So my Westy 37" just died... I believe.

Now that's over with.. sigh. Was just playing xbox normally on it and all of a sudden.. bam, white screen, and all colors are fucked. Same across all inputs (HDMI, DVI, component) and although I can make out what the screen is displaying, this is far from acceptable for daily use..

Ugh, 1.5 years of great use and goes down just like that. Guess next time I'm sticking with a higher quality brand.

Pics:

VS


RIP 37w3.

Now, what would you guys recommend for an appropriate replacement?

I'm looking for a 37" - 42" (but would prefer 37" unless 42" is better bang for buck), 1080p, quality brand , inputs for PC, xbox and wii (so hdmi<->dvi or dvi<->dvi, hdmi/component, component), around ~$1k.. less the better.

Samsung? Sharp?

You are not going to fix this? RMA?
This is the best I can think of in the 37-42 range to be used a PC monitor.
It is hard to find a TV with a dvi port.

anodize said:

You are not going to fix this? RMA?
This is the best I can think of in the 37-42 range to be used a PC monitor.
It is hard to find a TV with a dvi port.

Click to expand...

The 37w3 only had a 1 year limited parts warranty I believe.. =/

And although I can try.. i've heard nothing but horror stories about the CS/RMA service.

Worth a shot but if its going to cost me hundreds to fix this thing then ugh.

Anyone know more info considering I bought it thru Costco?

i would def. contact Westinghouse for an appropriate RMA

good luck

costco has a great return policy and they'll work with members..
its really worth a shot..

You should definitely contact Westinghouse or Costco to fix this.
At least you can still get this fixed.

37" Panasonic Viera TC-37LZ85

I always wanted the Westy until I found this Panasonic. The damn thing even dropped a hundred bucks in the 2 months since I've had it.

anodize said:

You should definitely contact Westinghouse or Costco to fix this.
At least you can still get this fixed.

Click to expand...

Ahaha. Yeah, I ended up going this route.

FUCK

MY

LIFE.

Worst decision ever.

Want to know why?

First, read this column from MaxPC:

Turns out, I am having the EXACT same problem. I literally want to fire all of their Warehouse/Managers/Supervisors for their shoddy communication & support.

The problem I am referring to is in Page 19 of September 2008 issue. The column is titled 15 - 37 = 42. I am, unfortunately subjected by the exact same problem.

Read that first and then...

My entire story goes as such:

I bought my Westinghouse 37w3 1080p monitor back in late 2006, and late last year (Nov 2008), the colors just suddenly "inverted" itself. Such as black is white, white is black, red is purple, etc.. I took a picture of it here. As you can tell, it's not suitable for daily use at all. The problem persisted through all inputs and the people at Westinghouse support told me to ship it in, and they would get out a replacement to me within 4-6 weeks, at the latest. Seeing as how I didn't have the box to package it with, I sucked it up and payed UPS to have a custom box built for me to ship it out to them. It cost me 280 bucks to ship it to texas, including packaging of the monitor.

The rest all just goes downhill from here. After 4-5 weeks, they decide to send me out something. I was ecstatic. Being cautious, I decide to make sure that it was the right replacement. Turns out, the day before they were about to ship it, I called up and talked to a Customer Rep. The Rep assured me that everything was going smoothly. Being paranoid, (and rightfully so), I asked for the model # of the replacement. He gave it to me and after a quick Google search, I found out that the model there were sending me was a 42" SK 720p model. Since I use the monitor with my PC, this was not an acceptable replacement and told him so. He apologized profusely and recognized that it wasn't an appropriate replacement. He said he was going to stop shipment and that he would get a 1080p replacement out to me in the next week. Turns out.. that 720p monitor shipped out anyway (face palm). So, I called up the next day and he gave me the tracking # and informed me that I had to call up FedEx and return it to them. Just great. I found myself working on the RMA itself. If I'm not mistaken: why is the consumer helping or trying to get things done correctly on a RMA?

Anyway, long story short.. I sent it back to them, refused the shipment. That was back in early December. For the next 2-3 months, I go through calling them up probably 20+ times total just to see what the hold up is and the part that is most frustrating is the fact that everyone tells me something different. One Rep told me that they were out of 1080p monitors: Seriously? A global electronics company is OUT of 1080p monitors? Wow, what do you take me for?. One Rep told me that they hadn't even receievd my original monitor: Sigh. I've talked to Supervisors and they are no help whatsoever. Everyone is sympathetic on the phone yet no one can do anything about it. I find that appalling as even a supervisor or manager cannot do anything beyond telling me that they recognize I have waited a long time (3-4 months) and that this is an "abnormal" RMA.

