Best Buy 'No Lemon' 50-inch plasma replacement

MichChiro · 05-23-2009, 02:45 PM

Hello all!
I purchased a Philips 50-inch plasma (model 50PF9830A) with the Ambilight feature almost exactly four years ago. The TV needed Ambilight service twice and the entire display was replaced once (more expensive than a new TV for them, but that's their deal). Anyway, the repairman was out once more this past week and Best Buy is offering to replace this television under the 'no lemon' policy that is part of the extended warranty that I had purchased, rather than fix it yet again. They gave me a confirmation code and said that I simply need to take the old TV back to the store and make the exchange.
I try to keep up somewhat with the different features on newer televisions, but like most people I am certainly no expert. I appreciate reading through the posts on these boards, and have some idea as to the TVs that I am interested in for a replacement.
If anyone has any advice in dealing effectively with Best Buy on this, I would really appreciate it. I have dealt with their customer service in the past on other issues like with computer problems, and sometimes they are really good and a few times they have been (expletives!). I don't want to get jerked around on this, especially with the amount of money I had to plunk down originally.
Also, any thoughts on which specific TV would make a good replacement? I know that the prices have certainly come down, so I don't expect them to give me their most expensive TV now, and most of the technologies are going to be better regardless. To add to my confusion in this process, Philips is no longer making plasma TVs from what I understand, and no TV out there has anything like the Ambilight feature. Should I ask for some type of upgrade to compensate for this, like getting an OLED TV? Just looking for some thoughts from people more knowledgeable than I am! I am certainly willing to be reasonable with Best Buy, but I can't say that I necessarily trust them to do the same. Thank you in advance for your assistance!
Dan

MichChiro · 05-23-2009, 05:32 PM

Sorry...just ran across another post, stating I should add some information for those wishing to help with a response. I just figured, since it was a 50-inch plasma replacement, that would probably be enough info, but maybe not.

1. How far away will you be from the display when watching it?

between 6 and 10 feet, primarily.

2. What TV will it be replacing (i.e. 27" tube TV, etc)

50-inch Philips plasma with Ambilight, as previously mentioned.

3. What will you be watching on it (i.e. 1/3 movies, 1/3 TV shows, 1/6 Sports, 1/6 gaming console, etc)

50% regular TV programming Comcast cable (although probably will be switching to DirecTV soon), 10% DVD movies with some Blu-Ray, 20% sports, 20% PS3 games.

4. Will a computer be connected to use the display as a monitor? If so, what percent of the time?

Probably, but less than 5% of the time I would imagine. I do like the feature on my Philips where I can insert an SD card and view photos through the TV, although the PS3 has this feature and it's way cooler.

5. Will you be getting a Blu-ray player to watch movies and will you be getting any HD service from cable/sat, or will you just be watching SD programming, and upscaling SD DVD player?

Have a PS3, hopefully DirecTV soon, currently with Comcast cable.

6. Are you looking for the best in class display, the best bargain display, or best bang for the buck in the middle display?

Best in class display. When I purchased the Philips, it was one of the best as far as I could tell. If you are curious as to how far prices have fallen in the past four years, I paid $4300 for the TV that is being replaced. I also have a Bose 5.1 surround-sound system with a Yamaha HTR-5760 receiver (it doesn't have HDMI capabilities, but pretty much everything else).

7. What is the room lighting situation? (i.e. can you control the lighting? Can you use light blocking blinds, etc to control it?)

The TV sits between two large windows (about 40-in x 48-in) on the north wall of our living room. We have blinds that block the light well, but since it's a north-facing wall the light typically isn't an issue. We watch more TV after dark anyway. There are two ceiling fan lights, and one smaller window on the west wall. Overall, light and reflection don't seem to pose many problems for us.

One additional note, I do plan to make the switch on Monday of this holiday weekend if anyone is reading this. Sorry for the short notice, but I just found this forum today and just found out that I needed to replace the TV on Thursday. Any help that anyone can give would be most appreciated!

**PFC5** · 05-23-2009, 10:05 PM

I would check out the 54" G10 series Panasonic plasma. You can just ify (to them) that you should be able to go 54" since you are losing the Ambilight feature that you really loved.

Hope this helps & welcome to the forum!

