US and UK customers are treated very differently over faulty Pioneer PSU's !

M

Mark1948

Guest
In the US Pioneer settled a class action lawsuit over faulty plasma PSU’s and agreed to change all the affected US PSU’s free of charge in the whole of the US. Links are:

Pioneer - http://pioneerelectronics.com/pna/article/0,,2076_3143_173403415,00.html
Court Order - http://pioneerelectronics.com/pio/pe/images/portal/cit_3424/278097908jaffefinalorder.pdf

In the UK the 502’s are, according to Pioneers technical support, being changed ONLY if there is a problem. Why are UK consumer not getting the same respect and care afforded to US consumers? Are we in some way less valuable or our £5000 less appreciated?

I myself have a 503MXE that has gone bang and this one is even more interesting because Pioneer UK claim the 503MXE in the US and the 503MXE in the US share the same model number but are entirely different sets so they are uninterested in helping me.

I thought this was strange so I took the time to ring Pioneer US on 001 800 421 1404 to ask about the differences and I got some very surprising answers:

Q. The 503MXE is listed in the court ruling as an affected model but it isn’t on your replacement program, why?
A. The 503MXE was indeed part of the court case as one of the affected models but wasn’t on their replacement list because they sold the 503CMX over there and the Europeans had the 503MXE with the universal mains input voltage.

Q. But I was told you both sold 503MXE’s but they were different inside?
A. We never sold 503MXE in the US, we only had the 503CMX and that is in our replacement program. You need to go back and speak to Pioneer in your country.

Well I have been speaking to them and now I find that not only are they secretive and uncooperative they are also misleading me. I have e-Mailed them about this but I don’t expect a reply.

The bottom line is this set is now outdated and the time has come to change it anyways, but the way Pioneer treats its UK customers is so outrageous I thought I would make this post and see how others felt. Also if anyone has the technical info from the original court case I would appreciate a copy, I have good friends in California who are trying to track down all the info over there and if I can get it I will be trying to do the same to Pioneer over here as what happened to them over there.

A most disappointed, annoyed and very very EX Pioneer customer awaits your thoughts……..
 
...and there you see one of the benefits to the consumer of a legal system that allows class action.

Although there are some downsides too....in that the consumer supposedly pays for the increased risk to business. Which is why US prices are higher than ours....not!
 
Mark1948 i have just posted a thread similar to yours as my pioneer has just gone bang aswell and i will help in any way i can.
 
Pioneer have replaced out of warranty MXE power supplies before, remind them! They are not a bad lot usually, and yours are not the only MXE power supplies to fail, don't get nasty till you have to, polite but firm does the trick.
 
UPDATE

Well I finally got past the call center staff to a service manager and they swapped the PSU free of charge. Sadly there is still a faulty but they are coming out to take a look.

It is acting like a old LCD with refresh rate problems. The still/slow picture are still beautiful with lots of contrast etc. but fast movement blurs, the football is awful with players literally smearing across the screen.

Well they are poping out to take a look but if anyone has any ideas or even if it might be a setting then please chip in.

Thanks guys/gals............
 

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