Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[adw78]

I purchased a Sony 55 inch Grand Wega in Sept 06 along with the 4 year warranty plan. In the fall of 2007 I called to schedule the annual cleaning included in the plan and had no problems. As I was going to call to schedule one for this year, my TV started shutting off occasionally with the power light flashing red, not the lamp light. On Jan 26 I called to schedule the cleaning and get the shutting off problem taken care of. The lady I spoke with said I could schedule for Saturday of that week and she would get the service request sent to the 3rd party repair shop they use.

On Jan 27th the 3rd party shop left a message on my home number, I got home after they had closed. I returned the call the next day, Wednesday,  and the rude lady informed me the only person who could help me wouldn't be back until Friday. I called again on Friday and was informed they don't work on Saturdays. I told him what the TV was doing and he said he would bring a lamp with him to see if it fixed that problem and set up a time for that Friday afternoon. He called me back to let me know that the warranty company had to send me the part themselves, they couldn't authorize his part. He told me once I received the part from the warranty company, and I had installed it myself, to call back and let him know if it had fixed the problem and he would come do the cleaning.

Now in the meantime the TV will not stay on at all.

Monday Feb. 2 I called to make sure the part had in fact been ordered. The lady I spoke with said it had been ordered on 1-31 and I should receive it with in 3-5 days.  Feb. 7, I called back to check the status of the bulb and was informed that bulbs take 8-10 days to ship.

So, tonight, Feb. 17, I called once again to check and see if I could get a tracking number and I'm informed there is no record of any part ever being ordered. The lady from parts search got the part ordered for me and gave me my order number and reassured me it is covered as my one lifetime bulb replacement under my plan. She then told me it would be 9-11 days to get it. I asked if there was any way to get it sooner since I'd been told it was ordered on the 31st and she said there was no way to get it here sooner.  I've been without my TV almost a month, missing the superbowl and the Daytona 500   No one has actually come out to look at the TV and verify what the problem is. Now I will be with out my television for who knows how much longer!

[adw78]

Here it is 3 days later. Tuesday night I received an email with my order number. It says I'll get another email when the item ships. I have not received an email stating it's shipped yet. I tried the track my order option and it has no results. Who do I need to get in touch with to get this resolved? My husband is extremely upset and I told him to try to look at it from the other person's end. But now being without the tv a month, having had THREE people tell us the bulb has been ordered on two seperate occasions, it's getting beyond the frustrating point!

[Elizabeth-BBY Community Supervisor]

Hi adw78, 

Thanks for posting your concern on our Best Buy® Forum.  Your issue has been assigned to one of our Community Connectors for further review and response, and you should be hearing something within the next few business days.  Thanks for your continued patience as we work to assist all of the customers who have reached out to us on this forum.

[adw78]

Here's a little more info for the community connector, while I'm waiting for your reply. I got an email yesterday saying the part is now backordered. No ETA given. Why couldn't the person on the phone last week tell me it was on backorder?

I also contacted Sony's online help support. They told me that if it was the lamp failing, then yes it should be my lamp led indicator, not the power led indicator flashing. So now I'm waiting on a backordered lamp, that most likely won't fix the problem. Which if the 3rd party company would've come out and just tried thier lamp to make sure it was the problem, could've been solved a month ago.

[Allan-BBY Community Connector · Accepted solution]

Hi adw78,

Waiting a month to get the bulb that was ordered for your TV shipped to your home is a very long time to wait, and I can completely understand being very frustrated with this repair by now. It sounds like we requested the service be performed by another repair center, which is sometimes the case when don’t employ a technician that services the customer’s area. We require the same level of service from a contracted service center as we do from our own service centers, and if they are not performing to our standards we would review any future interactions with that service center.

You should not have had to order the bulb three times before it was finally ordered, and I agree that if the person that ordered the bulb knew it was on backorder they should have informed you of that. I will also agree that the service center should have looked at your TV physically before diagnosing the issue, and then ordered parts based upon that physical examination. I would like to see if I can get you resolution in this matter so I am sending you a private message. To check your messages you should log into the forum, and then click on the letter icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Thanks for posting,
Allan
Community Connector
Best Buy® Corporate

[adw78]

final update:

Once communications with the community connector began, Allan was able to get our situation taken care of in a satisfactory time & manner. I really appreciate the help I got from him.