Loves2Watch · 05-24-2009, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pfc5

i would check out the 54" g10 series panasonic plasma. You can just ify (to them) that you should be able to go 54" since you are losing the ambilight feature that you really loved.

Hope this helps & welcome to the forum!

I agree!

celica · 05-24-2009, 11:55 AM

Definitely check out the G10 series

zip2play · 05-25-2009, 07:36 AM

Mich,

It's nice of BB to honor their no-lemon policy but don't expect the moon because they will NOT consider what you paid originally. What was that fearsome amount back 4 years?

If you DON'T look for top of the line anything, you will not be disappointed. My guess is you will be offered something like a 52 inch Phillips LCD, perhaps last year's model...but at least it will work and you'll get an extra 2 inches, something we alll crave.

1HDMI · 05-25-2009, 09:16 AM

I dealt with Bestbuy on a Lemon Replacement for my Toshiba laptop which original cost 1300.( was on sale from 1499.) a few years ago. Well if failed 3 times each time they had it for repairs 2-3wks needless to say it failed a 4th times at which time the svc mgr told me I would be issued a replacement certificate 4 days later he called me and told me the cert. was approved and I could come out and pick out a replacement. When I arrived I asked him how much was a replacement approved for and he confirmed they would honor up to the original purchase price, which was to my advantage, as the prices dropped substantially since my original purchase. He said they would cover up to original price but that no refund of difference in pricing if replacement was less than originally purchased item. Check your extended warrant for the replacement agreement.

morgank6 · 05-25-2009, 12:43 PM

If they do honor up to your original price, go for a pioneer elite, which have dropped a ton in price.

-Morgan

MichChiro · 05-25-2009, 12:52 PM

Thanks for all the advice, everyone! Good suggestions. I'm headed to Best Buy right now, so we shall see what they do. Wish me luck!

tRidiot · 05-25-2009, 08:29 PM

Heck yeah, for that price you can get a 60" Kuro.... YUMZ!

jmcohen23 · 05-26-2009, 07:46 AM

based upon your experience, I would have certainly avoided getting another Philips.

as these guys mentioned, go with a panasonic plasma.

But $4,600 for a TV? Even back then, that was a huge amount of loot. just one last bit of advice, you don't have to buy the most expensive unit in the store, just the most popular. two key questions I ask when buying electronics are, "Which one has sold the most", and "Which one has seen the fewest returns/problems".

1HDMI · 05-26-2009, 08:31 AM

If bestBuy affords you full replacement cost (as they did with me) then by all means get the "King of PQ Pioneer" you'll have no regrets both quality of the BEST picture available in HD and a product with a very high record of (troulbe-free) performance. A quick suggestion before you select the size you want, mark off on your wall, ( with painters blue tape ) the size of the display panels to get a better idea of what it will look like. When your in the store size is deceiving because of the open floor effect. If your BestBuy has a Magnolia store within you will get a better idea of size and quality. Good luck and enjoy spending their money. Don't concern yourself with getting your original cost covered Pioneers are going for some really good prices now.

MichChiro · 05-26-2009, 02:33 PM

Well...it was an interesting day yesterday! Thank you all for your input, and I must say I'm becoming a lot more educated on everything hi-def now. And, yes...I do know I paid a bundle for my TV four years ago, but that was the market then. You can get a TV that is much, much better now for less than half of what I paid, but that's technology and manufacturing advances for you. At least it works in our favor!

So, of course Best Buy wanted to get out of the deal satisfying me with as little as possible. They initially offered me an open box LG LED 46" TV and I wasn't very impressed with the picture quality or features. After arguing with them for over an hour about how they cannot compare "spec to spec" because some features are no longer available, they agreed to give me $1800 towards my choice of set. I think they could have done a little better than that, but they wouldn't budge. I even told them I understood that I wouldn't be able to pick something up to the original price I paid. So, the Pioneers were way out of my price range still, even with the store credit. The G10's must be quite popular, because I went to the only Best Buy in my region (an hour away) that said online they were in-stock, but all they had was display units, open box units, missing parts....basically stuff I hate dealing with.

