2809385 May 13, 2005 On May 13, 2005 we purchased a 52-inch Mitsubishi DLP for $2,599.00 and a service warrantee for $379.95 which is valid until May 2010. We purchased the Mitsubishi DLP because at the time we believed it to be the best viewing technology available, Mitsubishi with Texas Instruments Technology were both well branded names we believed to have integrity, we purchased from Fry’s because we believed this store to have great products with good pricing who would stand behind their sales, we believed we were purchasing a low maintenance TV that would last for many years in the manor of my trusted Sony Trinitron and if anything went wrong the extended warrantee would help assure us that the TV was covered. I was wrong on every point, this has turned into the biggest, most costly lemon debacle I have been a party to. The Mitsubishi DLP has endemic, related to, a characteristic of, problems with the capacitors in the motherboard that fail causing the TV to not operate in that it shuts itself down. It is a built in failure that Mitsubishi had to have known of during their product testing, just look on the web for the pages of reported failures of this technology. Fry’s salesmen do a great job in selling the extended warrantee and current technology other than that Fry’s stands for nothing. The DLP concept is a good one for a long lasting low maintenance TV but as mentioned above this design has a built-in manufacturers defect and is not built to last. The warrantee is the premier joke in this escapade. The purchase of the Mitsubishi DLP, which was the best technology available at the time; along with the warrantee we paid Fry’s $2,978.95 plus tax. Fry’s now wants to replace the Mitsubishi with the cheapest oldest technology they have on the floor with a list price of approximately $750.00. How on earth does that pencil out? The clause, #7, they use to justify this is “may provide replacement equipment with specifications as similar to the original specifications of the Covered Equipment…” this clause also allows them to install rebuilt or remanufactured parts. So what they are telling us is that the $750.00 Plasma is in the same category of specs as the DLP. When we bought the DLP it was setup on the floor receiving a PBS digital signal right next to a Plasma that cost two to three times more and the DLP picture was, in our opinion superior to the Plasma. The DLP outclassed the very expensive plasma five years ago and now Fry’s wants to replace the DLP with the cheapest oldest technology Plasma on their floor. Because of Specs? Bogus! What about performance? We did not go into Fry’s and ask for the cheapest oldest technology when we made this purchase. Prices have fallen, we have more than paid for a quality replacement and it is Fry’s who sold a product that was bound to fail due to a manufactures defective design. We have been to the store 4 times and called numerous times. The service manager is a good man stuck in the middle forced to spout dribble because he is stuck between a corporate office and the consumer. We are in the midst of sorting this out, for now I would say do not buy anything from Fry’s and never, never, ever buy a Fry’s service contract as they are not consumer friendly.
Why file a report here? Ripoff Report is a permanent record! Other complaint sites copy our content then remove reports for money.
