Panasonic Ax100 Problems & Solutions

[SkadollaX]

Currently: 200 Panasonic hours on the clock

Problem1: Flickers on eco-mode

Started: Around the 60 hour mark

Comments: It is intermittent but it definately seems to happen after around half an hour of use..?

Solution: Run the PJ on Eco-mode for approximately 10 hours on it's brightest setting.

Result: This has apparantly worked for some people but not me. At first I thought the problem was fixed but then it eventually started happening again.

Problem2: On white backgrounds the left side of the screen has some brown running from top to bottom. The right side has some brightish blue running from top to bottom. Looks like some kind of discolourization..? only really visible on white screens - eg. Test pattern, computer game menu's etc...

Started: I think it was there from the start...?Definately noticed at the 150 hour mark.

Comments: I'm not 100% but it seems worse than before. I will now keep an eye out for it.

Solution: Turn High Altitude mode on to prevent further discolourization. I read this somewhere so I am trying it out now....

Result: Obviously it can't fix the problem but it may prevent it from becoming worse.

*Does your PJ suffer from the above faults?

*Have you experienced other problems? If so please elaborate.

*Has anyone sent their PJ into the repair centre? What was panasonic post sales support like..? Did they fix your problem?

*Have Panasonic managed to fix anyone's flickering bulb problem?

[quijibo]

Problem: Just about every Panasonic electrical good I have ever owned has malfunctioned at some point.

Solution: I just dont buy panasonic crap.

[SkadollaX]

Problem: Just about every Panasonic electrical good I have ever owned has malfunctioned at some point.

Solution: I just dont buy panasonic crap.

Almost all products have faults, you just need to look for them...

[quijibo]

I dont need to look for faults in panasonic products, they just appear.

[Hydrology]

Well after 191 hours on the clock, Im starting to get some minor flicker even in Normal Mode.... My old AE100 never skipped a beat.

[rampar]

had flicker in eco mode - has since gone and has not come back.

Definate discolouration when viewing test screen or a movie such as ice age.

have not taken it in yet but will do in the future. Due to the longish throw from the bookshelf most of my 60 hours have been in normal mode.

btw - my warranty card that came with the ax100 states a two year warranty not one year as has been reported elsewhere.

cheers

[SkadollaX]

had flicker in eco mode - has since gone and has not come back.

Definate discolouration when viewing test screen or a movie such as ice age.

have not taken it in yet but will do in the future. Due to the longish throw from the bookshelf most of my 60 hours have been in normal mode.

btw - my warranty card that came with the ax100 states a two year warranty not one year as has been reported elsewhere.

cheers

Yes but be careful with the warranty. Whilst it is 2 years it comes with conditions.

That you not use it for more than 4hours straight more than........

and so on an so forth.

Did you have discolouration from the begining..? Has it got worse..?

Does anyone know the reason for discolouration...?

Well after 191 hours on the clock, Im starting to get some minor flicker even in Normal Mode.... My old AE100 never skipped a beat.

This is a bit of a worry!

[rampar]

Whilst it is 2 years it comes with conditions.

yes - these conditions are a little bit of a worry currently being debated on the avsforums site. Seems if you use this projector more than 12 hours a week or have it on for more than 4 hours at a time the warranty is void - however some read it as more than 4 hours on at a time three times a week then the warranty is void.

cheers,

rob

[SkadollaX]

yes - these conditions are a little bit of a worry currently being debated on the avsforums site. Seems if you use this projector more than 12 hours a week or have it on for more than 4 hours at a time the warranty is void - however some read it as more than 4 hours on at a time three times a week then the warranty is void.

cheers,

rob

I never read it as 12 hours a week...? I thought it was saying more than 4 hours at a time 3 times a week....

To make matters worse the lamp timer does not represent real time. So are they trying to say 4 panasonic hours or 4 real hours....?

I have organised for my PJ to go in for repair.

I'm not feeling confident though..my last 4 displays (all differing manufacturers) have all gone in for repair and all either came back the same, worse or damaged.

