Ongoing Television Dilema - LG50PK590

“Ongoing Television Dilema - LG50PK590”

Written on: 21/05/2012 by arenton

I have had an ongoing issue with my LG50PK590.

Firstly, and this is not a slur on Comet, is that I have purchased a number of LG TV's in the past, and never have they been as unreliable and demonstrated such a wide range of faults as this unit. THus far over 18 months of ownership, I have had replaced:

1) The Horizontal and Vertical SUS boards
2) The I/O Board,
3) Soon to be...... the Power supply.

All that is left of the original device is the screen and the case, the rest is a replacement part! ON the back of this, I will undoubtedly NEVER buy an LG product again, certainly not a TV anyway!

Right, back onto Comet. My situation is not as severe as some on here, but its frustrating none the less, and has been a great inconvenience for me.

With the latest TV fault cropping up, I first thought I was going mad, and was sitting on the remote, but after a couple of weeks of thinking I was gong insane, the PSU finally popped, fizzed, and then died, rendering my telly unusable. This then prompted a call to the helpline, as I had conveniently taken up the 5 year additional warranty, at what I had thought at the time was ridiculous expense.

Anyway, after speaking with the "help line" I was told that the engineers could come out on weekends, if it was more convenient. I didn't expect much, but a 5 week waiting time was a bit off, so I managed to get a weekday time, and was lucky enough to be able to arrange a days leave for that day at short notice, allowing me to be in. Clearly not wanting to be waiting around all day with no TV for entertainment, I asked about the tiem they would be attending the repair, to be told that it would be between 8am and 6pm. I was a little dismayed by this "slot" and asked if it were possible to be able to narrow that down a little, as a 10 hour window is ridiculous! I was advised that the engineer would call me to let me know when he would arrive, prior to turning up, and that they could ask him to make it either early or late such that my day want wasted.

Great I noted! Thanks for the help.

So, the day arrives, and 8am comes and goes, then 9am, then ar around 10:15, I get a phone call, at which point I'm told that the Engineer has rung in sick for 2 days, and that they will have to re-schedule.

Wait a minute.......

he's sick, and you don't have an organisational structure that can cope with your commitments if someone calls in sick?

If he called in sick, you should really have known at the start of the "window" in which he could turn up (8am - 6pm for those of you that have forgotten), so why did it take nearly 2 1/2 hours to tell me? if they had phoned at 8am, then I might have been able to salvage the day, but by this time I can at best salvage only part of it.

They can arrange a new time, but I now have to take ANOTHER day off to sit around and wait for the engineer to turn up.

Right. The customer Service, Its Bad, Really bad. I should have known in the shop when I knew more about their products than they did. I was messed around by the delivery, I've been messed around on 4 separate occasions with "repairs", and now I'm getting the run around on the phone with their "Help line".

All it seems that the guys on the phone can do is organise another day, and "sympathise" (although I'm not so sure they do)with our inconvenience. After spending 30 minutes on the line (at a further cost of 10p/minute no less) I've ended up back at square 1, trying to beg and borrow another day off at short notice, and when a day off costs me over £130 its a VERY expensive inconvenience!

Overall, I'm going to be voting with my feet, and I will categorically NEVER buy from this company again. In my experience, the staff in the stores are unhelpful, aggressive, ill informed to the point of ignorance about the products they sell, and are seemingly taught that customer service is less of a priority than "conning" (yes, you heard me right) a sale.

The help line, while friendly, have been decidedly unhelpful. The company policies do nothing to inspire confidence in them as an organisation, and they seem not to care that they continually fail to deliver even a reasonable level of service. With regards to the additional warranty cover. How's about telling me what you WILL DO rather than giving me a long list of what you won't. This was we actually have a tangible level of service that we can expect from you. It seems that once you have been suckered into purchasing from them, that the company operate with almost impunity, with little recourse for complaint or compensation.

In the future, Ill be buying a reliable product from one of your competitors, and saving myself the additional expense and inconvenience, which with this purchase have run to nearly the same cost as the kit itself.

To clarify my ratings.
Overall 1/5 - This would have been lower, however I cant put in 0 Stars.
QoS 1/5 - Again, this would have been lower if available.
LoS 1/5 - Not too bothered about this, but it did feel a bit haphazard.
VfM 1/5 - Again, couldn't mark lower!

WRT the VfM score, initially, I was impressed, as the store offered a great price on the product, however following the reliability of the kit and the inconveniences I have experienced during ownership, I can say that I have not received value for Money by any stretch of the imagination.

It may be considered that only agrieved customers complete these reviews, however I sincerely hope that Comet read some of these and learn about the frustration being experienced by it seems a growing number of their customers. There are simple things that can be done to improve these failings,

* adequate training of yous sales staff.
* putting the needs of the customer first
* Being polite (In store)
* calling people in a reasonable time frame for variations in agreed plans
* following up on agreements.

....... I could go on.

its not rocket science really.