Two years ago - I bought a very expensive (for me) 50 inch Ambilight TV. It was when that cargo ship got stuck in the Panama canal. At least that was the excuse Amazon used for not shipping it to me for two months.ANYWAY. I wake up this morning... and the screen is dead. There's sound but no vision. I did all the usual error seeking and checks... I unplugged all the cables. I left the power cord out for anything from a minute to half an hour... and still nothing. This is pretty impressive effort on my behalf as I am disabled.Taking a torch (a flashlight... although I wouldn't mind taking a torch to Philips...) I could see vague outlines of what was supposed to be there. Aha. Great. I have a diagnosis of a blown backlight.So I waited until Philips Support got up for work and spoke to a thoroughly unhelpful person who told me they couldn't help. What they could do was provide me with the phone number of Equinnox (his spelling) who do their out of warranty repairs.I tried a different tack and told him I was disabled... I told him of the fortune I had spent on other ambilight Gizmo's to go with my TV... and I kept to myself that Equinnox sounded like some kind of Softcore Porn Filmaker...He said there was nothing he could do. I then asked if there were any jobs going in his department as sitting at a desk saying no to people all day and referring them to someone else might be a job I could handle. Or you could more or less remove from your Excessive Payroll next time you get the management consultants in. I'll take 10% for that idea if anyone from Philips Management Team is reading this.I also asked him if there was any other way other than phone that I could contact Equinnox because of my disability.He said No.He then prematurely and rather rudely ended the chat session before I could ask anything else.So I then had to call Equinnox. I spoke to a lovely sounding girl who informed me that they did NOT in fact take orders over the phone. Like Customer Service from Philips didn't actually direct me to when specifically asked. She said that I needed to email them at admin.equinox.co.uk ... I queried the spelling of that because the bloke from Philips told me Equinnox... which I told the girl sounded more like a Swedish softcore porn outfit.At this point my wife told me off.So that is my story thus far.What we learn from this is DO NOT buy a Philips 50 inch Ambilight TV because it'll break in two years.We also learn that their Customer Service is not only rude it is also incorrect and should be the first up against the wall when the management consultants come in. They gave me the wrong information and it turns out that when I asked for a disabled option - the one I was told doesn't exist is the only one Equinox actually use for this sort of thing.Just a special plea to Philips here. When you do fire that idiot - can I do it please? It may save the tears of someone on your side of the organisation whereas I will gladly do it for only a small consideration and any travel costs incurred.More to follow I expect.AND there is more to follow. Whilst I was emailing Equinox... I idly started Googling for other repairers who might be local and do a cheap job... but instead I came across The Consumer Rights Act 2015.This is interesting insomuch as it specifically uses televisions as an example of an appliance that should have a reasonable lifetime of at least three years. Regardless of warranties.In order to do the next bit... you have to be prepared to batten down the hatches and stand a firm ground... but if you approach the retailer with whom you bought the TV from regardless of Warranty - if it broke and it wasn't your fault... you are entitled to refund, repair or replacement. Neither should you have to pay for any shipping of the item wherever it ends up.In a nutshell. I got my money back from the retailer. Despite many instances of, "The Computer Says No." Stand your ground and be firm. It's what the CRA 2015 was invented for.
