Loud buzzing from 42GT30

[laserman16]

QC is certainly an issue but perhaps we as consumers shouldn't be as surprised by this because when you are dealing in high volumes issues are bound to occur but i would say that the frequency of issues of late would point to QC issues and that too many bad examples are getting through the net.

I wonder if the QC issues that certain manufacturers are experiencing are actually known about but are being ignored and they are chancing their arm by pushing the sets out and hoping no one will notice.

Also I wonder how many "defective" sets are in homes where the owner has not noticed any problem or think that what they are seeing/hearing is "normal".

 

[StanleyAV]

@Laserman16 You won't be surprised about the times I and others have heard 'you're the
only person to have complained about this' passing the lips of Panasonic customer service people!!

I do know that Philips is aware of issues with its sets and actively does something about it!
Strange that my dealer remarks they are the most problematic of TVs!??

 

[Oldboy]

OldBoy,

Still awaiting a considered response from dealer, they did chase Panasonic, who were none too helpful.
Their boss gets back today. Latest from Panasonic after complaining to their European CEO, was for
someone from their Legal and International affairs manager, to advise me to go to a local service centre!! :O

They don't half take the biscuit! Their grasp of how to deal with badly upset customers defies reason. :shame:

Note Mr king who posted on here was messed around badly, several board replacements on his
Panasonic Z1 TV which failed to fix the issue. The he had to fight for a refund, which he eventually got.

I have no wish to go through the motions of an attempted repair before finally hitting the crunch
moment that Mr King had with them! :silenced:

I know full well other corporations know how to roll out the red carpet and put things right when a
customer has been through acute aggravation with service or product.

I can put Microsoft in this category and in times past Sony (who once offered me a 15" replacement
for a 14" PC monitor I had trouble with.) I am even hearing goods things at Philips and their flagship
TV where customers have had bother.

If Clare or my dealer can work miracles! ray: Then make it so........

Must admit Richer Sounds are a credit to the retail sector and have replaced my tv without question every time to make me a happy customer so good retailers are out there!

It's a fact that panasonics customer service is not well regarded on these forums and i've read many threads complaining of poor service but it seems to be hit or miss as i've also read some praise for their customer services and when i rang them about the buzzing in my 2nd GT30 they couldn't have been more clear or helpful and i was able to go back to my retailer with confidence that the tv had an issue. Credit where it's due as in this case the advice i received was very helpful and invaluable but your case just goes to show the exact polar opposites that exist within panasonic customer services.

It's at least heartening to hear that someone else did eventually get a resolution to a very similar position as yourself but perhaps you should consider going through the motions with panasonic? Just a thought as just getting some movement now would be a step forward for you after such a long wait, i feel the clock is ticking as your warranty is running out quickly now despite the initial contact being some time ago now.

I totally understand and sympathise with your position and can understand your reluctance to go through the motions but perhaps it's worth giving them the opportunity to repair the tv as i'm quite sure that it's their right to do so according to the t&c's in the warranty, but on the other hand, after having 7 faulty tvs i can well appreciate you thinking that panasonic should go a little further in helping you...it's a delicate and difficult situation to be in and i don't envy you

 

[Oldboy]

QC is certainly an issue but perhaps we as consumers shouldn't be as surprised by this because when you are dealing in high volumes issues are bound to occur but i would say that the frequency of issues of late would point to QC issues and that too many bad examples are getting through the net.

I wonder if the QC issues that certain manufacturers are experiencing are actually known about but are being ignored and they are chancing their arm by pushing the sets out and hoping no one will notice.

Also I wonder how many "defective" sets are in homes where the owner has not noticed any problem or think that what they are seeing/hearing is "normal".

Exactly!

Unless you have prior knowledge then it's very possible that many sub standard sets are in peoples homes and are indeed thought of as the normal standard. For example, i wonder how many GT30 plasmas are buzzing like a wasp in a tin can just like the one i received and that it's thought of as normal?

Unless you know that a plasma buzzing like that is not normal i can well imagine people out there considering it normal and never returning it, let's face it not everyone is familiar with tv tech and so many issues could go un checked!

 

[Oldboy]

@Laserman16 You won't be surprised about the times I and others have heard 'you're the
only person to have complained about this' passing the lips of Panasonic customer service people!!

I do know that Philips is aware of issues with its sets and actively does something about it!
Strange that my dealer remarks they are the most problematic of TVs!??

I was told exactly that when i phoned panasonic customer services last year about the IR i was getting on my G20 plasma...then on this years models there is suddenly options in the menus to deal with IR, is that a coincidence i wonder??

