Sony 61 inch rear projection TV - purchased in Jan., 2003 - yellow permanent impressions on the TV screen - quoted $ 800 repair to replace two color tubes

# 4 for July 9, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on July 8, 2003:

From:

RE: Sony 61 inch rear projection TV - purchased in Jan., 2003 - yellow permanent impressions on the TV screen - quoted $ 800 repair to replace two color tubes

SONY 61" REAR PROJECTION TV

I purchased the above Sony television at Circuit City on January 24, 2003 for $2435.36. The sales person did not make me aware of this "permanent imprint problem" at time of purchase. The set-up people did not mention or reinforce the "permanent imprint problem" when they delivered and set-up the television.

Three and a half months later I started noticing yellow permanent impressions on the Sony TV screen. These yellow imprints (about 4 to 5) are along the vertical left side and the bottom side of the screen. I called Sony Customer Service Department and talked to a supervisor named James Brown. James suggested that I call Circuit City and have a service man come out and look at the television. I had Circuit City’s service man out to inspect the Sony TV. He confirmed that he thought two of the three color tubes had permanent impressions. To replace the two color tubes would cost $800.

The service man said he would contact Sony for authorization to fix the TV. He also said that he had not seen this problem on such a new Sony TV. He also looked at the brightness levels and stated that it was unusual to see this problem when the user watched regular television at these brightness levels. The Circuit city service man called the next day and said that Sony would not authorize the repair under their warranty. He suggested that I call Sony Customer Service because they sometimes Customer I called Sony customer service and tried to reach James Brown but he was unavailable and was transferred to another supervisor named Gwen who said that they would not fix my problem. Points of concern: I have never used TV games, computers or similar products on my Sony TV. I have not watched TV at high levels of contrast or brightness (to the contrary, I watch TV at levels below medium levels and in standard or movie picture modes) . I watch a variety of television programing. When I watch the limited number of movie DVD’s I watch them in full screen zoom mode. I previously owned a RCA Proscan rear projection TV for six years and did not have a problem with "permanent imprint".

Sony blames the problem on TV stations that include ABC, CNN, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, USA, FOX,……etc.

Conclusion: This is a manufacturing defect in the color tubes . Sony should fix their manufacturing defect as their warranty states. WAKE UP SONY! I BOUGHT YOUR REAR PROJECTION TV TO WATCH TELEVISION.