The tragedy of the Panasonic PT50LC13 television is now complete.
Dear Fred,
Thank you for your email and please disregard our last response which was addressed to another name instead of your’s. However, the email was intended to be sent to your attention and not the other name(s).
On 12/14/07, we mailed a deficiency notice to you, indicating that we needed additional documentation to support your claim form. In order to qualify for the ‘Multiple Failure Remedy’, Claimants must have experieneced a minimum of three lamp failures and we only received documentation to support that two lamp failure dates, which were 11/26/04 and 01/19/06.
Unfortunately, Claimants only have 30 days to respond to deficiency notices and we are now outside of the deficiency response period. You claim is no longer eligible for consideration. .
Sincerely,
tvlampsettlement@gardencitygroup.com
___
Dear TvLampSettlement@gardencitygroup:
I get a tingly feeling when I recall the flaming hoops of requirements you set up for me to jump through in order to secure a Panasonic television that would actually operate for more than three months at a stretch. I’m sure you were rooting for me, cheering me on from the stands, and I had high hopes that my extensive use of performance enhancing drugs would lead to championship class action results. Now I see it was not meant to be, and failure to amass documentation up to your expectations will no doubt remain a bitter disappointment for some time, possibly requiring extensive counseling.
In tragedies like this I like to review the sequence of events to identify mistakes I could avoid the next time I buy a $3,000 television that breaks down more frequently than Britney Spears.
In much of the documentation I sent you, you might have noticed the name of the administrative assistant for Panasonic’s North American president. I recounted my phone conversation with her, in which she assured me that I would qualify for this class action settlement. Some might have felt that was enough, but I persevered in my efforts to get the documentation you craved.
You will recall that many of the repairs to my Panasonic PT50LC13 television were done under Circuit City’s City Advantage warranty program, for which I paid another $400 when I learned that the television was infamous for failing. Their freelance technicians did not provide me with receipts, and City Advantage headquarters apparently does not keep such records, which makes it impossible by generally accepted rules of physics for me to give them to you.
Disappointed though you may be, I hope you can appreciate the Herculean effort I put into satisfying your documentation needs. I wrote to City Advantage. I called them countless times, enduring hours of Muzak, destinationless transfers, dropped calls, and monosyllabic cluelessness that would have turned ordinary men to store-brand diet yogurt. I demanded documentation for the visits, but they could not or would not provide it. I even gave them clues about the technicians. (One was Eastern European, another Mideastern, and a third a Katrina refugee whose TV shop was destroyed in New Orleans.)
I persevered and provided you with posts from my weblog associating dates with the many lamp failures. And the image engine failures. And the ballast failures. I sent you a photo of a part one of the technicians left out of my television on one of those many visits.
Could I have done more? Maybe. A cat burglary into the City Advantage offices might have yielded my treasured documentation. Or an elaborate scheme where my team of undercover operatives dressed as heating and air repairmen as we secretly skulked off to rifle through file cabinets. I guess I just wasn’t thinking “outside the box.”
Now I learn, that after more than two years of effort, you apparently think I am lying about the many, many failures of the Panasonic PT50LC13 television or the incompetence rampant in Circuit City’s City Advantage warranty program. You will note I requested a replacement Panasonic television rather than the option to be paid $1,000, even though I have no evidence that a new Panasonic television would be any more reliable than the one that earned Panasonic a lawsuit to begin with. That’s because I was willing to give Panasonic a chance. I’ve used many of their products that proved to be very good, and I was ready to forgive one mistake, even one 50-inches wide.
However, now that I see how Panasonic failed to stand by their product, perhaps your decision not to honor my remedy as part of the class action suit provides the lesson I seek from this adventure. Because of your decision, and Panasonic’s choice to put that decision in your hands, I will never again purchase a Panasonic product. (It goes without saying that Circuit City and City Advantage will also no longer be players in our consumer lives.)
It breaks my heart — no, not for our loss of an immersive TV experience for our family and $3,000 dubiously spent, but because I know I have disappointed you, my dear TVLampSettlement, with my incomplete documentation.
Please, wipe away the tears. I vow to turn this tragedy into something that will bring a smile to your face, no matter how bittersweet.
The next time my Panasonic PT50LC13 television breaks down, I will use it as the central prop in a memorable piece of consumer theater, immortalized on video for a wide audience to enjoy. Here are some thought starters on that. Feel free to add.