Not only that, the fact of the matter lies in that I have had to call up all those times, in order to get something moving on my RMA else it would just be "waiting" with no activity on it. I had to call up to get it "escalated to corporate" or "status requested filled out" and just felt like I am doing the bulk of the work through this RMA procedure. (Finding out its not the right model, calling to get it escalated, calling to fill out status request forms when they have all the info, calling to have a supervisor talk to me, etc)

Right now, i'm still waiting on "getting it escalated" and in my opinion, I have been in this status for a month. Nothing seems to have changed. I do not want to wait 7 months like that poor fellow (who I hope to god has his monitor by now) but at the same time, what the fuck can I do? This is so frustrating to be completely powerless.

Westinghouse's RMA service is by far, the worst in this industry.

I would have been better off taking that $300 I spent on shipping that POS down there, and just spending an extra 500 or so and getting a new Sharp/LG/Samsung.

This is what kept me from buying the 37" Westy when it was on sale. The price was really cheap but it definitely was not worth possibly having to go through this in 1-3 years.

Sorry to hear about the hard luck man. Hopefully they will get it resolved in the end.

Hey-o. I posted that in.. Feb 12, 2009.

2 months later.. jack squat.

And you know the kicker is ? They sent me another 42" 720p/1080i TV 2 weeks ago. =|

Incompetent morons.

Apparently they're trying to "start another RMA for the 1080p" now but i'm not holding my breath. The reason why? They told me this about a month ago and yet.. no activity has changed. Another great tidbit, is that even if something gets started, I'm quoted that I probably won't be getting anything for another 1-2 months. Awesome.

What is completely sad is that the managers/supervisors cannot even help me for some goddamn reason. I escalate it to as high as I can go and they twiddle their damn thumbs. Swear to god, they're lucky they're on the goddamn phone and all i can do is speak to them. What also infuriates me is that all this time, to even get a single progress on my RMA, I have had to call in every single time. Customer Reps on the phone are in awe of how huge my entire RMA list is and I even need to spend a few minutes to explain the entire problem as it would take them half an hour or longer to read my entire history log.

The reason why I am sharing this story is to hope that no one else goes through this horrible process that I am STILL enduring. If I could go back in time, I would definitely have been better off taking that $300 I spent on shipping that P.O.S. down there, and just spending an extra 500 or so and getting a new Sharp/LG/Samsung.

They have cost me a lot so far. $280 for the shipping cost to them, and about $400 in wasted Comcast HD DVR TV service. I was prepared for a 1-2(max) month delay for an RMA.. but if I had known I would be out that much in the long run for a simple RMA, I would have just waltzed over to a video/tv/B&M store and picked out a new monitor there and wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. Of course, they won't be compensating me for anything as they "dont have a service/department for those kinds of requests".

It is just completely ludicrous that no higher authority, even the supervisors or managers cannot even recognize that "Hey. This guy has been waiting around for 4-5 months now to get something... Let's do whatever we can for him and make sure he knows that". If I did not request to speak with a manager, I would not have gotten called by them a single time. I honestly feel as if their company, managers and supervisors genuinely do not care and are just stringing me as long as they can because what other reason do I have to think otherwise?

Best part: everytime I call up, I get someone new to talk to and I ask them "Why should I ever buy a Westinghouse product ever again?"

Most of them, are speechless.

You should probably stay away from Westinghouse forever

If you do RMA it and get it fixed, sell it someone else and use the money to buy a monitor from a better manufacturer

"Westy" monitors are gay and so is the nickname that people use to refer to their Westinghouse monitors.

p4gs said:

You should probably stay away from Westinghouse forever

If you do RMA it and get it fixed, sell it someone else and use the money to buy a monitor from a better manufacturer

"Westy" monitors are gay and so is the nickname that people use to refer to their Westinghouse monitors.

Click to expand...

That's what I'm trying to do with the 720p/1080i monitor now.. its up on craigs.

And yeah, im just too lazy to type out "Westinghouse" most of the time

Accept 42" replacement. Sell it in perfect condition with 0 hours usage. Buy something else.

Man I am sorry to hear that. I am glad I payed extra for sharp. The sharp aquos
LC32GPUB is only 32 inches but man this thing rocks in image quality especially once it is calibrated. I dont think I will ever use another brand for my purchases. I do like samsung too but the last two I owned had dead pixels everywhere. So I would probably try to rma it if I were you, get a new one and sale the westy to someone for really cheap just to recoop a lil money out of it.

sorry to hear that.

I hate dealing with incompetent and lousy customer support (AT&T comes to mind, dirty bastards), so I heavily sympathize with you. I appreciate posts like this, because it lets me know who won't be getting a cent of my money before I make the same mistake myself.