RE: please dont show e-mail address

RE: Panasonic Home Theater Model SCHT810

Panasonic Blogg

Anonymous

December, 2006

About two years ago I bought a Panasonic Home Theatre Model SCHT810. It had a basic unit which plays both dvd’s and vcr’s, a sub-woofer, and five small speakers. It worked pretty good until in September the sound went out. I tried all the troubleshootings to no avail. I contacted Panasonic without much success as of course they just said to take it to a local repair station where it costs about fifty bucks just to diagnose it. This system cost me over four hundred dollars and I expected a bit more out of it than just a couple of years. It turns out that the sub-woofer has a problem and it would cost about a couple of hundred to fix it. This just seems like maybe good money after bad. It also turns out that there is no replacement sub-woofer, either from Panasonic or after-market. By the way, the unit has been in the same place since I first bought it and has not been abused in any way.

So I am basically stuck with a system that doesn’t work. The unit works ok and I have the sound routed through the television, but that is hardly what I had originally bargained for. All the little speakers work ok too, but to get back to where I was I would have to buy a receiver/amplifier and another sub-woofer; another couple hundred dollars anyway.

Frustrated over all this I packed up the sub-woofer with a long letter about my problems and shipped it off to Panasonic in hopes that they would make good on it. Eventually, after about 6 weeks they sent me a short letter saying they had sent it to a local repair shop in my area and to contact them. When I did I talked to a nice techie who said yah could be this or could be that but probably a couple hundred, which I’d have to pay. He did mention that there was a factory notice about problems with that particular sub-woofer. I wrote Panasonic again with a nasty letter this time, threatening to blog them if I get no satisfaction. Now,, six weeks later I am mad as hell. They basically just shined me on and I don’t have a sound system either.

Thats why I ‘m writing and posting this blog. I fell like I really got reamed by Panasonic. I think they sold me a product which obviously has problems and the worst part is is that there is no recourse. Costs to fix it (and what if it blows again soon) and they designed it so there is no way to replace it (which I might have done if I could have). I don’t know about you but four hundred bucks is a lot of money to me, especially now that I’ve got really nothing to show for it!

I think you should be very cautious about buying anything from Panasonic. I’ve had similar problems with other big consumer electronics houses and they have usually been sympathetic and made good on their products to my satisfaction. Evidently not these guys!