 

[StanleyAV]

@Oldboy I am in negotiation with my dealer, I can't say too much until I am done.

I don't have to rely on the farce of Panasonic UK's aftersales; I will see if I can get an intelligent
response from my last email which spelled out why the TV can't be repaired, but will not hold my breathe.

I do think I would have suffered a bigger headache (is that possible? :? ) if I had gone down the
repair route earlier rather than wait for a either a software update or investigation. I'm not
sure you could call it luck that another owner's woes precipitated an investigation.

You would appreciate that after 11 months of strife, whether it be refund or TV exchange, that holds
little compensation for the stress and inconvenience suffered during that term of ownership and
the previous disasters I've had the misfortune to own.

I will keep you updated.

 

[Oldboy]

StanleyAV,

That sounds like there may now be light at the end of the tunnel for you, i really hope so as you have been through quite enough up to this point! I look forward to some good news and will keep my fingers crossed for you.

I doubt you will get much of a response from panasonic to your last contact no matter how well you argued your case, it seems they are just unwilling to even enter into a dialogue with you which is of course pathetic and not what a customer service department should be doing to it's customers.

I can of course appreciate that either a refund or exchange won't distill the bitter taste left by this whole debacle but if you were to get either it would at least see an end to your issue and let you start a fresh, any resolution at this point most be welcomed no? You have had a rough time of it though and i'm wondering if just like myself the tv gods have just decided to pick on you but i sincerely hope that after this you get a tv you are happy with and that is working correctly with no faults and no need to contact any customer services departments.

Of course you could go back to panasonic and persue some compensation for all your strife but i think we both know how that would end!

I look forward to some good news from you in the near future.

Very best regards,

Oldboy.

 

[laserman16]

@Laserman16 You won't be surprised about the times I and others have heard 'you're the
only person to have complained about this' passing the lips of Panasonic customer service people!!

I do know that Philips is aware of issues with its sets and actively does something about it!
Strange that my dealer remarks they are the most problematic of TVs!??

I remember speaking to the manager in my local Sony Centre some time after the backlighting issue came to the fore and his words to me were along the lines of " not something we have ever had a problem with and I don't believe the problem even exists".

 

[Anonymous]

Laserman16

Ahhhhh that old chestnut I have heard the a few times too so annoying.

 

[Oldboy]

@Laserman16 You won't be surprised about the times I and others have heard 'you're the
only person to have complained about this' passing the lips of Panasonic customer service people!!

I do know that Philips is aware of issues with its sets and actively does something about it!
Strange that my dealer remarks they are the most problematic of TVs!??

I remember speaking to the manager in my local Sony Centre some time after the backlighting issue came to the fore and his words to me were along the lines of " not something we have ever had a problem with and I don't believe the problem even exists".

+1 for that! I got stung with the backlight issues in 09 and the sony centre were adamant that they had never had a tv come back because of clouding but they soon had once i had returned 3 of them with ever increasing levels of backlight clouding. On the last occasion i made them test the tv in the store on a busy saturday in front of all the customers as they were not willing to give me a refund on the tv, when it was setup and turned on everyone in the store could see it wasn't right and all they could say was 'that's certainly not right, you must have just been really unlucky with the tvs you received'.

I came prepared for such a reaction and promptly showed them the WHF review which pointed out the problem with the review sample....silence rained but i got my refund

 

[laserman16]

@Laserman16 You won't be surprised about the times I and others have heard 'you're the
only person to have complained about this' passing the lips of Panasonic customer service people!!

I do know that Philips is aware of issues with its sets and actively does something about it!
Strange that my dealer remarks they are the most problematic of TVs!??

I remember speaking to the manager in my local Sony Centre some time after the backlighting issue came to the fore and his words to me were along the lines of " not something we have ever had a problem with and I don't believe the problem even exists".

+1 for that! I got stung with the backlight issues in 09 and the sony centre were adamant that they had never had a tv come back because of clouding but they soon had once i had returned 3 of them with ever increasing levels of backlight clouding. On the last occasion i made them test the tv in the store on a busy saturday in front of all the customers as they were not willing to give me a refund on the tv, when it was setup and turned on everyone in the store could see it wasn't right and all they could say was 'that's certainly not right, you must have just been really unlucky with the tvs you received'.

I came prepared for such a reaction and promptly showed them the WHF review which pointed out the problem with the review sample....silence rained but i got my refund

Its almost as if they have the attitude of " if we bury our heads in the sand the problem will quietly go away ".

