luis Posted April 25, 2007 Share Posted April 25, 2007 I thought I'll share my recent experiences with this unit. I've owned this unit for about 3.5 months. Hardly used as I wasn't home much due to work. Back in Feb, I burned 2 dvd-r using material recorded on the HDD (FTA TV stuff). It was OK. Towards end of March tried to playback the dvd-r I burned on this unit - wouldn't play. Tried to record to dvd-r from the HDD wouldn't read the discs. HDD was still working OK but no way to burn to any discs (no matter what brand). Made couple of phone calls, checked the forum - veredict: most likely a faulty unit. Fair enough I thought - I'm one of those lucky ones. Took it to a Panasonic service centre (which I was directed to by Pansonic) - dropped the unit there (Brunswick) - and I've been chasing them for now 2 weeks - finally yesterday I got onto someone that knew what was happening to my recorder and he said - we don't really know what is wrong with it, we have tried a few things and didn't work, we now think is the disc drive so we have order one for you, it will take between 4-6 weeks - goodbye. If I had used this unit with some intensity for a couple of weeks, the fault would have come up a lomg time ago - is just that it took three months to show up because I wasn't using it much and now, it would take up to 2 months for it to be fixed??? ridiculous. I'm not happy with the quality of the unit, and obviously the turn around time for the repair - what are they going to do? built a new disc drive in china and send it over by donkey?. I think is dodgy for Panasonic not to have spare parts for a unit that is within the first 12 months warranty. I'll demand a money back or a replacement unit first thing tomorrow. Failing this, I'll take it up with Consumer Affairs, etc. If anyone has any experience dealing with Panasonic for similar situations, please let us know. So, definetely I'll keep away from panasonic - judging by the warranty service they provide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewWilliams Posted April 25, 2007 Share Posted April 25, 2007 Did you try Verbatim blank discs? The quality of most blank discs sold in Australia is unbelievably bad. Even the big name brands like TDK, Sony etc all source their discs from the cheapest Chinese bidder these days. Personally, I think it's a disgrace and there should be better quality control on blank discs. I've seen plenty of DVD players that struggle with blank discs and then have no problems with Verbatim discs. There's some other good brands but as far as I'm aware, Verbatim are the only brand left in Australia that doesn't completely suck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luis Posted April 25, 2007 Author Share Posted April 25, 2007 yeap, tried Verbatim as well with no luck. the funny thing is that the only 2 dvd-r I managed to burn were of fairly average quality (cheap chinese dvd-r). these still play on my other players but not in the ex-75 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luis Posted May 15, 2007 Author Share Posted May 15, 2007 Update: I found out that Panansonic doesn't have stock for a replacement HDD. Panasonic has turned my complaint into a "Spare parts enquiry" and basically they don't want to know anything about replacement/refunds. So, the unit has now been with a Pana repairer for 5 weeks and still nobody knows when they will be able to fix the problem. The retailer is now considering a refund. There is no way I'll ever buy anything from Panasonic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iggypop Posted May 15, 2007 Share Posted May 15, 2007 more panasonic problems here http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=18952 Can't bag them myself - my 15year old 48cm panasonic telly doesn't miss a beat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cooksta59 Posted May 15, 2007 Share Posted May 15, 2007 Update: I found out that Panansonic doesn't have stock for a replacement HDD. Panasonic has turned my complaint into a "Spare parts enquiry" and basically they don't want to know anything about replacement/refunds. So, the unit has now been with a Pana repairer for 5 weeks and still nobody knows when they will be able to fix the problem. The retailer is now considering a refund. There is no way I'll ever buy anything from Panasonic. Luis I would be asking for a replacement, the goods sold were obviously faulty and panasonic should swap it over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigg Posted May 15, 2007 Share Posted May 15, 2007 Update: I found out that Panansonic doesn't have stock for a replacement HDD. Panasonic has turned my complaint into a "Spare parts enquiry" and basically they don't want to know anything about replacement/refunds. So, the unit has now been with a Pana repairer for 5 weeks and still nobody knows when they will be able to fix the problem. The retailer is now considering a refund. There is no way I'll ever buy anything from Panasonic. Mate, I would write a letter of complaint to Panasonic and threaten to have consumer affairs come and knock on their door! That service is crap!! Don't take it even if you get a refund. Still complain, tell them you want something back for the time and frustrations this unit has caused you and compensation for the time that you have been without the unit whilst they invested the profit they made off you for selling you a crappy piece of equipment (BTW I have one of these and haven't had a problem - touch wood). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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