Vizio Vizio Electronics Defective 55" TV E550i-A0 Cracked Screen from Poor Quality Control Irvine California

DO NOT BUY A VIZIO TV, unless you want to throw away your hard earned cash! I purchased a Vizio TV, Model # E55i-A0, in November, 2013. 9 months later, it is broken, beyond repair.

On a Saturday night, my husband and I just finished watching a movie on DVD, when I changed the channel to Netflix, and "Poof", a large black and white splotch, in the top right third of our Vizio TV, appeared out of nowhere! I actually thought Netflix was pixelating, so turned the Vizio off and on again. But it was still there when I turned the Vizio on, but now, vertical colored lines were running down the length of the Vizio TV, and the picture began twitching wildly.

I called Vizio on Monday, because, after all, it's under Warranty. Vizio requested I send in photos of the Vizio TV, via an Email link, so they could look at them, stating, Vizio would get back to me in 72 hours.

During my wait, I Googled “ Vizio and Cracked screen”, and was horrified to find there are hundreds, if not thousands of complaints, of Vizio TV screens spontaneously cracking! Then, Vizio refusing to cover the damaged TVs, accusing the customers of causing the damage, by dropping them or hitting them with something. At that point, I became very concerned, since the description of these customer’s experience with their Vizio TVs, sounded like what happened to my Vizio TV.

I work for the State of Ohio, so prior to hearing back from Vizio, the IT experts for all State government facilities were at my facility, setting up our new infrastructure. Now, these guys are the quintessential experts on technical electronics, so I brought up my situation with the lead guy, and the info on Vizio’s position with the complaints I found, online.

The IT expert stated, he has heard of iHD TV screens spontaneously cracking, and it’s caused by one of two things: overheating in an area of the screen where some video component (sorry, I can’t remember the name of the component) is located, or from poor quality control, during Vizio’s assembly process, when the bezel is misaligned and the weight of the TV will eventually crack the inner screen somewhere along the top edge, and had it been externally caused damage, there would have been some kind of damage visible to the outer screen cover. He also said, just the fact there are so many complaints, that Vizio has to know about the problem, but given the expense and scope of this particular problem, it would cost Vizio way too much, if Vizio were to take responsibility for all those cracked Vizio TVs.

The next day, Vizio called me. Vizio said they have determined I must have hit the screen with something, and Vizio doesn’t cover customer inflicted damage under the Vizio warranty! I was expecting this answer but tried to argue my case to the Vizio rep that we were just watching TV and hadn’t gone anywhere near the Vizio when it happened. I also told Vizio that I had found hundreds of the same complaints on the internet, and reiterated what IT expert told me. The Vizio rep simply said, “People are liars. But, hey, have a nice day!”, and hung up on me.

 I will never buy another Vizio product again. I’m filing a complaint with the Ohio Attorney General, the Better Business Bureau, Angie’s List, and anywhere else I can. I will also be filing a suit in my local small claims court, to try and recoup my losses. In the end, even if I don’t recoup my losses, I will at least cost Vizio more than the $700 I paid for my TV, in lost revenue.

Vizio is a terribly dishonest company to do this to their customers. Do yourself a favor and pay a little extra for a different brand and do not buy a Vizio television.