My LG C9 has gone Kaput

[arunkvivek]

I got my LG C9 on 1st Jan 2020. It had a very slow development of dead pixels around the edges (ignorable) over the years. But, this September, i noticed a vertical line of dead pixels. I logged a ticket and found out that they charge around 450 Rs for visit and 1770 Rs for opening up the TV and inspecting the issue. Since, it was the time of Dussehra, i decided to postpone the service for a few weeks and tried the remedies suggested online in various forums (pixel refresh, removing HDMI cable) none worked. Suddenly on one of the days last week, I noticed that there was a series of bubbles on the panel as if panel got blisters. The TV started turning off within 5 mins since yesterday.

I logged a ticket today and got the LG service person attend today. I was expecting at least two guys to come in as it is a 65 inch tv but only one guy turned up. Poor guy had come in the rain all alone. He looked at the panel and said that the panel is dead and TV is getting protection mode. There are more blisters that have come up today. He gave me an approximate cost of Rs.103000/- for replacement. I asked him how he was sure that nothing else was an issue. he said that he has seen a few cases like this. I asked him to open up and inspect it. He asked me to assist in lifting the TV. When I tried to hold it, he started stating don't hold here, don't hold there. I told him if he would take the ownership of any issue since I do not know how to lift the TV The service guy became defensive after that. I asked him how is that top end TV has such a poor quality (just 4.75 years and 12K hours of usage - 7 hrs of average usage). He gave me an analogy of automobiles that all vehicles do not give the same mileage.

I asked him to get one other service personnel so that they can inspect the TV thoroughly (given the other ordeals recorded on the web like bad connectors, soldering and other components) and give a comprehensive quote. Weather is as such bad in Bangalore now and my living room is far more gloomy. I shall log as to how it goes from here.

 

[etios]

You had nearly 5 years with an Organic LED TV which is decent life, tech has only improved in this timeframe, instead of spending another lakh on repairs just get a new 65 inch OLED for 1.20-1.30 Lakh, do not miss the Diwali discounts as the prices go back up after Diwali. Follow this thread: https://www.hifivision.com/threads/oled-tvs-price-best-quote-thread.72267/page-235

 

[sandeepmohan]

I logged a ticket and found out that they charge around 450 Rs for visit and 1770 Rs for opening up the TV and inspecting the issue.

Looks like not having it inspected early on has cost you more now.
Blisters on the panel are beyond repair. Replacement is the only solution.
There is no point arguing with a service technician. He or she did not design or manufacture the TV. Take it up with LG if you must. May be they knock of half the price on the panel and that might be a more viable solution. Your other options is to ask LG to trade the tv for another new one at a discount.

The days of electronics lasting long are far and few in between. Its better to move on instead of getting your blood pressure to levels that are not good for you.

 

[arunkvivek]

You had nearly 5 years with an Organic LED TV which is decent life, tech has only improved in this timeframe, instead of spending another lakh on repairs just get a new 65 inch OLED for 1.20-1.30 Lakh, do not miss the Diwali discounts as the prices go back up after Diwali. Follow this thread: https://www.hifivision.com/threads/oled-tvs-price-best-quote-thread.72267/page-235

I humbly disagree with you. It cannot be called decent life for a top end TV. Not when they claimed that the life of oled panel has increased to 100000 hours in 2016.

 

[arunkvivek]

Looks like not having it inspected early on has cost you more now.
Blisters on the panel are beyond repair. Replacement is the only solution.
There is no point arguing with a service technician. He or she did not design or manufacture the TV. Take it up with LG if you must. May be they knock of half the price on the panel and that might be a more viable solution. Your other options is to ask LG to trade the tv for another new one at a discount.

The days of electronics lasting long are far and few in between. Its better to move on instead of getting your blood pressure to levels that are not good for you.

The panel is deemed to have become terminally ill once the vertical line shows up (as per the technician). Blisters are just the last stage. My concern was that how could he say that nothing else is an issue without opening the TV given that Blisters have come up.

I don't intend to go on a war with LG. What annoys me is that their first line of defence of their device is that you consumers do not use it as it was intended to be. Since the technician starts it as a soft taunt, the oral war triggers up

I like your idea of trading. Whenever the technician comes in, I shall check.

