Considering a new TV? Beware the Vizio

[Thorin]

Here's a scary Reddit thread about a guy who plugged a USB cable into a USB port and his dead phone, and ended up frying the motherboard.  Of course, Vizio refused to help him at all at first.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/m16fd/i_kind_of_broke_my_friends_42_vizio_hdtv_someone/

Some of the commenters described the location and fragility of this USB port on the TV equivalent to a two meter exhaust port on a certain Death Star...

[Lazybones]

That sucks, I have seen so many positive things about Vizio..

[Tom]

[?]lev00r 21 points 2 months ago
One day my visio 28 inch didnt turn on and it was only like a week old. Perfect condition. But my mom, and angry foreign lady, went back to walmart and got another one for me in exchange for the junked one. Just tell them you have no idea what happened

[?]chompchomp88 8 points 2 months ago
sounds like something my angry foreign mother would do.
angry foreign mothers are the scariest.

Hah.

That sucks, I have seen so many positive things about Vizio..

It looks like its a feature of old cheap models, and may not exist on current ones. Also, its a /service/ port on the back of the tv that you probably shouldn't touch. AND the dude got it worked out with vizio. actually sent a guy out. Fairly impressive. I really doubt you'll see Sony, Samsung, Toshiba or anyone else do that. Especially for a 2 year old TV.

[Thorin]

1. Pretty poor placement of a DO NOT TOUCH port
2. Most people do not equate "Service Port" with DO NOT TOUCH
3. There's another thread on Reddit about a guy who just touched the port while trying to plug into the HDMI port right next to it.  See http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/m16fd/i_kind_of_broke_my_friends_42_vizio_hdtv_someone/c2x8xuu
4. At first, Vizio customer support refused to do anything for him - check the chat screen shots and read all the updates.  Vizio refused to admit it's a problem, even though on newer TVs they cover the port because it's a problem
5. After posting on Reddit, a very helpful Redditor called his connections - this most likely led to the callback from Brent at Vizio.  See http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/m16fd/i_kind_of_broke_my_friends_42_vizio_hdtv_someone/c2x8spc.  So don't expect this kind of customer support if you don't know someone who works or worked at Vizio

I will say that I am impressed that someone at Vizio finally decided to help him and get it fixed.  However, it's pretty obvious to me that this didn't happen until after he complained on a public forum about their absolute refusal to help him.  The other post I linked also doesn't get any help getting his unit fixed under warranty until he threatened small claims court, and even then they only offered to sell him re-certified TV "at a discount".

Anyway, I think Paul Christoforo could get a job at least in first-line tech support.  It sounds like he'd fit right in with hanging up on customers and refusing to help them and all that.

[Tom]

1. Pretty poor placement of a DO NOT TOUCH port
2. Most people do not equate "Service Port" with DO NOT TOUCH
3. There's another thread on Reddit about a guy who just touched the port while trying to plug into the HDMI port right next to it.  See http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/m16fd/i_kind_of_broke_my_friends_42_vizio_hdtv_someone/c2x8xuu
4. At first, Vizio customer support refused to do anything for him - check the chat screen shots and read all the updates.  Vizio refused to admit it's a problem, even though on newer TVs they cover the port because it's a problem
5. After posting on Reddit, a very helpful Redditor called his connections - this most likely led to the callback from Brent at Vizio.  See http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/m16fd/i_kind_of_broke_my_friends_42_vizio_hdtv_someone/c2x8spc.  So don't expect this kind of customer support if you don't know someone who works or worked at Vizio

I will say that I am impressed that someone at Vizio finally decided to help him and get it fixed.  However, it's pretty obvious to me that this didn't happen until after he complained on a public forum about their absolute refusal to help him.  The other post I linked also doesn't get any help getting his unit fixed under warranty until he threatened small claims court, and even then they only offered to sell him re-certified TV "at a discount".

Anyway, I think Paul Christoforo could get a job at least in first-line tech support.  It sounds like he'd fit right in with hanging up on customers and refusing to help them and all that.

Ah, I read the updates and they all looked fairly decent. But I guess I didn't read far enough. Ah well. Still though at least they ended up taking care of it. Some companies wouldn't even after the flames.