My wife and I decided to go ahead and upgrade even further to the Samsung PN50B850 model. I checked it out online and could only find rave reviews and didn't see many problems with Samsung units in general. The picture is incredible, and I thought on par with the much more expensive Pioneers, etc. The fact that this TV is 1.2 inches thick simply amazes me! It has a LAN port and plenty of HDMI inputs and several other cool features. This is plasma, but the case is the same as the OLEDs you may see. Best Buy did throw in free delivery, so I'll see how this set performs at home starting Thursday. Too bad I won't have it for the Red Wings game tomorrow night.

Bottom line is that I have 30 days to try this set out and see if it's the one I want. If not, I can return it and get something else. Although, from what I've seen, I think I'll be pretty happy with this one. I'll report back once I get a chance to check it out at home. If anyone has any thoughts on this set, I'd sure like to hear them. Thank you!

1HDMI · 05-26-2009, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichChiro

Well...it was an interesting day yesterday! Thank you all for your input, and I must say I'm becoming a lot more educated on everything hi-def now. And, yes...I do know I paid a bundle for my TV four years ago, but that was the market then. You can get a TV that is much, much better now for less than half of what I paid, but that's technology and manufacturing advances for you. At least it works in our favor!

So, of course Best Buy wanted to get out of the deal satisfying me with as little as possible. They initially offered me an open box LG LED 46" TV and I wasn't very impressed with the picture quality or features. After arguing with them for over an hour about how they cannot compare "spec to spec" because some features are no longer available, they agreed to give me $1800 towards my choice of set. I think they could have done a little better than that, but they wouldn't budge. I even told them I understood that I wouldn't be able to pick something up to the original price I paid. So, the Pioneers were way out of my price range still, even with the store credit. The G10's must be quite popular, because I went to the only Best Buy in my region (an hour away) that said online they were in-stock, but all they had was display units, open box units, missing parts....basically stuff I hate dealing with.

My wife and I decided to go ahead and upgrade even further to the Samsung PN50B850 model. I checked it out online and could only find rave reviews and didn't see many problems with Samsung units in general. The picture is incredible, and I thought on par with the much more expensive Pioneers, etc. The fact that this TV is 1.2 inches thick simply amazes me! It has a LAN port and plenty of HDMI inputs and several other cool features. This is plasma, but the case is the same as the OLEDs you may see. Best Buy did throw in free delivery, so I'll see how this set performs at home starting Thursday. Too bad I won't have it for the Red Wings game tomorrow night.

Bottom line is that I have 30 days to try this set out and see if it's the one I want. If not, I can return it and get something else. Although, from what I've seen, I think I'll be pretty happy with this one. I'll report back once I get a chance to check it out at home. If anyone has any thoughts on this set, I'd sure like to hear them. Thank you!

Congratulations, hopefully you'll be satisified and you can move on to enjoying your new set, Good Luck.

05-23-2009, 02:45 PM	#1
MichChiro My plasma is High Def. Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 7	Best Buy 'No Lemon' 50-inch plasma replacement Hello all! I purchased a Philips 50-inch plasma (model 50PF9830A) with the Ambilight feature almost exactly four years ago. The TV needed Ambilight service twice and the entire display was replaced once (more expensive than a new TV for them, but that's their deal). Anyway, the repairman was out once more this past week and Best Buy is offering to replace this television under the 'no lemon' policy that is part of the extended warranty that I had purchased, rather than fix it yet again. They gave me a confirmation code and said that I simply need to take the old TV back to the store and make the exchange. I try to keep up somewhat with the different features on newer televisions, but like most people I am certainly no expert. I appreciate reading through the posts on these boards, and have some idea as to the TVs that I am interested in for a replacement. If anyone has any advice in dealing effectively with Best Buy on this, I would really appreciate it. I have dealt with their customer service in the past on other issues like with computer problems, and sometimes they are really good and a few times they have been (expletives!). I don't want to get jerked around on this, especially with the amount of money I had to plunk down originally. Also, any thoughts on which specific TV would make a good replacement? I know that the prices have certainly come down, so I don't expect them to give me their most expensive TV now, and most of the technologies are going to be better regardless. To add to my confusion in this process, Philips is no longer making plasma TVs from what I understand, and no TV out there has anything like the Ambilight feature. Should I ask for some type of upgrade to compensate for this, like getting an OLED TV? Just looking for some thoughts from people more knowledgeable than I am! I am certainly willing to be reasonable with Best Buy, but I can't say that I necessarily trust them to do the same. Thank you in advance for your assistance! Dan

