Product Expert's Response to 349049_Mrs H Sharp's Review

Written on: 30/06/2009

I work at Comet's customer information centre and although I am not an engineer, I am a customer service advisor and product expert. This problem sounds like a classic case of ' screen burn 'to me. Plasma's suffer from this but it is a little known fact that LCD's can also suffer from it (if an image is left on screen for too long or logo's or menu's are used repeatedly over time, even black bars present on movies top and bottom can show faintly just after a movie).
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<br/>Of cause this is just an opinion, but if it was ' screen burn ' , it would unfortunately not be covered by warranty or extended warranty as it is an inherent quality of the technologies involved and is not something that would be there at the time of manufacturing but is more akin to accidental damage and/or misuse and is detailed in manuals supplied with TV's and warned about.
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<br/>Careful ownership usually prevents its occurrence and I have a Panasonic Plasma that is fine with e.g. PS3 console, where gaming is often discouraged with plasma's, due to potential for screen burn. General advice is to keep the picture contrast and brightness, as low as possible especially during the first 200 hours of use and refrain from doing as stated above.
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<br/>Regarding this issue where the customer was told Comet wouldn't do anything as it was ' a day out of warranty ' ... it probably shouldn't have been dismissed under that response solely, if indeed it was that abrupt sounding, because (after 6 months and out of warranty) if the customer (on seeking an engineer ' s report from us + other evidence) could prove to us that the fault was there at the time of manufacturing, then we could, under the 6 year sales of goods act, try to repair it etc. but as this looks like ' screen burn ' , we wouldn ' t have been able to do anything whether in warranty or out. It is unfortunate though that this TV failed to live up to the customers expectation of the lifespan of a TV but important to understand that no matter, which retailer they bought it from, the same advice as above would no doubt apply. LCD ' s and Plasma ' s can have a life expectancy of anything up to 60000 hours or around 25-30 years if used in optimal conditions. P.S I just saw this review and didn ' t have to write this. Just wanted to provide a different point of view as reviews can so easily sway potential purchasers minds (mine included).
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