I changed my LE40F86 on Saturday via a credit note from Samsung. The TV I went for is the Panasonic PZ85, out of the box it wasn't super but after a few tweaks the SD picture is a little better than my F86 but the HD is mindblowing
I purchased my F86 in October 2007, noticed some wierd bars in November. Searched the web and this very forum confirmed to me that I had 'Hum Bars' and I set about getting it fixed.
In January 2008 it was upgraded at my house to f/w 1007, then in September it was upgraded to f/w 1009 - cleared most faults but very faint humbars remained on 50Hz (most visible using a static 20% amplitude test pattern) Returned to the engineer to be re assessed and pending an exchange.
To my horror, the service engineer reported to Samsung that the TV had no fault and I was basically 'seeing things'. I personally spoke to the company and argued with them and as they were unwilling to accept it was faulty or even send an engineer to look at it at my home I suggested that my eye was better than their engineers eye and that maybe they should be retrained to deal with modern technology (this didn't go down well). I informed Samsung that the repair company was wrong and the TV was faulty and they agreed to send it to be re-assessed - I suggested a 'conflict of interest' with the service engineers so they sent it to a different company who held my TV for 1 month whilst they communicated with Samsung. Last week my TV was returned un-repaired with a credit note to take it back to the original retailer to choose a replacement.
As said above, I got the PZ85 and most excellently.....a £100 refund
So, thanks very much to this forum and its users
thanks to Birmingham Specialised Service who 'COULD' see the fault that I described
Thanks to Samsung, who after nearly 13 months refunded my TV
And a massive thumbs down to Martin Dawes who for some reason unknown to me couldn't see the faults that everyone else could
I have submitted a complaint to Martin Dawes stating that I was unhappy with them, giving them a chance to respond, and telling them that I would be posting them on this forum to hopefully encourage others to question them if they claim there 'is no fault'. Martin Dawes seem to be reluctant to comment, or even apologise as my inbox is still empty
Thanks again for everyones help......it was a long battle, but got there in the end