People have been giving Panasonic a hammering over the 700, 900 and their post sales support. I will report back once I receive my PJ back. So far their phone support has been no better or worse than the likes of Sony, Acer or Sharp but at least they reside in Australia and can speak the english language....unlike Xbox support with their fake American accents and inability to spell

[rampar]

I never read it as 12 hours a week...? I thought it was saying more than 4 hours at a time 3 times a week....

That's what I thought too but acording to the thread at avs forums an aussie guy was refused based on the hours he used the projector. Panasonic said he damaged the optic block. I can't see how they can enforce the condition without using 12 hour weekly limits.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=802513

[dkmaj]

That's what I thought too but acording to the thread at avs forums an aussie guy was refused based on the hours he used the projector. Panasonic said he damaged the optic block. I can't see how they can enforce the condition without using 12 hour weekly limits.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=802513

this is a mine field, altering or not disclosing facts about warranty until after purchase, having usage statments that would have to be in breach of 'fair use' for there product, big time probs ahead!!...fair trading any one!?!?

[aaron]

Hey Skadollax, I am taking you up on your suggestion. This forum won't let me post a new topic though, not sure why, so I'm pinching your thread

(This is a copy of a post originally made on AVSforum)

Hi all.

I have decided to write this account of my experience with Panasonic customer support after having read through this thread.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....2513&page=1

I used to own an AE700, which developed a fault in the blue panel back at the end of September. It was displaying a blue tint to the right hand side of the image, and also some yellowing. I took it to the Authorized Service Centre, as advised on their website.

It was there for just under three months. After the third week I began making weekly calls to check on the status of my projector. At first I was told that it was not the optical block, but a faulty circuit board that was causing the blue tinting. I found this hard to believe given the anecdotal evidence on this forum, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

About five weeks into the process, the person I had been dealing with told me that someone else was now working on my projector. I was never able to speak to this person, as he was supposedly never there, and they were unable to have him contact me. I believe this "other technician" was entirely fictional. It was also at this point that they were unable to give me any information about what was actually wrong with my unit. The standard response was "sorry, the guy working on it isn't here today", or "he's out on a job at the moment, can I get him to call you?". Needless to say, I never received any calls.

This continued until the 19th of December, when I eventually decided that I had had enough. I called and said that I was coming in that day to pick it up. When I got it home, the first thing I did was check the unit for damage, and also the serial number. Lo and behold, the serial number was the same,but the date of manufacture sticker was different. The unit itself also had significant physical damage;

*A large scratch on the lens

*Scratches all over the casing (my original unit had one scratch on the top of the unit)

*Where the two halves of the case join there was almost a half a centimetre gap

*Of the buttons on the unit, only the power and input selection worked

*The remote was non functional

*The menu system was not accessible

*It was not possible to focus the picture completely (and no, I'm not talking about Smoothscreen)

Needless to say, I was slightly p**sed off about this. Because it was after hours, I could not call Panasonic and talk to them about it, so I called the police to get their advice. I was told that if I was correct, the service centre had committed a criminal act. The specific charge was called "theft by deception". It is essentially the same thing as when a car's unique identifying number, or VIN, is swapped with an identical make and model.

I called Panasonic Customer Care the next morning and spoke to a representative about what had happened. She arranged for the service centre to call me, so that we could sort out the matter. After three days and another two phone calls to Panasonic I eventually recieved a call from the service centre. (From this point on I will be referring to the person I dealt with as "Bill", which is not the persons real name).

"Bill" contacted me. He asked me what the problem was with the projector. I told him I didn't think it was my projector. He asked why not, and I told him that the manufacturing date had been changed from December 2004 to January 2005.

He eventually stated that the "optical block", was damaged due to "4 by 3 burn in", and that it was a "$3000 part", not covered by warranty, so he swapped a part from his own personal projector into it, and that it was easier to just swap the entire base and then switch the serial no. labels, rather than disassemble everything. He also stated that he swapped the serial numbers so that "I would not have any warranty issues in the future".