You are absolutely right about having low expectations with electronics nowadays. My Panasonic plasma (in parents room) is having a hearty laugh, going still strong at 27K hours. Irony is that I was thinking that plasma would die soon and I could upgrade it to a smart TV. OLED couldn't survive even half the run.

 

[sandeepmohan]

Blisters are just the last stage. My concern was that how could he say that nothing else is an issue without opening the TV given that Blisters have come up.

Blisters are a physical change to the structure of the panel. Nothing else within the tv causes that. Why rip apart the TV when the issue is seen at the surface. Its a pointless exercise.

Whether you want to go to war with LG is entirely up to you. I don't think it hurts to initiate a conversation (Not go to war) with them and explain your situation. If they don't respond, move on.

Trading is again with LG. Not the technician. You can ask for sure but I don't think he can help.

Plasma's do have a tendency to fail. Heat being the main culprit. Lets just say you're having some luck with the old one.

A friend's Sony led TV failed several times due to power supply issue. When it failed the 4th time, he reached out to Sony who offered a considerable discount for a new TV. While it is annoying to have your TV fail so frequently, they alteast owed up a little and he went with a new one. Its called holding onto a customer. I'm not sure if Sony would do this for everyone. In this instance they did as they knew the power supplies were weak.

 

[Nairrk]

Is it really true that 4 or 5 years is the life for a LED TV? Which means every 4 or 5 years we need to shell out around a lakh or more to buy a new TV?

I have a Samsung LCD 5 series 46" TV which was bought on 2010 August and still going good. Early this year, there was a problem -heard a small sound and then some sort of smoke came out while watching the TV.

We booked for Samsung service guy, and they told me that Rs.500 for a visit and then Rs.1000 for inspection. He will let me know the problem after the inspection and I can decide further.

Whilst, one of my friends suggested a local TV technician who repair all kind of TV's, so I asked to send him. Same day evening he came, open up the back cover and found one capacitor has burned out and some liquid spread over to some other parts/circuit. The technician wanted to take out that particular circuit board and promised to come back by the next day.

As promised, he came next day with the cleaned up circuit board with new capacitor fitted. Connected the circuit board back to my TV and its back to 100pct working condition. He charged me only Rs.1300/- which included the new capacitor and his labor charge.

At that time, I asked his suggestion that how about changing this TV and go for latest LED TV, for which he said a big No. The reason he said was that my present TV is working for all these years and nowadays latest TV's only last for 3 or 4 years. I never believed his words especially what he said that new TV only last for 3 or 4 years.

But now, after reading this thread, I realize what that technician said that day seems to be believed.!

 

[Love4sound]

LG will give 50-60% discount so 50k for a new panel vs a new tv costing upwards of a lakh. 5 years is the maximum life we can expect for TV’s these days with few having the luck of 6-7 years. Claims by companies are just gimmicks and marketing

 

[arunkvivek]

Blisters are a physical change to the structure of the panel. Nothing else within the tv causes that. Why rip apart the TV when the issue is seen at the surface. Its a pointless exercise.

Whether you want to go to war with LG is entirely up to you. I don't think it hurts to initiate a conversation (Not go to war) with them and explain your situation. If they don't respond, move on.

Trading is again with LG. Not the technician. You can ask for sure but I don't think he can help.

Plasma's do have a tendency to fail. Heat being the main culprit. Lets just say you're having some luck with the old one.

A friend's Sony led TV failed several times due to power supply issue. When it failed the 4th time, he reached out to Sony who offered a considerable discount for a new TV. While it is annoying to have your TV fail so frequently, they alteast owed up a little and he went with a new one. Its called holding onto a customer. I'm not sure if Sony would do this for everyone. In this instance they did as they knew the power supplies were weak.

Thanks for your valuable inputs!
Conversation is where I am going to start. I am hoping that customer service is reliable.
Blisters seem to have a pattern. They rise up every 7-10 cms horizontally across the edge of the panel. Hence I suspected a chain reaction of connection cable being shorted. Having read through other LG customer service stories where things did not get fixed after panel was changed, I wanted them to inspect as they are going to anyways open up the TV for fixing panel.

