned before, after I got a refund on my first Panny, I was going to look for an alternative, due to the reliability issues.

I was persuaded to try another PT AE 100 by the Discount Electric salesman, he promised me excellent customer service, should I have any problems. I beleived him because he was a Forum member and I had read several good things about the company on this forum.

I spent 20.00 returning the PJ by next day service because I thought it would give me a chance of having it back for Xmas.

I was recently told by D.E. that its collection from them was a result of me contacting Panasonic customer services. I wonder how much longer it would have remained on D.E.s shelf had I not phoned Panasonic.
 
I still have no news from DE or Panasonic. I have sent the following Email to DE and a similar one to Panasonic.

"One month has now passed since I returned my Panasonic PTAE 100 projector to you for a warranty repair. The unit worked for only 4 months and approximately 210 hours.
I have been given no idea as to how long it will be before I receive the projector back, from either yourselves or Panasonic.
I believe that one month is a more that reasonable amount of time to wait for a repair under its guarantee. If you and/or Panasonic are unable to honour the terms of this guarantee then I expect to be supplied with a refund/replacement as soon as possible.
I would appreciate an answer to this email within the next twenty four hours."

David McMullan

By the way, I found this quote on DEs website:

"we don't however compromise our 20 year old reputation for exceptional customer service "

It is ironic that the links to "customer serivces" and "contact us" result in a this page cannot be found notice.
 
Yeah, a month is a very long time, especially when you've been on holiday and had all your friends and family around and have been reduced to a normal Tv for that time and your used to a gigantic picture. Keep pestering them mate. :eek:
 
Have to agree with Thor.... being without the toy at Christmas is a bummer - when mine needed fettling the dealers didn't commit to a replacement, but made it clear that they wouldn't see me hanging out there.

The longer this goes on, the more one wonders about Discount Electric.................


Sean G.
 
Hi mcmullanbrush, sorry to hear about your troubles.

However, I feel that you have made a few mistakes along the way

1) If you wanted the unit repaired why did you send it to the retailer? At best they pass it on to panasonic, at worst they have one of their chaps 'look at it'.

2) If you have hung around this forum enough then you would know that this unit is unreliable. This is Panasonics doing/responsibility, not the retailers.

3) Screaming for service over the xmas break is a waste of time. Even if the people are there their minds are on other things.

Forget the retailer. Deal with Panasonic.

El
 
McMullenbrush,

Got your PM, thanks, you have PM reply.

I have no idea how they might reply to this thread - but the longer the silence goes on the more difficult it becomes to consider any reasonable circumstances which would justify the absence of a reply from a Forum sponsor and a member of the forum, particularly taking accout of public claims regarding excellence of customer service.

Frankly, I can't wait to see the response to this thread, assuming anyone at Discount Electric has the gumption or the courage to respond. I hope, with the support of other members here, and the continued indulgence of Spectre and the mods, to keep this thread on the "front page".


Sean G.
 
Ok - Ben from Discount TV has sent this reply:

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Hi guys,
to be honest I haven't seen this thread as I have been busy of late, and having seen it I feel I need to clarify a few things. Firstly

1) The PJ is from Panasonic UK, not a grey import as has been suggested.

2) WE CANNOT FIX LCD PRODUCT ON OUR PREMESES, as stipulated by panasonic,

3) Panasonic were informed AS SOON as the PJ was recieved, they took a while to pick it up, this is deeply regrettable, and disapointing. Panasonic returns department are useless at the moment, but, and it has to be said, THIS IS NO DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER RETAILER! We cannot do any more than constantly ring them, WHICH WE DO!

4) Compared to other retailers very strict terms and conditions we really do try and be flexible and get problems resolved, with companies like Panasonic this is increasingly hard.

5) I aplogise personally for the lack of communication with David, it is unacceptable, but we HAVE been at panasonic asking about what is going on ect.

