Epson Projector Nighmare - Happy Ending

[kinda]

Hello, Hoping someone may be able to provide the benefit of their experience in a similar situation. I have an Epson TW EH3500 and I've been pretty pleased with it over almost 3 years. However, I started to notice inconsistency in whites, with pretty bad leaning toward pink on the right hand side of the screen and blue on the left, and also a buzzing noise. Epson were great, with no quibbling, and arranged to have the projector picked up and repaired under the 3 year warranty. However, this is really where the good news stops. The first return was terrible with dark colour consistency particulalry a big browner patch in the bottom right corner, and the noise was still there. The second repair still had noise, a scratched focusing ring, and redder patch in dark scenes in the bottom left corner. I protested quite a bit and they made sure the service centre were aware of all issues, focused on it, and so on, but the third return while it has no noise and dark cinsistency is acceptable has a blue tint to white and neutral colours in the top left, and similar to pink in the top right. It's most noticeable on black and white material really. It also has a small scrsthc on the top of the case now, Bearing in mind each time I have to take down and package the projector, wait all day for a collection / return and put it back up again. I am now being offered a replacement projector, but this would be one that has been returned with a fault and repaired, and so far they can give me no reason why this might be of better quality than the one i currently have, so I'm not inclined to take it unless they can provide some assurances, as I may end up wit a worse projector, and if they can't then they are failing to meet the warranty. Citizens advice have said I could then follow up but probably with the retailer first, which seems a bit unfair, and try to get costs toward a proper repair and so on, or show the product is not fit for purpose, but it all sounds lengthy and uncertain. So, if anyione has been in a similar position, and got a good outcome, I'd be really grateful to hear how you tackled it. Or alternatvel, am I expecting too much performance from a projector? I'd be disappointed if i am as my little fairly budget 26" Samsun LCD TV and even a very budget Vistron aLCD TV at work son't seem to have these kinds of issues. Thanks, Ian.

 

[bretty]

Just going off that you say that you'd had the projector for nearly 3 years before the first problems; couldn't it have been that the lamp needed replacing? Older projectors didnt have a great lifespan. My projector, though newer than yours, is a fairly budget model and has a life of 4000 hours maximum, before replacing.

Maybe accept the replacement projector that they are offering you, then sell it and use the dosh to get yourself a newer model? £1000 gets you brilliant performance, these days. Mine was just under that and the performance is, to me, amazing. No chicken wire, no rainbow effect; its just like having a 106" full HD tv in your living room!

Let us know how you get on, matey.

 

[kinda]

Thanks. The lamp is also under a 3 year warranty so hopefully any issues would have been spotted. But given the inconsistencies in colour are different for each return would expect isn;t the lamp. Plus it only has about 700 gours on it and should be OK for 4000.

The thing is the refurbished replacement would be one that someone else has returned and gone through the same fixing process and tests as mine. Given the issues I've had with the fixes I just can't see why having someone else's problematic projector is bretter than my own. If it is OK why hasn't it gone back to them?

Anyway the upshot at the moment is I said I wasn't happy having someone else's and that I tohught thy'd had ample opportunity to fix it and was going to progress a formal complaint. They then gave me a reference number to go back to the retailer with for a refund / replacement.

The retailer are in contact with Epson and understand the issues but haven't heard anything for a couple of days, (too much on to chase up at the moment but will early next week).

I'll se what happens but if I have to have a refund / different projector I'm struggling to see good ones for around 1500 that have lens shift and I need that.

 

[kinda]

Changed the title to reflect the outcome.

With reference to the issues above Epson eventually provided me with a brand new (including lamp) EH-TW8100 with 6 months warranty, which is virtually their top of the range projector missing only minor tweaks from the range topper. I didn't push for this, they went away for a week or so to consider the issues and this is what they came up with, (I think going up the range may have been influenced by my old model having lens shift).

Anyway, you can't say fairer than that really, and it seems a cracking perfomer.

So although the repair part of the warranty service wasn't great in this case, in the end Epson have more than met their reponsibilities with respect of he warranty.