 

[Clare Newsome]

To be fair, I think Sony has learnt from that - hence the very frank statement re the potential for 'HX923 non-uniformity.

 

[laserman16]

To be fair, I think Sony has learnt from that - hence the very frank statement re the potential for 'HX923 non-uniformity.

Clare, I actually meant the staff in the Sony centre at the time rather than Sony itself at the present time.

Apologies for not being very clear about that.

 

[Oldboy]

To be fair, I think Sony has learnt from that - hence the very frank statement re the potential for 'HX923 non-uniformity.

Clare, I actually meant the staff in the Sony centre at the time rather than Sony itself at the present time.

Apologies for not being very clear about that.

Agreed, my comments were aimed at the Sony Centre but also Sony customer services who i also contacted when i had the clouding issue. They also sang the same tune as the sony centre and said that they had had no instances of backlight clouding atall with the model of tv i purchased...it's as if they all received an internal memo stating what Sonys official response would be to the issue because the conversation was uncannily familiar!

Of course i may be completely wrong in that assumption but it is far too much of a coincidence that the responses were the same almost word for word.

 

[strapped for cash]

Sony aren't the only offenders in this sense. Even if a problem's acknowledged it doesn't automatically follow that manufacturers and retailers are prepared to do anything about it (think Panasonic and rising black levels on 2009 plasmas, for example).

Fortunately, you bought your GT30 from a retailer that understands the meaning of aftersales and doesn't treat its customers with contempt once the money's handed over and they've left the store. Thumbs up to Richer Sounds.

 

[Oldboy]

Yep as i've stated previously in this thread Richer Sounds simply couldn't have done much more to help in my case and are a shining example of how a retailer should operate and their reputation for customer service was the overwhelming reason i purchased my tv from there despite it being freely available for less outlay at a large number of other retailers, in the end the slight extra cost was far out weighed by the service i received :clap:

I know all manufacturers have their faults but some are worse than others in my experience and the way Sony went about responding to the clouding issues was very poor indeed as simply not aknowledging a problem is no way to respond now is it? As clare stated earlier it would at least seem that Sony has learnt it's lesson somewhat but it's response to a potential issue with the HX923 has been a little vague, but at least this time they have aknowledged a potential issue.

At the other end of the scale i received good customer service with the IR issues i had with my panasonic G20 plasma last year and panasonic were quick to act and attempt a repair although the service centre were slow to attempt the repair and panasonic stepped in and gave them a hurry up, they couldn't have done much more. Some people have had poor service from panasonic but i've had little to complain about when compared to sony.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I too have experienced louder than expected buzzing from my 42GT30.

I purchased the Pan 42GT30 approx a month ago and whilst it was not immediately noticeable there also seems to be some motion handling/colour problems specifically with horizontal moving shots. This is fairly subtle but certainly not correct when comparing to my old LCD hooked up to the same sources.

Any medium to fast horizontal panning shots whether watching sky HD or playing an FPS on an xbox360 exhibit slight juddering and a strange motion blurring effect that gives the impression of a green kind of ghosting. I have attempted configuring the settings differently (turning off image processing and adjusting the colour settings etc) but it is still noticeable.

Would anybody have a suggestion or should I simply contact Panasonic and request a replacement?

Cheers

 

[Oldboy]

Col_33,

Well the buzzing can be a fault with the power supply or transformer in many instances and is considered a fault according to panasonic customer services, if you can still hear the buzzing when the tv is at 1/3rd volume then it's definately not right and indicates a potential issue.

My GT30 was exchanged and the new one only has a very slight hum that can't be heard atall under normal volume levels and is what i expected from a plasma tv, it's a totally different pitch in tone and doesn't grate or annoy atall, you can only hear it when the tv is at very low volume levels.

As for the juddering you are experiencing all i can say is my tv shows no sign of the issue atall and any sort of blurring doesn't sound right to me as my tv is silky smooth with motion no matter what the source is, there is absolutely no ghosting or blurring of any kind and i too use my tv for fps gaming (addicted to rounds of COD).

Personally i would say the tv needs to be looked at by your retailer or returned depending on your retailers t&c's of purchase and guarantee as it simply doesn't sound like it is functioning correctly to me as mine is simply spot on with no issues atall.

It's bad news that yet another GT30 has issues, i really hope this doesn't point to issues in manufacture but i would definately advise you to contact your retailer about the issues and discuss your options.

Hope that is of some help to you.