HDTV Replacement frustration

I have a great HD Theater setup at home, but recently I went through extended service policy HELL.

I started noticing a blue haze in the center of the screen on my 52" JVC HDILA TV. I bought the service policy for $259 at Nebraska Furniture Mart and I am glad I did...well sort of..

I called the warranty company and they went out a tech and after arguing with me for almost an hour about it being the convergence he finally agreed that there was a problem. About a day later I got a call from Assurance solutions that "Great news sir we're going to replace your TV with a new one. We've approved you for a 47" Samsung" my response was what you might expect "sooo you're going to give me a smaller TV than what I have now...Yeah..I'm out..." I called NFM and complained and they told me that I could get store credit to buy another TV. I thought OK cool I could get a SWEET TV for the $2800 I spent almost 3 years ago. Not so fast...they only gave me $1200 store credit which wouldn't buy anything close to what I had. I was pissed. I argued with them and went into the store to find what I wanted and to get what I paid for. I read reviews on CNET about the Samsung 56" DLP which I could pick up for around $1600 and get 1080p and all the things I was looking for. I also realized that since TV's had really come down they wouldn't give me all the money I paid before. This I understood, having to argue and negotiate for what I deserved was totally out of the realm of what I thought was good business. Being a Sales Manager at a car dealership, these people would not with negotiations with me. After making my ultimatums I got a Samsung 56" DLP. I thought this was a win for me. 

After spending 4 hours at Nebraska Furniture Mart getting my problems solved, I got the TV home set everything up and the TV itself looked amazing. I liked the idea of the inputs being on the side of the TV vs the back, so easy to get to. One thing I noticed on all of my XBOX or Tivo menus was that the screen was distorted or warped where there was a continuous line across the screen. It was swooping upward on the left side of the screen. I pushed on the screen itself and it was really flimsy and it would distort the picture. There was even a sticker on the top of the TV that tells you not to set anything on top of it to keep from having a poor picture quality. (where do you put your center channel now?) Called Nebraska Furniture Mart and told them what was up (even the TV repair man told me Samsung DLP's SUCK) I took the TV back and got another one, guess what...same problem. My neighbor went and bought the same TV because he had been eyeing it for some time, guess what, same problem. NFM is 25 minutes from my house and I don't own a truck so my dad had to come out from 45 min away to help every time I did this. - thanks dad -

I took the 2nd Samsung back and bitched about wasting 4 hours of my time twice and they gave me a 57" Mitsubishi 1080p. I had to pay $66 difference to upgrade to this TV. I love this TV but I'll say that I am disappointed with the type of inputs. The Samsung ran 1080p over component, but the Mitsubishi only runs 1080i unless you are on HDMI. The picture on this Mitsubishi is freaking amazing. Bright and vibrant and you can adjust all six colors instead of just the RBG like most sets. It's crazy when you are watching football in HD and you can read and make out every detail of the player's tatoos it's so clear.

I strongly recommend spending the extra couple hundred on the service plan on any TV you buy when it comes to HD. Just be prepared to fight if something goes wrong. Keep your cool and if you end up like me, you'll get what you want, it just might take a lot of extra effort you didn't plan on.