He was also unable to give a satisfactory explanation as to why it had taken so long (between 2 & 1/2 to 3 months). When asked why there was no service report he said something about it "being Christmas and the guy working on it is always on the road, he has 15 jobs on the go".

When asked why he did not tell us what was done he reiterated that he believed he was "doing us a favour", and that by calling Panasonic I had gotten both of us "in the sh*t". He then said that I had two choices, either I could bring the projector back to him and he could put the original, faulty optical block and base back in, or he could fix the current projector, and we would then need to call Panasonic and tell them it was all a misunderstanding.

When asked why the projector was not functioning properly, (menu system inaccessible, remote not functioning, majority of buttons on unit not functioning, scratch on lens, numerous scratches on casing), he said "that was probably my fault, it was put together by me in a hurry after you called that morning because the other guy wasn't here". He had stated the previous two times I called that it was ready to be picked up.

So basically at this point my property has been stolen, I have an admission of guilt from the person who did it, and he had attempted to intimidate me! A reasonable person would think that Panasonic would then do EVERYTHING in their power to resolve the situation and keep their customer happy, right?

WRONG!

What followed was OVER A MONTH of Panasonic telling me that I would have to take the unit back to that service centre for repair. I was not able to take it to another service centre, and they refused to give me a replacement. When I first said that I wanted the unit replaced with a new one, one of the Customer Liason Officers actually had the gall to say, "oh no, replacements are only issued in extreme cases".

Well excuse me, but what the F*** do you call having my property stolen! That statement either means that service centres stealing customers property is a regular occurrence, or they just didn't think it mattered all that much.

Anyway, about halfway through January I contacted Consumer Affairs and asked them to intercede on my behalf. They were unable to achieve a resolution on their own, but I believe that their involvement certainly helped to show Panasonic that I was not going to go away quietly.

All through this process, their position on the matter was that legally, it was not their responsibility, as the criminal act had been committed by their service centre. However, at least in Australia, the law is very clear in matters of this nature. It is Panasonic's product, it is Panasonic's warranty, and Panasonic have a contract with their service centre that states they will be financially recompensed in exchange for carrying out warranty work on Panasonic's products. It has been proven time and again in court that the final responsilbility rests with the manufacturer. This was stated to me by Consumer Affairs, and my own lawyer.

So after I had exhausted my last option in Consumer Affairs, I called and spoke to a Customer Liason Officer on the 2nd of February. I had decided that if Customer Service would not listen, perhaps their Sales Manager would be interested in preventing a potentially highly damaging account of this matter going to the press.

Unfortunately, the person I spoke to refused to give me any contact details. The only number I could get from her was the standard sales line. I called that, and asked to speak to the Sales Manager, however they also refused to put me through. I was, however, put through to the overall manager of Customer Service. Result! (Incidentally, I had been told before that no such person or position existed..)

The Customer Service Manager was the first, and only, polite professional person I ever spoke to at Panasonic. When he said he would call back, he did. When he said he would organize a meeting between himself, the Victorian State Executive, and an engineer to review my case, he did.

On the 7 of February he called me to say that he was going to upgrade me to an AE900, which would be a refurbished unit. He said that he was waiting for some photographs of the unit, as apparently it had some "burnish marks" on top of the unit. I was quite effusive in my gratitude, as it had taken a long time to get to this point. I also said that "that would be fantastic, that is all I have wanted all along". His response to that was "I don't want to get caught up in minor matters". Unbelievable. He had just managed to undo all his hard work and ruin all the goodwill he had built.

The point I had been trying to make every single time I had contact with them was that I should not have to accept a broken, stolen projector!

Now for the good news. The next day I got a call from someone else at Panasonic, informing me that the Customer Service Manager had just put through the paperwork and approved a brand new PT-AX100E, to be given to me as a replacement. The catch, of course, was that I had to go to that original service centre to pick it up. Rest assured I wnet there with some friends, and a camera. I went in on the 15th of February and picked it up. For what it's worth, it has none of the issues that I have seen reported on the forums, however I will still be selling it and buying another brand, as I have no desire to ever deal with Panasonic Customer Support again.

