Dear Sir or Madam: The following complaint has been undertaken against both Philips India & their authorized service center Micro Services located in Goregaon, Mumbai. We had called Philips Customer Care to report a complaint of our Philips LCD not powering on. The call center dispatched a Mr. Rai, a technician from Micro Services to our residence. The technician took the TV apart and tried to repair it. While doing this he blew up our house fuse 3 times. Luckily we had a tripper so no other electrical component in the house was damaged prima facie (fingers crossed). I was shocked by such actions and told him to stop his experimentation. In the end he decided to take the power board with him for repairs. He said that 1-2 components on the power board will need replacing and he will charge Rs.780 (his service charge) approx Rs. 300-400 per component that will be replaced. He came back after 3 days and installed the power board in the TV and the TV worked fine. Next he showed me the bill for the repairs and I was shocked to find that the total charge was now Rs.5600/-. I asked him how can the charges escalate by such variance for a Rs.25000 LCD, he merely replied that he has fitted a brand new power board as the one taken from our TV was totally dead!! I was surprised when he said a new board as the power board he took out from his bag in front of me was wrapped in an old, torn plastic cover (I have retained this cover for my records) and on being asked why the brand new board was not in its Philips sealed box with original warranty and bill, he said that all parts come loose and the warranty is only 1 month (this was no where written on his Rs.5600/- bill, however I did notice that the bill mentioned "Goods sold once will not be taken back". All this happened after purchasing the brand new Philips 32" LCD from Croma and using for a mere 1.5 years!! I threatened to take the matter legally as my Dad is an Asst Commissioner of Police in Crime Branch Mumbai and I had secretly recorded the whole followup installation on a video camera in Full HD with stereo recording to boot!! My question is that there are numerous online complaints on Philips power boards going bust within 1-2 years. They claim that their LCD's last 15 years. Well for me even a 5 years stress-free ownership would be heavenly with Philips. If these technicians know this why not remove the power boards and repair it professionally at the first instance to save on charges instead of trying their best to short-circuit it till their fuses blow out rendering it 'Rest in Peace'? We have an LG TV and VU LED in our bedrooms which were on at the time the technicians tripped the entire house into darkness 3 times. If those sets were damaged who pays the damages? Secondly, why not supply a brand new power board with a decent warranty and original Philips material supply bill? What is the guarantee that should the replacement power board (obviously old, recycled from an old second-hand set) blow out after 30 days who will help us and supply a new board free?? Thirdly, why give a non-original memo as bill and mention 'Goods once sold will not be taken back'?? We are simply fed up with Philips and their cronies. We are launching legal action against these characters and will seek compensation for damages due to the technician trying out his luck by shorting our house three times with no regard to the safety of my family (2 small kids present in the house at the time) or electrical appliances present in the house. The first time the TV shorted, he asked me to put the power on. Can you imagine the total disregard to human safety. Also trying to induce damage to the LCD by his adventurism and then presenting a hefty bill for an obviously recycled, second-hand spare part with a verbal 1-month warranty and a bill which read 'Goods once sold will not be taken back'. Therein lies the story. Luckily we are NRI's and after traveling the world we know our rights and we will be giving these people hell. There are a few more horror stories about Philips and Micro Systems on India Consumer Court. This is a new entry. Regards, Say No to Philips
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