Sony Wega KV-AZ212M83 - RISKY Buy. Review on Sony Wega 21'

Till date I had gr8 trust for Sony products and I chose Wega over Panasonic TV... perhaps I was wrong in my decision!

I had bought KV-AZ212M83 from Sony World, Marthahalli on 22nd Oct 2006 and since then I have been on the receiving end of both poor quality TV and equally poor quality, if not worse, service.

Here is the excerpt from the mail I had sent to Sony customer care(?) for with I never got any response till date...

Here are the problems I am having with the TV :-

1) The picture is tilted horizontally downwards to right corner. Almost 1 inch vertical picture is lost on the right corner. This problem gets worse on news channels. I would rather call this as "SLANT" than "TILT" due to its magnitude!

2) There is a horizontal black line running over the screen in bottom half which is clearly visible in "Vivid" mode even from 6 feet when there are non dark patches on the TV screen. In case of plain screen ( e.g., wallpaper from PC connected to S-Video), this line is visible even in lowest brightness mode.

Both of these problems are very irritating and I am sure, there is some problem with my TV set, but you service guys keep telling me "These are Normal with ALL Sony Wega TVs".

Again, I got the call today from yourself (Mr Dilipan) repeating the same things! I wonder if you are so confident that the consumers are fools?

But I got another confirmation from one of my friends who has Sony WEGA 25 Inch TV, that "His TV doesn't have the black horizontal line problem". Perhaps your service guys are are defaming Sony products then? Your competitors must be feeling safe!

Further, I hope your service guy does his duty and fixes BOTH the problems. Again, as I said earlier, the tilt may be natural if it is 'small' and is observed only in certain positions, not all the positions. Till then I cannot say the problem is fixed. Also, as we discussed, I want a written statement from the authority from Sony that these problems (TV, not the service) "Are normal and can be seen in ALL Sony Wega 21 Inch FLAT TV models including KV-AZ212M83". I would prefer, if this statement is provided to me, duly signed, on Sony letterhead.

I also hope that you atleast convince me these problems are common by showing some Sony TVs in the showroom as you assured me over the phone.

Examples of poor service I have received from Sony till date :-

1) I had registered with the "tilt" problem, on 2nd Nov. On Saturday your guy comes up to my home and when I show him the problem, he says "I had come only for Demo... I can't fix this problem". Then he asks me to call your customer care(?) again for a "new" complaint! He goes on to say it may take next week for the problem to be actually attended. Already lost my Saturday time, I call the center again for the new request.

2) I got a call within 2 days alright and I informed about my availability after 6:15 pm on weekdays. Then again I don't get any contact till Thursday so I called again 'requesting' the person to come on Saturday (11th).

3) Your person comes home and floods me with jargon like "Geomagnetic field" etc and says the tilt is a "normal" thing. An internet search already has given me enough knowledge that the tilt problem is rare (looks like only Sony has that problem) but acceptable if it is within limits like below half centimeter. But I show your guy that my TV has 1 INCH tilt (it is "SLANT" rather than "TILT"). This guy still takes it lightly and just rotate my TV in 90 degrees (can you imagine... towards the wall!) and says "Look! the 'tilt' is reduced!!". I am surprised at such shamelessness when the 'tilt' is still around 1 1/2 Centimeters. Here, I must agree that a small 'tilt' is bearable and the geomagnetic stuff is applicable, when the tilt is zeroed at list in one position when the TV is rotated in 360 degrees. This was not the case with my TV and when I pointed the same to your service guy, he kept on saying (rather arrogantly) "It is Normal".

4) Then this guy goes ahead to service menu and uses "vertical compression" so that "I could see news scrollers"... such a shame!

5) Then I had to tell me about the possibility of misaligned yoke on which he finally agrees and agrees to my requirement that "In atleast one position the tilt should be removed" - this too as if he was talking to a novice and as if he was doing a great favour on me!

6) I got the same treatment when I shown him the black line running horizontally on the screen. At first he rejected my claim, even insulting my comments... then I connected S-Video to show him the plain wallpaper with atleast 1 mm black horizontal line.

7) Then this guy agrees and says (same shameful manner...) "This is Normal... a few TVs can have this problem and its not really visible". When I say him I don't want to be the one with one of those 'few' TVs.. he says "This is Normal and ALL Sony WEGA TVs have this 'feature'".

8) Then I ask him to get me these "Normal Sony TV features" in written, he says he will take the TV and confirm with other Sony TVs at service center, rejecting my observation that previously I had a 14 inch flat tv without any of these 2 problems!

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14Nov06 1920hrs - Small update :- Just now the same arrogant Sony service agent had come and when I told him that "my friend's 25 inch Wega doesn't have black line on screen" he said - "25 inch tv won't have black line due to different flicker rate". He also informed me that he can even show many black lines on my friend's TV using the 'advanced' instruments in his toolkit.