RCA 25" Color TV "Entertainment Series" - broke in its 4th month - RCA factory repair quoted $ 150 "assessment" charge to determine the problem - then would still have to pay for labor to fix TV - only paid $ 199.95 for the new TV at Best Buy

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on November 23, 2002:

From:

RE: RCA 25" Color TV "Entertainment Series" - broke in its 4th month - RCA factory repair quoted $ 150 "assessment" charge to determine the problem - then would still have to pay for labor to fix TV - only paid $ 199.95 for the new TV at Best Buy

RCA "Entertainment Series" (not) size 25" color TV we bought - died in its 4th month. It suddenly just popped once and the picture went wild - one of the control boards gave way obviously. We have called the service center that RCA recommended and the factory recommended shop stated there is a $150 "assessment" charge to determine what is wrong first - then we pay the labor to fix it.

WE ONLY PAID 199.95 FOR IT AT BEST BUY!!! RCA appears to have a lucrative business going of parts only and labor you get ripped for. Needless to say we still have not gotten it fixed yet. We have been fighting this for an added 3 months.

Repeated calls to RCA have fallen on deaf ears. What can we do? We bought a Sansui replacement (27") for $179 - but it is the principle that this shouldn't have failed and we shouldn't have been stuck with repair costs this huge to fix it.