05-23-2009, 05:32 PM	#2
MichChiro My plasma is High Def. Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 7	Additional information with my situation Sorry...just ran across another post, stating I should add some information for those wishing to help with a response. I just figured, since it was a 50-inch plasma replacement, that would probably be enough info, but maybe not. 1. How far away will you be from the display when watching it? between 6 and 10 feet, primarily. 2. What TV will it be replacing (i.e. 27" tube TV, etc) 50-inch Philips plasma with Ambilight, as previously mentioned. 3. What will you be watching on it (i.e. 1/3 movies, 1/3 TV shows, 1/6 Sports, 1/6 gaming console, etc) 50% regular TV programming Comcast cable (although probably will be switching to DirecTV soon), 10% DVD movies with some Blu-Ray, 20% sports, 20% PS3 games. 4. Will a computer be connected to use the display as a monitor? If so, what percent of the time? Probably, but less than 5% of the time I would imagine. I do like the feature on my Philips where I can insert an SD card and view photos through the TV, although the PS3 has this feature and it's way cooler. 5. Will you be getting a Blu-ray player to watch movies and will you be getting any HD service from cable/sat, or will you just be watching SD programming, and upscaling SD DVD player? Have a PS3, hopefully DirecTV soon, currently with Comcast cable. 6. Are you looking for the best in class display, the best bargain display, or best bang for the buck in the middle display? Best in class display. When I purchased the Philips, it was one of the best as far as I could tell. If you are curious as to how far prices have fallen in the past four years, I paid $4300 for the TV that is being replaced. I also have a Bose 5.1 surround-sound system with a Yamaha HTR-5760 receiver (it doesn't have HDMI capabilities, but pretty much everything else). 7. What is the room lighting situation? (i.e. can you control the lighting? Can you use light blocking blinds, etc to control it?) The TV sits between two large windows (about 40-in x 48-in) on the north wall of our living room. We have blinds that block the light well, but since it's a north-facing wall the light typically isn't an issue. We watch more TV after dark anyway. There are two ceiling fan lights, and one smaller window on the west wall. Overall, light and reflection don't seem to pose many problems for us. One additional note, I do plan to make the switch on Monday of this holiday weekend if anyone is reading this. Sorry for the short notice, but I just found this forum today and just found out that I needed to replace the TV on Thursday. Any help that anyone can give would be most appreciated!

05-23-2009, 10:05 PM	#3
PFC5 Super Moderator Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 28,349	I would check out the 54" G10 series Panasonic plasma. You can just ify (to them) that you should be able to go 54" since you are losing the Ambilight feature that you really loved. Hope this helps & welcome to the forum! __________________ Denon AVR-887 Klipsch RP-5 Pwred Towers (mains) (525 watts peak each 12"Subs) All Klipsch RC-25(ctr),(2)SS1(surr),(2)SS1(rearSurr) Toshiba (2)HD-A20,PS3,BD35 For SACD/DVD-A Samsung HD-841 Panny 50pz80u plasma SETTINGS RCA HD50LPW162 50"DLP w/HD2+ SA 3250HD 47" LCD+Yamaha5790+HD-A1(bedroom) Harmony 680 + (2) 670s (amazing remote/support) Game room with Onkyo receiver & B&W Speakers The_Cable_Game Take the high ground and be happier

05-24-2009, 11:55 AM	#5
celica High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 98	Definitely check out the G10 series __________________ I <3 Life

05-26-2009, 07:46 AM	#11
jmcohen23 He who hesitates is lost Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 313	based upon your experience, I would have certainly avoided getting another Philips. as these guys mentioned, go with a panasonic plasma. But $4,600 for a TV? Even back then, that was a huge amount of loot. just one last bit of advice, you don't have to buy the most expensive unit in the store, just the most popular. two key questions I ask when buying electronics are, "Which one has sold the most", and "Which one has seen the fewest returns/problems". __________________ "A nickle just ain't worth a dime anymore." -- Yogi Berra

05-25-2009, 07:36 AM	#6
zip2play TV...INDISPENSIBLE Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 247	Mich, It's nice of BB to honor their no-lemon policy but don't expect the moon because they will NOT consider what you paid originally. What was that fearsome amount back 4 years? If you DON'T look for top of the line anything, you will not be disappointed. My guess is you will be offered something like a 52 inch Phillips LCD, perhaps last year's model...but at least it will work and you'll get an extra 2 inches, something we alll crave.