If anyone needs contact numbers or names for the higher up's at Panasonic, feel free to PM me.

Edited February 17, 2007 by lloyd84

[Hydrology]

If anyone needs contact numbers or names for the higher up's at Panasonic, feel free to PM me.

Hey Lloyd, your PM is diabled until you have 10 post, so have to reply here:-

Im wondering if you have an email address for somebody higher up in Panasonic Australia? My Ax100 PJ has developed a fault (flicker in normal mode) and Id at least like to talk to somebody who knows a little about this projector, and how best proceed about getting it repaired. You can either message me back here or reply to:-

hylandm at hotmail dot com

Cheers mate.

[aaron]

Hey Lloyd, your PM is diabled until you have 10 post, so have to reply here:-

Hrrm, guess that's why I can't post a new thread too. Never mind.

You have email!

Anyone else who would like extra info/contact details, send me an email at lloyd84@gmail.com

[Hydrology]

Hrrm, guess that's why I can't post a new thread too. Never mind.

You have email!

Anyone else who would like extra info/contact details, send me an email at lloyd84@gmail.com

Thanks mate.

[Hydrology]

For those interested my lamp (with about 219 hours on it) went heywire last night, dramatic shifting in light intensity every few seconds or so. Turned it off for fear of explosion. As per Panasonics request, off to drop it to Barhams tomorrow. Will keep you all posted.

[Hydrology]

Edit: Double Post.

[wheelz]

For those interested my lamp (with about 219 hours on it) went heywire last night, dramatic shifting in light intensity every few seconds or so. Turned it off for fear of explosion. As per Panasonics request, off to drop it to Barhams tomorrow. Will keep you all posted.

Sh*t you havent had much luck with your PJ's mark,hope you get better response/help from panasonic than you did with benq.

[thudabot]

interested to read this as i own a AE700

i'm currently running it on high lamp all the time time as it seems the flicker won't go away on low lamp setting - i have heard it described as a candle flicker type of effect which is about right.

seems the new models suffer from the same thing......

i have over 1100 hours on mine

[Foggy]

For those interested my lamp (with about 219 hours on it) went heywire last night, dramatic shifting in light intensity every few seconds or so. Turned it off for fear of explosion. As per Panasonics request, off to drop it to Barhams tomorrow. Will keep you all posted.

Uh oh... I think we're about to see BenQ's customer service look like a Lexus dealer.

Good luck Mark, and may the force be with you.

[Hydrology]

Uh oh... I think we're about to see BenQ's customer service look like a Lexus dealer.

Good luck Mark, and may the force be with you.

Hopefully (fingers crossed) a FW upgrade solves all these issues for me. Thankfully I dont have the colouration some people are mentioning.....yet at least.

[c912039]

What has gone soooo wrong with the design of Panasonic's projectors?

From what I had heard, the AE500 and earlier models were great units. However, from the release of the AE700 onwards, there just seems to be wave after wave of bad news stories of projectors failing, or having major issues.

Then, if you add the less than stellar attitude Panasonic has to its FP customers, it makes me wonder why they bother to keep going in the FP market.

Dont they realise that the FP market is a small market, and those who buy into the technology expect quality devices. Lets face it, the FP buyer is a more disconcerning HT enthusiast, compared with the average J6P Plasma/LCD panel buyer these days.

If they are not prepared to make quality FP, AND stand by their products and look after their customers, they will rapidly loose any existing customer loyalty, AND get a bad reputation in the FP market - maybe enough to put off most new buyers.

Regards

David

[SkadollaX]

What has gone soooo wrong with the design of Panasonic's projectors?

From what I had heard, the AE500 and earlier models were great units. However, from the release of the AE700 onwards, there just seems to be wave after wave of bad news stories of projectors failing, or having major issues.

Then, if you add the less than stellar attitude Panasonic has to its FP customers, it makes me wonder why they bother to keep going in the FP market.

Dont they realise that the FP market is a small market, and those who buy into the technology expect quality devices. Lets face it, the FP buyer is a more disconcerning HT enthusiast, compared with the average J6P Plasma/LCD panel buyer these days.

