Almost 3 and a half years ago and just before Lori and I were married we bought a new larger (42”)  HDTV to replace our old 24” friend.

Now If you’ve shopped at big electronics store retailers you know that even if you purchase a pair of $5 headphones they will offer you some kind of “extended” warranty.  Most often I don’t believe in them, however under some circumstances I am all for them.

So when we purchased a 42” LCD Projection TV I felt it was also worth the extra money to buy the 4 year extended warranty (insurance policy) for a few reasons.  LCD (and DLP) projection technology were pretty new and I expected there was a good chance for problems.  It covered the replacement of the bulb which has an average 5000 hour life span and at the time was almost the cost of the warranty.  4 years is a lot of time to guarantee a piece of electronics.

The television served us well for almost 3 years when I started to notice the picture was getting dim and fuzzy.  I called the service center and they came out to service our TV and replaced the lamp.  Good times, the TV felt newish again. Fast forward to a few months ago.

I was reviewing test footage from our new HD camera when I noticed strange spots on the screen.  Thinking it was my brand new camera, I was worried I bought a dud and almost exchanged it for a new one!  After testing the same footage on my other TV and computer screens, I noticed the spots were only appearing when viewed on the TV.  This drew my attention to the TV and I threw all sorts of test patterns at the TV and noticed there were quite a few spots, some the size of a quarter along with a strange light blueish-green color distribution.

Researching the issue, I came up with a few reasons as to why this was happening.  One was probably dust settling on the lens or in the light engine (projector) which is apparently a common issue due the (poor) design of most modern “slim” LCD and DLP projectors.  The other problem was probably due to a light engine (projector) failure.  At some point during all this research it dawned on me that I still had an extended warranty which covered this TV for almost another year!  I called for service.

The technician decided to replace the light engine (projector).  A few days after the new one was installed I noticed MORE spots and one of them was HUGE and VERY noticeable (even if you were watching dark scenes) so I called the service center again.  The technician explained to me they probably sent a bad refurbished part and they’d put in for another replacement.

Now I was starting to grow tired of the repair process so I read through the extended warranty policy and found saw there was a lemon clause and while I was glad it existed I figured I’d allow them to fix the TV and hope he problem would be solved.  The part was replaced, all is well….

WRONG!  The next morning when I turned on the TV I noticed the screen was shaking almost like a flicker.  This infuriated me so I placed another call to the service center and mentioned my feeling about this TV approaching the lemon stage.  They scheduled an appointment for the following Thursday for a technician to come and either repair or issue a replacement authorization.  Thursday came, I waited for my appointment phone call from the technician, it never happened.  I called the service center, they claimed I didn’t have an appointment and was actually waiting for Lemon authorization.  Now I felt better, at least they were being proactive about the situation, though they didn’t inform me.

WRONG AGAIN!  I get a random call the next day service center rep trying to schedule an appointment for a tech to come out and pick up a part to send back to the manufacture for repair.  After explaining to her the technician took that part with him the previous Friday when he performed the repair she was confused and told me to call back the main line and explain it to them, as she was just a scheduler.

So I did and was informed no one needed to come out and pick up any parts, it was a mistake in the system.  He did informed me I needed a technician to come out and evaluate the Lemon claim.  I agreed though it would be at least another week for this to happen. Now I was very angry due to the mistreatment I was getting from the service center phone reps.  I decided to go into a local store and explain my situation to a manager.

The manager was sympathetic and very helpful.  He placed a call to a friend of his in the Lemon department and also faxed my info over to him.  Later that evening (while we’re at dinner for Lori’s birthday) I get a call from the service center saying they would like to send a technician the next day.  I agreed and hoped for the appointment phone call the next morning.

The technician called in the morning and then came over in the early afternoon.  He agreed it was a Lemon, made some calls to get it approved and helped me load the TV into my truck.  Off to the store to do the exchange.  The people at the store were very nice and super helpful.  They informed me since they didn’t have the same TV to replace my LEMON, they would give me full credit back towards the purchase of new one in store.  Pretty awesome!

So we chose the Sony 46” 1080p 120hz LCD Flat panel TV as a replacement.  The new TV takes up about the same amount of space (height and width wise) as the old  but there is more screen due to the speakers being on the bottom and this TV is only 3” thick!  The picture quality is dramatically better than the last TV (even Lori noticed it) and it really shines when watching a BluRay disc!

So after the Lemon return credit, a % off coupon, a few other certificates (thanks for the Kawanza gift Don!) and I of course added on the 4 year extended warranty so we ended up with a brand spanking new, beautiful TV for under 600 US stimulus dollars!  So sometimes it’s worth buying an extended warranty and the hassle involved.