Another area of concern which I see happening quite often is when consumers try to order parts based on the TV symptoms and subsequent advice and diagnosis by online blogs, web pages, phone calls etc.. While I understand and appreciate that the consumer is trying to save money, they often end up spending much more money than they would have if they sought out advice from a professional service center. Here are some issues with which the consumer is confronted when trying “do it yourself” repairs:
1) The specific parts that are inside of your TV set may not be consistent. Yes, even though you have the correct model number, the parts inside the TV may differ, depending on the date of production. We service centers are constantly fighting problems with identifying the correct parts inside of the new TV’s. It is commonplace to obtain a part # from the manufacturers service manual, order the part only to receive a part that does not belong inside this TV. Recent manufacturing production techniques done by some manufacturers does not adequately account for production changes during the manufacturing of model specific television sets. The consumer needs to find out before purchasing any TV repair parts, if the parts are returnable. If the parts are returnable, they should ask if they will be charged a restocking fee? Ultimately, at the bare minimum, the consumer will be paying for shipping charges,not only for the original purchase, but also for the return of the wrong parts which can be expensive.
2) Another common problem I see is with the purchasing of LCD and DLP projection lamps. The lamps in these products will last from one to three years, depending on usage. Consumers need to be aware that not all lamps are created equal. It is very common for parts vendors to cross reference the lamp assembly that is used in your TV to a bare lamp. While this is acceptable for a professional technician it can be overwhelming when the average consumer tries to install the lamp into their old housing or lamp cage. Return policies on most lamps can be really strict so, please, be careful before purchasing the lamp. This purchase could turn out to be a very expensive mistake. Not only can there be physical dissimilarities, there is also a problem with quality dissimilarities. There are a tremendous amount of poor quality knockoffs available for purchasing. The purchase of a replacement lamp can turn into a perfect example of “penny wise and dollar foolish”.