If they are not prepared to make quality FP, AND stand by their products and look after their customers, they will rapidly loose any existing customer loyalty, AND get a bad reputation in the FP market - maybe enough to put off most new buyers.

Regards

David

Well my PJ has been in repairs for over a week now...

As you already know...

*My unit had the discolouration problem from the start and has only become worse with use.

At this stage it's nowhere near as bad as some of the reports I have read but in time it will become even worse.

*I've also got the lamp flickering problems

*& I've also raised the issue with the incorrect lamp timer (says I've used it for 200 hours when I know I have not) 1 panasonic hour does not equal 1 real hour.

So before I give my final verdict on all that is Panasonic I am waiting to see how my problems are dealt with by the certified Panasonic repairer.

I will call the repairer on friday for an update on my PJ.

Hopefully (fingers crossed) a FW upgrade solves all these issues for me. Thankfully I dont have the colouration some people are mentioning.....yet at least.

I't will be interesting to see how different repairers deal with the same problem.

In my letter outlining the problems I included a link to a thread where the head of Panasonic in New Zeleand acknowledges the flickering problem. He advises that users who have the problem send in their PJ's for what he calls a minor fix.

[ajm1503559545]

Well my PJ has been in repairs for over a week now...

As you already know...

*My unit had the discolouration problem from the start and has only become worse with use.

At this stage it's nowhere near as bad as some of the reports I have read but in time it will become even worse.

*I've also got the lamp flickering problems

*& I've also raised the issue with the incorrect lamp timer (says I've used it for 200 hours when I know I have not) 1 panasonic hour does not equal 1 real hour.

So before I give my final verdict on all that is Panasonic I am waiting to see how my problems are dealt with by the certified Panasonic repairer.

I will call the repairer on friday for an update on my PJ.

I't will be interesting to see how different repairers deal with the same problem.

Best of luck mate.

FWIW to give you an idea of how my latest experience has been going, I wrote to Panasonic at the start of January (not December as I mentioned earlier) and complained about the vertical banding on my replacement AE700. About 3 weeks later I got a call from the service centre who arranged a tech to come over the following week.

On 25th January a tech checked out the problem in my house and then took the unit and began working on it at the shop. At this point I was pretty satisfied because I was worried that Panasonic might try and suggest that sh!tty VB was just part of the technology.

While I've been happy with the verdict so far I can't say the same for the time it has taken so far. During the next couple of weeks I stayed in contact with the repairer who said that Panasonic has given them a list of "tweaks" that might fix the problem.

By the 14th of Feb I still had no pj so I rang the repairer who told me that the VB could not be reduced significantly by adjustment and was told that they were waiting on a reply from Panasonic for a way forward.

On the 14th and 15th I rang Panasonic a number of times to find out what was happening. I got a call back from Panasonic during the afternnoon of last Thursday (15th) and was told that a new optical block was being couriered down overnight to replace the faulty one.

So today (the 20th) is nearly four weeks since the pj has been in the shop and I've still not got a fixed pj or a firm plan from Panasonic about how they'd deal with this if it can't be fixed.

To top it off the Panasonic customer service manager suggested that this problem may be assessed as being "within spec". You'd have to be kinda brave and/or stupid to try and argue that this panel fault is in anyway acceptable and, although I really don't want to have to make a major fuss by going to the tribunal if I don't have to, I'd be happy to take it further if it was the only option left.

Anyway, sorry for the mini-hijack I just thought I'd give you an idea about how things are managed by these guys at the moment and it's no different to how it was handled last year.

[norpus]

Whilst I never had any problems with my ae700, I must admit the forum swell here swayed me from looking further into the new 1080p version, despite its wonderful acclaim on projectorcentrals shootout. The local service in Auistralia if you ever did get a problem is a worry - makes pjs out of pricejapan start to look good for the warranty!! (Might take 2 weeks and $200 in return freight, but at least you'd get better Japanese/manufacturer support and a relatively quicker resolution)