Remember Mark, the gentleman who paid $200 to repair a Hitachi TV, only to see it immediately break again? Of course you don’t, because we posted his story three months ago.

Well, now he writes in with a happy ending. That is, happy in the sense that the Hundred Years’ War had a happy ending once it finally ended. Now that we’re in the future utopia known as October, Hitachi has finally gotten around to making things right with Mark. He writes:

I’m sending you this follow up to the thread below, which you were kind enough to post on The Consumerist. Recapping the thread:

We bought a refurb Hitachi LCD TV from UEC Web. It broke a couple of months after the 90 day warranty expired. A local repair firm – Leader TV – “fixed” it, but it broke again 2 weeks later. Leader said they’d try to fix it again, or they’d take it off our hands, paying us $200 (which was the cost of the repair). At that point, we thought we had no choice but to sell it to them, because we sure didn’t want to keep pouring money into this thing.

Roughly 3 months later, this story has a happier ending, and I’m writing to pass along kudos to Hitachi and UEC. I’ll try to condense this:

Hitachi contacted us (coincidentally, as far as I can tell) the morning that Leader was going to pick up the TV. They told us to hold off on dumping the TV – they’d see what they could do for us. We were skeptical, but felt we had nothing to lose by waiting. Fast forward 3 months later, to late last week, and we’ve got a credit on our credit card from UEC for the amount of the original purchase! Hitachi asked for, and we sent, the serial number plate from the TV, and the original purchase documentation, but other than that, I can say they were more than reasonable to deal with. They did a reasonably good job of keeping us informed along the way, though I’m sure there was room for improvement in that process. At this point, clearly, that’s a nitpick.

Bottom lines:

Would I buy a Hitachi product again? Yes, I would.

Would I buy from UEC Web again? Yes, I would, but I would also make sure to buy an extended warranty from a third party company.

Would I patronize or recommend Leader TV? Absolutely not.

It’s probably an effective yet sinister corporate policy to wait several months before repairing products. You’ll likely cut down on expenses because customers will just give up, and the few who persist get the satisfaction of a long battle well fought.

(Photo: topcad)

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