Hello,
I’m not one to usually post in forums. I’m extremely technically knowledgeable in many areas. I made the mistake of purchasing a 43” 4K Toshiba FireTV edition 43LF621U19 . Of course I purchased the 5 year Geek Squad warranty. For a bit everything was great. HDR10 included. No issues whatsoever. Then along came a bug in the System Update that comes from Amazon (FireOS). It knocked out the HDR10 feature of my TV. It also caused random intermittent problems like the TV not detecting the remote(not the batteries and not the remote). Not being able to raise or lower the volume, not recognizing when I hit the Home button. And occasionally the TV would just lock up. The random problems temporarily go away by unplugging the TV for 30 seconds and plugging it back in. The TV was less than a year old when this started. Toshiba, Geek Squad, and Amazon “worked” on this problem. In the end I was told (falsely) that the main board (motherboard) of the TV was bad. Took a little time for it to come in thanks to COVID-19 and get the appointments to order/ and then install the board. This ate up the manufacturer warranty period. I did not hook the Internet up for over a month once the main board was replaced. Woo Hoo everything worked fine. I finally connect it online (after all what is the use in having a smart TV unless it’s connected to the Internet right?). As soon as I hooked it up, It automatically downloaded and installed the System Update (FireOS). Intentionally by design and required by Amazon, you cannot prevent a System Update on any Fire TV, Fire Pad, Fire anything device! Amazon refuses to tell you what ports to block on a router to prevent a Fire device from updating! So I call Geek Squad. In the End, Best Buy decided to refund the purchase price with one condition... In store credit (you can use it online but only at Best Buy and no gift cards!). The reason they decided this is now the TV is a “low value item due to age”. So, no fully working 4K smart TV was available within the in store credit range of course! At least I confirmed the problem was the System Update has a bug in it for all the TV’s of my Model “number”. Amazon will tell you they are investigating the problem, but they have a strict policy of not telling any “customer” the outcome or if/when the problem is fixed. Great Customer Service right? Amazon refers you to either Toshiba (who tells you the issue is with Amazon (which it is), or Best Buy. So that shows you how much companies “value” your continued business right? We all have learned unless something severely affects a business’ bottom dollar, it’s “go away there are plenty who will replace you as a customer” form of customer service. So as I’m technically knowledgeable enough to change a motherboard (your TV is more or less just a special purpose computer these days), I replaced it. It works fine offline. I have no plans of hooking it up to the Internet again, as it will just screw it up again! Aside from Best Buy issuing a store credit, no one took responsibility for this issue. So buyer beware when it comes to Amazon, Toshiba, and any Fire Product! We have “lemon laws” for cars. If it had been a car in my state, I’d have a new car. Always remember how much you actually mean to the businesses you shop at! Once you hand over the dough.... I hope this review gets posted in this forum. Y’all know about censorship in America running rampant right! Maybe by posting this I can help someone less knowledgeable about repairing and troubleshooting (finding what is causing the problem) electronics from making a choice they will regret with their financial resources. That would make my bad investment not as bad. I thought this only happened with some of the products made in a certain country who threatened our medicinal supply. Nope.
Well that’s been my Toshiba/Amazon product experience. Needless to say, I won’t waste my money on either brand or service again! And I will be very careful what I buy at Best Buy. Movies have turned out to be safe there. Usually a good deal too. But I doubt I will buy anything that could brake and costs a lot there again!