– Run over the Panasonic PT50LC13 TV in front of Panasonic headquarters. Free donuts for the press!
– Abandon the Panasonic PT50LC-13 in a bad part of town. Video the disappointed people who take it.
– Train tracks!
– Save it for a special guest appearance at next years Consumer Electronics Show
– Aquarium
Sincerely
Fred Leo
January 18th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Hey, Panasonic:
Count me as another who will always and forever steer clear of your products as a direct result of this gentleman’s nightmare. If anyone I know is in the market for a TV, I will be sure to tell them, “Stay the fuck away from Panasonic, whatever you do.”
Some very easy research yielded more customers who hate you.
Fred:
THIS is the only use for “social media” - people alerting others as to the good or bad of a product/company/service. I’d like to see Panasonic hire some guru to “fix” this “brand reputation” problem.
January 18th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
As usual, Jetpacks, you and I are frighteningly in sync — on the value of social media in this case. The power of the consumer collectively is huge, and if organized simply to provide alerts for bad elements in the marketplace, it would benefit everyone, meaning consumers and businesses that deserve more customers — at the expense of those that don’t.
I’ve been thinking about this since my adventure with the M30 from eBay and the subsequent alleged mechanic. Yes, it would be nice if I could recoup my thousands of lost dollars, but honestly, the bigger motivation is to spare others the pain of lining the pockets of the unscrupulous. As they say, “the system is broken.” How can some eBay seller have a “feedback rating” of 98.6 and a Better Business Bureau rating of “F?”
I’m not talking here about consumer reviews but legitimate, urgent consumer public service announcements where others can learn to sidestep the many consumer tragedies that hurt our economy and our individual consumer lives.
Maybe it’s a simple as a “Shit List Widget,” where bloggers can display their personal consumer nightmares, briefly, sanely and with an offer for evidence. Maybe it’s a facebook or twitter function, drawn in by zip code. I haven’t worked out the technological application, but I do already have some basic community guidelines meant to keep things credible (as well as free from the hassles of meritless corporate vs consumer libel lawsuits.)
Sorry, you got me going.
As for Panasonic, this experience actually saddens me because until now I was impressed with much of their stuff. Their DAT machines had great converters and their new HVX200 vid cam looks tasty. They dropped the ball with this television, and then they dropped it again by letting tvlampsettlement be their customer-facing entity.
I don’t think they need a “guru,” just someone with decency and common sense. Tragically those are sometimes the first qualities to go in a corporate bureaucracy. Actually, maybe the above is the definition of a guru these days.
UPDATE: Thanks for that link. Now that I see what are large and disappointed community we are, I think we could get an army of people to destroy their sets in front of Panasonic headquarters. I smell a reality show — no writers needed — just a camera and some sledge hammers, explosives or a backhoe. Tell the story over video of us all loading our TV carcasses and meeting at a central location, then heading for PanasonicVille. Road trip, destruction. Pissed of people. It’s got it all.
January 18th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Nicely done. I posted you to Digg, but since the Digg Horde doesn’t respect the input of outsiders the chances of it catching on are about one in absofuckinglutely nothing. But you’re out there. Ping me when you’re back from errands, k?
February 27th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
I also have a junk panasonic, four bulbs and counting plus circuit board for burnt pixels, now a bad ballast in less than 3 years, never again buy PANASONIC
February 28th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Bob H — that sounds so horrifyingly familiar, and I’m sorry to hear you too stepped in this stinky pile of technology from Panasonic. They really damaged their reputation with this one, and it’s a shame because all the good products they made to build the brand over decades are for nothing. If you can’t trust everything they make, you can’t trust anything they make. Further, they should have just recalled the sets and replaced them instead of waiting to be sued. I assume from your comment that either you didn’t have an extended warranty or like, me, you had it with City Advantage or some other incompetent organization that can’t manage to leave receipts with customers or track down the work they they did. Let us know if you think you find a good television.
July 1st, 2008 at 3:09 pm
My Panasonic has failed even after replacing the bulb and repairing the ballast in it. I live in the NYC area, and would like to drop it off at their office in Secaucus, NJ. If anyone in the area is interested in joining, let me know.