I feel the demonisation of our company is regrettable, and unfair. Without passing the buck, It is PANASONIC who have the only influence on the situation. I feel that a lot of the comments should really be directed at them, after all, realistically, what can we, or any, retailer say to Pana to get them speeded up?

I have a faulty panasonic product that took over 1 month to be PICKED UP, nothing I could say or do could speed that process up.

Through sensationalisation and unfair and suggestive comments this has turned from an admitted lack of communication into a witchhunt. And that is unfair.

I apologise unreservedly for the hassle caused to David,

a happy new year to you all.


__________________
Ben Miller
Discount TV

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So there you go. I honestly think that if there wasn't something to whine about, some people would have nothing to say.
Those people who lined up to have a poke at Discount TV can apologise below.
 
Firstly, may I say that I can appreciate Spectres position. He is running a business and this sort of thread clearly presents a conflict.

May I also say I am grateful for the support this thread has received from fellow forum members. People have added their opinions about my experiences in this matter, which seems reasonable enough.

I would like to respond to a couple of points;

From el indio
" If you wanted the unit repaired why did you send it to the retailer? At best they pass it on to panasonic, at worst they have one of their chaps 'look at it'."

I sent it to the retailer on the advice of Ben Miller of Discount Electric. He told me that his technician would examine the unit and that a repair may be possible at DE.

This is clearly a contradiction of this from Ben
" WE CANNOT FIX LCD PRODUCT ON OUR PREMESES, as stipulated by panasonic,"

I was informed that the DE technician had been unable to examine the unit because "he was off sick"/ "he has a bad wrist" I was then told he had looked at it but could not repair it.

If DE cannot repair LCD items then why did Ben tell me to return the item to them?

From el indio
" If you have hung around this forum enough then you would know that this unit is unreliable. This is Panasonics doing/responsibility, not the retailers."

I was aware of reliability issues with this PJ, at the time of purchase there was a great deal of optimism on the forum that the later models had been "fixed" This was repeated to me by Ben Miller. I do not blame DE for the fault, but their representative gave me information that affected my decision.

I cannot prove that I was told these things and I would love to hear Ben denying them. I could understand and maybe sympathise with Bens reply, if I had not been given information by him that contradicts it.
I would be interested to know if he tells potential customers about Panasonics returns dept being useless at the moment.

Spectre, please dont ban anybody over this. It took your intervention to get me any sort of reply from DE. Surely this says something.

David McMullan
 
Originally posted by theritz

If criticism of Forum Sponsors is a banning offence, then maybe
now is the time for a definitive public statement.
I have no wish to be banned - I enjoy the use of the forum.

Clearly criticising a forum sponsor is not against the forum rules provided it is done within the forum rules.
On this occasion, having read all the relevant posts (from mcmullen and Ben from Discount TV), I can only comment that DTV could have done a little bit more - a telephone call to keep mcmullen updated perhaps - but not much.

These kind of threads really do descend so quickly into 'witch hunts'. People with no actual complaint with a retailer themselves jump on the bandwaggon and start hurling criticisms having heard only one side of the story. Particularly bad when done behind the anonymity of a forum login and no real name visible.

This is unfair and I'm thinking about stopping it. If people want to comment on a dispute between two parties then surely they should only do so having heard BOTH sides of the story.
This is especially important because someone's reputation and business could suffer as a consequence.
I appreciate that in a lot of circumstances, one of the parties will choose not to comment. E.g. I would be surprised if Sony would care less what was said in these forums (libel aside).

I do feel something might have to be specified in the rules.

I'm going to start by pruning irrelevant posts out of this thread (including my own).

One last note. Forum rules won't even apply to circumstances where a forum member or members' actions result in the loss of a forum sponsor. Said members will be permanently banned no questions. It's down to protecting the position of the forums.
If, for example, a regular guest at your house walked out with the contents of your wallet, you'd probably not let them in next time they rang your doorbell.

That's the end of this matter as far as I'm concerned apart from posting any kind of resolution from mcmullenbrush. PM me when you want me to reopen the thread, mate.
 
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