Customers Upset About Defective Toshiba DLP Televisions

Flint MIThe complaints are pouring in to LawyersandSettlements from customers who are unhappy about the short lifespan of their defective Toshiba television sets. Specifically, they are upset that the bulbs in the set burn out much more quickly than they were supposed to. Some customers say they even had to pay for replacement bulbs themselves, even though the warranty on their televisions had not expired.

Greg B. purchased his 52-inch Toshiba television in May 2005. He says that since that time, they have had to replace the bulb on the television three times. The first time the bulb quit working was just over a year after they bought the television. A new part was ordered and the bulb was replaced. Then, around 16 months later the bulb went out again. Yet again a new bulb was ordered and it was replaced. Then, on December 22, 2007, the bulb went out a third time. The part was not replaced until January 10, 2008.

Luckily, Greg's wife purchased the extended warranty, so Greg says they did not have pay for replacement bulbs. However, the process of having a bulb replaced can be a pain. Furthermore, the whole time Greg still had to pay his cable bill, even though he was without his television.

"In the past, Toshiba was regarded with good dependability," Greg says. "This is the first time I have seen something like this going on. The bulbs are supposed to last 5,000 to 6,000 hours on average. We were repeatedly short of that by about 4,500 hours.

"We waited over two weeks to have the television fixed this time. And, we were still paying the cable bill. That's two weeks of cable you can't use it for. The hard part is the time involved in trying to get this fixed. It takes two weeks—they have to come and diagnose the problem, then go and order the part because they don't keep it in stock. Then they have to come back to replace the part. It's rough scheduling times during the week to get it fixed."

Greg is not the only person upset about his Toshiba television. Daniel P. (not his real name) also purchased a 52-inch Toshiba television in May 2005. He says he did a lot of research on televisions to make sure he made an informed decision. Daniel says that he knew bulb life was an issue in such televisions, so he researched that topic as well and discovered that bulbs in Toshiba televisions were meant to last between 6,000 and 8,000 hours.

Daniel says that he got just over 1,300 hours out of his television before the bulb burned out. "I watched it a lot at first," Daniel says. "But that television is downstairs, so I bought a smaller HD LDC set for my bedroom, which is the television I watched more often. The one downstairs did not get as much use. But I was watching the set one day in December [2007] and I heard a noise that kind of sounded like a snap. Then the screen went black. I had the extended warranty on it, so some repair people were sent and they determined that the bulb had shattered—there was broken glass inside the television. I had considerably fewer hours than Toshiba had stated as their average hours for the bulb."

Even though he had an extended warranty, Daniel says he was still charged for a replacement bulb--$213.93. He says that at the time, he accepted the problem as the luck of the draw, paid for the bulb and left the issue alone. It was not until he was notified by a friend that Toshiba had an ongoing bulb problem that he looked into the issue further.

Having an item not work the way it is supposed to is an especially frustrating experience. Having to pay for that item to be fixed even after having purchased an extended warranty can be even more aggravating. Replacing the same item three times in a span in which it should not have broken at all is ridiculous, especially when a lot of money was paid for an item that was thought to be good quality. Unfortunately, these are all issues that many people who bought Toshiba television sets are complaining about.

Some customers, frustrated over their experience, are now investigating a lawsuit against Toshiba alleging the company misrepresented the average lifespan of the bulbs in some of its television sets.