Richer Sounds - Sold what I didn't want

T

Tainted

Guest
Hi Everyone,

This is sort of embarrassing as I take pride in having more knowledge than the average Joe when it comes to my gadgets! Though I admitt I am new to the plasma field.

Last year I spent 3 months researching plasma's and finding a decent bargain. I was basically sold on a Panasonic PW6. Read excellent reviews and is a 852x480 screen. Then learnt about HD video cause at around the same was downloading WMV 1080i and 720p videos and reliased there is a whole new world about to explode upon us and DVD's to HD were looking like VHS to DVD.

So went back to Richer Sounds to look at their offereings and spoke to them about the Panasonic and they said to look at the Hitachi 43PD4200 as it comes with all the input conections and I don't have to buy additional boards like the Panasonic. Also it was a 1024x768 screen. I also saw the 42PD5000 and was told it was a 1024x1024 screen.

I read on the internet 1024x1024 is rectangle pixels and not square as in 1024x768. I was aiming for a mid range system. Not a EDTV but half way to
HD quality. In fact I was only ever concerend about 720p HD movies until 1080p became mainstream.

Now I was well aware there is always scalling as you don't get a true 1920x1080i screen and at the time there was no 1280x720p screen. I'm talking native resolution here not support.

So after taking the sales guy advice on the 42PD4200 being a bargain and it was a 1024x768 screen Ii purchased it and went home happy. And yes I was happy cause setting my PC to 1280x720 it locked out with slight overscan as I expected it to do from a 1024x768 screen. Was fine by me as it helped those Anamorphic movies a little with the black lines being a smaller.

Now my brother is looking for a plasma also and I was raving about mine and not to get a 852x480 screen. Doing some reasearch last week for him I noticed it appeared my screen might be 852x480. I thought no... it can't.... I would never have bought a 852x480.. I didn't buy that..etc etc etc

So found the Hitachi website and sure enough it says it there....
http://www.hitachidigitalmedia.com !!!!852x480!!!. You can imagine the let down feeling I was having. Rushed home and dug for that manual I never read!!! And it said it there to confirm my doubt.

Basically I feel this is a case is misrepresentation during the sale by the sales person. In fact I called up pretending to be a new customer and asking for the screen res and get told 1024x1024... then tell them it's not that go and find out. Never got called back??? So I called back and get told it's a 740x480 screen. So I tell him again no it's not so ask. He asks his manager and tells me it's a 852x480.

How incompetant can sales people be when in the AV business.

Has anyone had this before with Richer Sounds and anyone know if I have a case for getting the screen I thought I had purchased. I spent £2k on the screen plus extended warranty.

Basically there is no way in hell I would ever have bought this screen had I known it was a 852x480 screen. My posts on this site when I got it reflect me raving about it was a 1024x768 screen.

Advice anyone.

Thanks
Sean.
 
Simple, go DIRECT to the manager of the richer sounds that you bought from and tell him your story, tell him you have spoken to consumer bodies and say that you have been advised to come and talk to him, to see if he can sort things out before they get messy.

Good luck
 
Go to Jilian Richer and he will let you swap it I bet.

Even if it was 3 months ago.
 
Scrub that, I've just run a search. You bought this TV last November, nearly a year ago. I also see that a thread you participated in back in February, also confirmed this was a low res panel.

Didn't you bother checking back in February?
 
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/calitem.cgi?file=ADV0043-0100.txt


Misrepresentation


If you have been told something factual about goods that made you decide to buy them, but which turns out to be untrue, they have been misrepresented to you. In most cases, you can terminate the deal and have your money back. This can be a complex area of law, involving different sorts of misrepresentation, as well as differing legal remedies. Also, the responsibility for proving a case (i.e. the 'burden of proof') changes, depending on the sort of misrepresentation. If in doubt, get some advice.


Trade Descriptions Act 1968


Sometimes, if a trader makes a misrepresentation about goods, a criminal offence might be committed under this Act.


Example: A market trader tells you that a jacket he is selling is 100% leather. Because of this, you buy it, but then discover it is made from PVC. The goods were misdescribed to you, and you can ask for your money back. You should also report it to your local Trading Standards Department for investigation under the Trade Descriptions Act.


You only have rights for 30 days after purchase.


Not true - depending on circumstances, you might be too late to have all your money back after this time, but the trader will still be liable for any breaches of contract, such as the goods being faulty. You have up to five years from the date of discovery of the fault to take legal action.


You must produce your receipt.


Not true - in fact, the trader doesn't have to give you a receipt in the first place so it would be unfair to say that you had to produce one. However, it might not be unreasonable for the shop to want some proof of purchase, so look to see if you have a cheque stub, bank statement, credit card slip etc, and this should be sufficient.


WHEN ARE YOU NOT ENTITLED TO ANYTHING?



If you were told of any faults before you bought the goods.
If the fault was obvious and it would have been reasonable to have noticed it on examination before buying.
If you caused any damage yourself.
If you made a mistake, e.g. you don't like the colour, it is the wrong size etc.
You have changed your mind about the goods, or seen them cheaper elsewhere.
Five years have elapsed since you discovered the fault.

------------------------------------

that should help you out. you appear to have the right to return the item for a full refund under the trades description act 1968 due to misrepresentation of sale. quote this to them when you return it. if you have any evidence to back you up it's helpful, such as names of the staff you spoke to on the phone (times and dates help so they can't deny who you spoke to as they can look thier staff rotas), with RS if you can find and print the specs from online or in thier advertising sheet that will help

RS probably won't **** you about much if you take it back for a refund as per what you've said above. you can always phone thier head office to complain about the issue first and ask them to call your local store to ensure you don't have any difficulties when returning the goods (and get the persons name)

if you do get hassle in a shop, making a big fuss and making out the staff are liars in a loud voice and demanding to see the manager, etc and causing as much trouble as possible in front of shoppers can also help resolve your problems

there is also this website http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

hope that helps
 
Alot changes in a year!