 

[arunkvivek]

LG will give 50-60% discount so 50k for a new panel vs a new tv costing upwards of a lakh. 5 years is the maximum life we can expect for TV’s these days with few having the luck of 6-7 years. Claims by companies are just gimmicks and marketing

You are raising my hope about the discount %.

 

[Love4sound]

You are raising my hope about the discount %.

It’s a lottery. If lucky can even get the panel replaced for free. Reach out to LG

 

[Gfreeman]

The panel is deemed to have become terminally ill once the vertical line shows up (as per the technician). Blisters are just the last stage. My concern was that how could he say that nothing else is an issue without opening the TV given that Blisters have come up.

I don't intend to go on a war with LG. What annoys me is that their first line of defence of their device is that you consumers do not use it as it was intended to be. Since the technician starts it as a soft taunt, the oral war triggers up

I like your idea of trading. Whenever the technician comes in, I shall check.

You are absolutely right about having low expectations with electronics nowadays. My Panasonic plasma (in parents room) is having a hearty laugh, going still strong at 27K hours. Irony is that I was thinking that plasma would die soon and I could upgrade it to a smart TV. OLED couldn't survive even half the run.

Talking about plasmas my V20 from 2010 is still going strong and we know what they would say about them back then in terms of durability

 

[mbhangui]

Talking about plasmas my V20 from 2010 is still going strong and we know what they would say about them back then in terms of durability

My panasonic plasma vt30d from 2012 is still going strong. From what I have read, Panasonic had hired the team that had built the famed Pioneer Kuro Plasma TV. In fact Pioneer sold many of it's patent to Panasonic when it stopped manufacturing plasma

Pioneer Kuro - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[arunkvivek]

My panasonic plasma vt30d from 2012 is still going strong. From what I have read, Panasonic had hired the team that had built the famed Pioneer Kuro Plasma TV. In fact Pioneer sold many of it's patent to Panasonic when it stopped manufacturing plasma

Pioneer Kuro - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Wow, I didn't see this tangential info coming up OLED post. Nice to know the history of plasma

 

[arunkvivek]

Uploaded the pics just in case anybody is curious about the blisters.
@moderators - is it possible to edit my original post to include this pic?

 

[fLUX]

It's a hit or miss in terms of long term durability, I had a panel replacement once in 3 years but otherwise my C7 is going strong so far (*touchwood* ). Been 6 + years now , will be very happy if it lasts another 2-3 years.

 

[arunkvivek]

It's a hit or miss in terms of long term durability, I had a panel replacement once in 3 years but otherwise my C7 is going strong so far (*touchwood* ). Been 6 + years now , will be very happy if it lasts another 2-3 years.

10 years should be a reasonable number

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

You are raising my hope about the discount %.

My father paid 70k in 2011 for a LG LED tv. During the warranty period the power supply board went bad and after fixing it, out of the warranty period it had problems with the mainboard twice and we paid for repairs. However at the end of 4th year, they said they do not have the boards anymore and therefore no further repair was possible. We contacted the customer support and after lot of arguments, the best we could get was 20,000 Rupees back from them. I would call that a win. I would not go for a panel replacement as it would not come with a warranty and again. the same thing can happen. The best bet is to get some compensation from LG and get a new tv. Is your house generally humid? Do you have a living room which has a kitchen attached to it, with kept open doors? Lot of humidity can damage OLEDs easily.

 

[Donivlapog]

Its an opportunity to go 77". 77" oled had a price tag of 5.5 lakhs upwards a few years ago. Now it is just 3L ish. So salvage something for this and go 77 if u are keen on an oled upgrade.

 

[arunkvivek]

My father paid 70k in 2011 for a LG LED tv. During the warranty period the power supply board went bad and after fixing it, out of the warranty period it had problems with the mainboard twice and we paid for repairs. However at the end of 4th year, they said they do not have the boards anymore and therefore no further repair was possible. We contacted the customer support and after lot of arguments, the best we could get was 20,000 Rupees back from them. I would call that a win. I would not go for a panel replacement as it would not come with a warranty and again. the same thing can happen. The best bet is to get some compensation from LG and get a new tv. Is your house generally humid? Do you have a living room which has a kitchen attached to it, with kept open doors? Lot of humidity can damage OLEDs easily.

My living room is away from kitchen and is not humid. It is pretty dry and have good ventilation on all sides.