05-25-2009, 09:16 AM	#7
1HDMI What ...? Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 181	I dealt with Bestbuy on a Lemon Replacement for my Toshiba laptop which original cost 1300.( was on sale from 1499.) a few years ago. Well if failed 3 times each time they had it for repairs 2-3wks needless to say it failed a 4th times at which time the svc mgr told me I would be issued a replacement certificate 4 days later he called me and told me the cert. was approved and I could come out and pick out a replacement. When I arrived I asked him how much was a replacement approved for and he confirmed they would honor up to the original purchase price, which was to my advantage, as the prices dropped substantially since my original purchase. He said they would cover up to original price but that no refund of difference in pricing if replacement was less than originally purchased item. Check your extended warrant for the replacement agreement.

05-25-2009, 12:43 PM	#8
morgank6 How can anyone watch standard def? Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 17	If they do honor up to your original price, go for a pioneer elite, which have dropped a ton in price. -Morgan

05-25-2009, 12:52 PM	#9
MichChiro My plasma is High Def. Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 7	Thanks for all the advice, everyone! Good suggestions. I'm headed to Best Buy right now, so we shall see what they do. Wish me luck!

05-25-2009, 08:29 PM	#10
tRidiot High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 196	Heck yeah, for that price you can get a 60" Kuro.... YUMZ!

05-26-2009, 08:31 AM	#12
1HDMI What ...? Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 181	If bestBuy affords you full replacement cost (as they did with me) then by all means get the "King of PQ Pioneer" you'll have no regrets both quality of the BEST picture available in HD and a product with a very high record of (troulbe-free) performance. A quick suggestion before you select the size you want, mark off on your wall, ( with painters blue tape ) the size of the display panels to get a better idea of what it will look like. When your in the store size is deceiving because of the open floor effect. If your BestBuy has a Magnolia store within you will get a better idea of size and quality. Good luck and enjoy spending their money. Don't concern yourself with getting your original cost covered Pioneers are going for some really good prices now.

05-26-2009, 02:33 PM	#13
MichChiro My plasma is High Def. Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 7	Trip to Best Buy Well...it was an interesting day yesterday! Thank you all for your input, and I must say I'm becoming a lot more educated on everything hi-def now. And, yes...I do know I paid a bundle for my TV four years ago, but that was the market then. You can get a TV that is much, much better now for less than half of what I paid, but that's technology and manufacturing advances for you. At least it works in our favor! So, of course Best Buy wanted to get out of the deal satisfying me with as little as possible. They initially offered me an open box LG LED 46" TV and I wasn't very impressed with the picture quality or features. After arguing with them for over an hour about how they cannot compare "spec to spec" because some features are no longer available, they agreed to give me $1800 towards my choice of set. I think they could have done a little better than that, but they wouldn't budge. I even told them I understood that I wouldn't be able to pick something up to the original price I paid. So, the Pioneers were way out of my price range still, even with the store credit. The G10's must be quite popular, because I went to the only Best Buy in my region (an hour away) that said online they were in-stock, but all they had was display units, open box units, missing parts....basically stuff I hate dealing with. My wife and I decided to go ahead and upgrade even further to the Samsung PN50B850 model. I checked it out online and could only find rave reviews and didn't see many problems with Samsung units in general. The picture is incredible, and I thought on par with the much more expensive Pioneers, etc. The fact that this TV is 1.2 inches thick simply amazes me! It has a LAN port and plenty of HDMI inputs and several other cool features. This is plasma, but the case is the same as the OLEDs you may see. Best Buy did throw in free delivery, so I'll see how this set performs at home starting Thursday. Too bad I won't have it for the Red Wings game tomorrow night. Bottom line is that I have 30 days to try this set out and see if it's the one I want. If not, I can return it and get something else. Although, from what I've seen, I think I'll be pretty happy with this one. I'll report back once I get a chance to check it out at home. If anyone has any thoughts on this set, I'd sure like to hear them. Thank you!

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