In the last year I have had a PW6, an NEC 42XM3, a 435XDE and have a 50PHD8 on its way to me.
If you are not happy then sell it on, take the hit like a man and pay the extra for a proper screen! :)
 
if your happy with the picture does it matter? just keep it till HD screens are cheap, at the moment you dont have much need for one, give it 6 months!
 
Just playing devils advocate, how would you convince RS after nearly a year that you had been misinformed?

They may just believe that you are trying it on, in the hope of getting a new screen ready for when HD is launched.
 
UrbanT said:
Just playing devils advocate, how would you convince RS after nearly a year that you had been misinformed?

They may just believe that you are trying it on, in the hope of getting a new screen ready for when HD is launched.

with RS, if they have advertised the price in a brochure or online its a start, although they can claim it's a mistake if they have e&oe printed somewhere. if they have printed the same thing on more than one occaision it's a bit more help. if they have advertised it as hd ready, perhaps even moreso

that particular model is still listed on the RS site, but it doesnt mention the resolution, so no help there

probably the best option is to call the RS helpline, explain the situation and see what they say. after a year, and without any evidence to back up what was supposedly said, it's going to be hard to get anywhere. in thier own defence they can say you had the screen for almost a year and this is the first time you've raised the issue thus they can only presume you had been happy with the unit for the past year. if the user manual lists the display specs, that would perhaps also be used in thier defence as you have been provided with material showing the resolution

if you posted on this site raving about the screen quality, you must be happy with the picture, so it's perhaps a bit late to complain about it now. unless your going to watch sky or cable in hi-def from next year, it's going to be at least another year for hi-def movies to be available, and at that time the price's are probably only going to be accepted by early adopters with a few quid to spare - those who perhaps were the first on the block to get hi-def tv's. as you (sean/tainted is who i mean when i say you in this post btw) are a comparitively late adopter of the format, would i perhaps be right in assuming you won't be one of the first to adopt bluray (or whatever) for a while, thus this issue isn't going to affect you greatly for a while?
 
Not true... I currently have loads of .ts files which are 1080i and 720p HD format. When blu-ray and HD-DVD hit the UK I will be evalutaing which will go mainstream and get that straight away. I've been following blu-ray and HD-DVD since I started looking at plasma's. So far on the PC front it looks like HD-DVD has just gotten the backing it needed from Microsoft and Intel. But perhaps the Sony PS3 and Hollywood will have more sway in the matter.

You all right. Having a manual in my hands I should have looked and responded sooner. But when the screen is always set to 1280x720 I figured it was native with slight overscan and not resized. This was my first plasma you got to remember. My biggest TV before this was a CRT 32" (not flat screen) and it looked great until I saw a 32" flat screen CRT then I moved to this obviously things looked better.

A ignorant person could be sold a car thinking it's a 2.0litre only to find out it's a 1.6litre. Just because it get's them to work and back does that make it right for them to have to keep it.

I could sell you a PC with you thinking it's a P4 3.8ghz ... why cause I told you it was. and 10 months later your friends tells you it's a P4 2.8ghz. Should you not have known even though computers is not your field. You would be happy with it because all your programs work faster then before because your previous one was a P4 1.5ghz. But I have just caused you to upgrade sooner than you planned to.

I have mailed the head office. Will wait for a reply otherwise contact them and then proceed with mailing Mr Richer himself (if he reads them). Also head down to the store Saturday and hopefully speak to the manager I dealth with. I became a stalker in the store during the purchase time going over and over the screens specs with them.

Aplogies again to everyone for multiple posts. The topic changed because I sometimes restarted the post after the screen just sat there for ages and pasted in my post.

Thanks for the law advice unique. I was reading up on the law last night.

Take care
 
RS staff are usually pretty helpful, but i don't think your going to have much luck after a year, but it's not going to hurt to try

if you took out the extended warranty, there is the option (at least they used to - i'm not sure about plasmas) where if you bring back the item within the warranty period you can trade in for half the original price - this might be a half way solution - actually scrolling back it looks like you took this out, so you could probably get £1k back on your intial £2k spend, this might not sound great, but in the past year the prices have dropped a fair bit, so you may not have to shell out as much to upgrade to a better model. your model is currently £1300 i think. if you think about how much an HD model would have cost a year ago, and what it costs now, the prices have perhaps dropped by around the same price as you may be "loosing out" by getting your half refund. it's just up to you to consider if it's worth splashing out that bit more now to get HD, particularly if you're already happy with the tv's performance. you might be better waiting another year or so towards the end of the warranty and get your 50% refund and upgrade then when there will be hopefullly more availability of cheaper HD models, and more HD media/formats/etc will be available. i personally don't think it's worth cashing in now if thats you're only option, as you won't get the full benefit now, and by waiting a bit you're trade in/refund value will cover a greater percentage of an upgrade - of course it's your decision

if you didn't do this, if you ask them nicely and point out that issue they might be persuaded to give you a generous trade in offer to upgrade to an in stock HD ready model

when i first posted i didn't realise that you had the machine for so long. due to the length of time involved i think your by far better off taking a very polite and apologetic manner to try and get them to make a sympathetic decision. taking the hard stance or being nippy is unlikely to get you very far in this case

i suppose at least this thread may help others make better choices and decisions in future if they have problems purchasing goods. you don't neceserilly have to return an item in 28 days, but you would ideally need some evidence to back up your claim. certainly leaving it a year is pushing it
 

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