fretplaya320 wrote:I work for one of the so-called "big box stores" in the electronics section most of the time. While this is a decent deal, this would easily be one of those things that I'd try to push a service plan on... I've had a couple Emerson things and they're hit or miss... Like Philips.
The Emerson brand used to be great, but it got bought up by a company by the name of Funai that has a habit of snatching up recognizable brand-names and attaching them to crappy, crappy electronic merchandise.
I had an Emerson set from before the HD era that lasted me a good 12 years, and probably would still be working had I not dropped it during a move and broke it clean in half. So, when I was in the market for a new HDTV, I bought a 32 inch Emerson LCDTV, confident that it would live up to the standard of quality that the old set did. I was mistaken. After a mere 6 months of light use, it up and died on me. One day it just refused to turn on, with no forewarning at all.
Funai's comprehensive warranty is only good for a measly 90 days, after which point you're on the hook for...I can't remember if it was parts, labor, or both. I just recall that after contacting Funai and going over some troubleshooting steps that didn't work, I was quoted an estimate for repairs that came to nearly what I'd paid for the TV in the first place. That's when I went online to see if anyone had a fix for the set. I didn't find one, but I did find out that the problem I had with it was distressingly common. That sent me back to Funai's customer service, because I'll be damned if I'm going to spend any amount of money to fix something that appeared to be a long-running, very widespread problem.
After going around and around with Funai's customer service for months trying to at least get them to foot the bill for the repairs, they finally caved and gave me a full refund. However, while the end result was satisfactory, it was a long road to get there, and the whole ordeal was frankly a nightmare. Their customer service folks were rude and unhelpful, and even when they finally gave in and did the right thing, they were still very rude about it.
As an aside, while this is just conjecture, given the large number of complaints on the web about the Emerson brand that were similar to my own, as well as the Funai rep's standoffish attitude when she finally contacted me to offer me the resolution I had been after for months, the refund struck me as being a move that was meant to head off my qualification in a class-action suit should people decide to sue them, rather than being something they did because they finally realized that it's just good, responsible customer service to do it.
Anyway, I would recommend against taking a chance on this set even at its low price. The brand's well-documented history of sucking wind just aint worth the gamble.