This thing didn’t even last 4 years, after spending $2300 on it. I have written to Panasonic, and they don’t seem to care.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:28 am
Yeah…me too! Four bulbs for me. You’d at least think that by now we’d be able to buty a knock-off bulb mde in China or something. I too did the paper chase for my refund, and somehow they only decided to give me about 25% of what I was due. Sorry Panasonic, but i’m in the big “fuck you” pack also, and i’ll be sure to tell every person I see looking at appliances. You got me once. Shame on me..you won’t get another chance. Enjoy my $2500
September 14th, 2008 at 12:38 am
My wife and I purchaed a Panasonic Tv 61″ PT-61LCX66-K
Lated for 16months spent 3000.00 on it Sorry I ever purchased it. Took it to their service depot gatzy’s tv in peterborough to have an estimate done on it quoted me 1000.00 to replace the lamp and ballast. I called Panasonic and they agreed to cover the repair . A month later my Tv made it home, I plugged it in turned it on and it stayed on for exactly 10 minutes that sure was not wortht eh 1000.oo repair not to mention that the tv was in a worse staste for that 10 minutes than it ever was. They did more damage repairing it than what was originally wrong. they told me it was the lamp and ballast. Panasonic does not care. they offered me another tv plazma 58inch but they wanted another $2500.00,, My responce was why would I spend another 2500.00 when I already have a $3000.00 panasonic tv sitting on my living room floor . My fight is not over yet i will let you know the out come.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:37 am
Hi there John M. Quess that we had better luck with our Panasonic PT-61LCX66-K . We purchased our TV in Nov. 2006, it lasted until Aug. 2008. We also paid 3000.00 for the piece of ????. Lucky for us, there is nobody here to even to look at the thing to see what the problem was. We had to quess at it ourself. Called Panasonic and the lady that I spoke with said that it sounded like a problem with the lamp, so as luck would have it, she told me that she would mail us a lamp free of charge. Assuming that the lamp would arrive shortly, 8 weeks later called to check on the lamp, I was informed that because it was extremely rare for the lamp to give out, it was on backorder from the factory. OK put off again. Called to check on the lamp about a week later, was told that our name wasn’t even on the list to receive this lamp, but there were eleven other people on the list waiting on the same lamp. Strange because “it is so rare for the lamp to fail” Lo and behold the next week, we received the lamp. We thought our problems were over, the lamp even came with idiot proof installation. Installed the lamp and no go, the TV did not even come on, a few clicks, blinking lights and nothing. We were told that once we got the lamp to let this lady know if it was OK. Tried to call, but we never did get to speak to her, but I did get to talk to this really nice guy, who assured me that he definately would find some solution to my problem. Spoke to him three times. The second last time that I spoke with him, which was about 11 am this morning (Nov. 20, 2008) he sounded so sincere that I actually thought that he was going to send us another TV for nothing. I like to pride myself in being a smart person, but I quess I was fooled. Anyway my son, who is an auto mechanic decided that he was going to take the back of our TV and found out that the ballast was burnt . Tried to call back to Panasonic and inform them what we found, asked to speak to the NICE guy, only to be informed that he was on an important call, but she would give him my message and he would get back to me. Still waiting and haven’t heard from him. Did I really expect him to call. NO. I thought that I was alone with our lemon, glad that I found this site. I did suggest to the NICE guy, that if I could get some kind of rebate on this TV, I could put it towards another Panasonic TV. Of course he said that because the warranty was expired, that was impossible. That was Ok because my husband informed me that there will never be another Panasonic appliance come into our house. And I tought I was the brains in this family. Thanks guys, now I know that I am not alone.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Gail, I feel your pain. I think it’s a shame what Panasonic has done not just to consumers with this not-ready-for-prime-time lineup of TVs, but to their own reputation. That’s the double-edged sword of being a big brand with appliances and electronics across so many categories. That can really lead to market dominance if quality is upheld top to bottom, but when it doesn’t, every product suffers with the decline in brand reputation. Because of one crappy product and the subsequent mishandling of customer relations, they will lose business across other categories. I do believe they are capable of making good products, especially in professional cameras and audio, but I hesitate to follow them anywhere now. Pnasonic has lost my trust. Of course, in my case, Circuit City did, too. It does not break my heart to see Circuit City vanish.
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I purchased my 50lc13 July of 04 with a 4 year protection plan and after 4 bulbs wondering how long it will last before i have to dig in my back pocket. i am in agreement with so many others i hope panasonic enjoys my 3000 or so dollars because i will never buy anymore of their products. When my bulb does blow I think i will haul my set to the mall in the back of my pickup and wait for the idoits to steal it