Anybody try to get support from Panasonic? I own an AX200u 720p projector, purchased on Nov 2007. You cannot trust the long-term reliability of this projector. Adding insult to injury, the support supervisor misled me to get me off the phone, and was under the impression I would be taking a survey on my support experience.
My projector was sent into the shop two times during its warranty period. The warranty was extended to 2 years or 2000 hours by panasonic, and just a few months out of warranty, the optical block has started to fail causing blue fringing on one side of the picture.
Replacing the optical block costs more than a new projector.
I called Panasonic customer service to ask for an out-of-warranty service. First, I explained everything to them (approximate times based on my previous emails to support):
At ~150 hours (Jul '08) Flicker, pulsing, and picture uniformity issues. They:
- replaced optical block
- replaced lamp
- updated firmware
- adjusted mirrors
At about 180 hours Aug '08 (20 hours of use by me) it would shut down a minute or two after turning it on. You could hear the iris opening and closing. They
- replaced iris
- replaced iris board
Now, <225 hours later I get blue fringing. They told me I'd need to send it in to Heartland and pay the $130 fee with no guarantee they'd do anything. I explained that, based on the photos I sent to Projector People, their tech support believed it was the optical block. That goes for >$800 (plus labor). I asked if they could please tell me the likelihood they'd even go for that repair so I could avoid spending $150 and risking shipping-damage. We went in circles a few times.
Finally, she got her supervisor on the phone for me. Their process is to take the diagnosis to "upper management", and they make the call. He agreed that with my case, the hours we unusually low (less than 500 total and less than 300 on the replaced optical block), and he'd ask them so I could avoid shipping it it. He even agreed to call me back in 24-48 hours. I felt like I was making progress.
Instead, I get an email restating the company line... send it in, pay $130, no promises. It was as if I never spoke to Louis. I politely replied to the email and asked for the agreed-upon call-back. They replied "The email below has been sent to you as notification of the response received from upper management regarding your case."
During the call, Louis mentioned that I had hit the button to take a short survey, which is a call-back from Panasonic. It was interesting to me that he knew about that, and made certain promises. Unfortunately, when I got that call-back, no one was there (bad dialer?). Now, no call-back.
I have several Panasonic products in my home and specifically, my home theater and family room (dvd, blu-ray, 50" plasma). I've hardly used this projector, and it is barely out of warranty. Where I felt I was making progress with a person of rank, I now feel lied to and misled.
Remember, the optical block was replaced at ~150 hours, so the current one lasted less than 300 hours. I also feel it is a scam getting someone to pay $130 plus shipping for a diagnosis with no commitment to help. They would not even let me know the likelihood of repairing what is the most expensive part on the projector. To top it off, the support supervisor committed to a call-back (probably because I hit the button to take a survey) and then hid behind email.
The projector has barely lasted to 25% of its warranted life, even less if you look at how long the optical block has lasted.
Home theater has been my hobby since 1995. After buying many products from them over the years I am done with Panasonic, which is too bad for them. I've got two, >50" flat-panels to be purchased this year, as well as a 1080p projector.
Case 27347482
