By Princewill Ekwujuru

Incessant complaints from customers have pressured five big television brands to enhance their products with improved functionalities.

The five big brands are Samsung, Life’s Good (LG), Panasonic, Sony, and Sharp.

The complaints include a low-quality capacitor, overheating and inability to switch on the power buttons or indefinite fizzling off into dark surfaces.

The need to address these complaints has led to the introduction of improved and innovative smart television brands. Furthermore, the manufacturers have increased the capacitors to 16 volts from 10 volts.

They have also created space for enhanced ventilation to minimise overheating while advising customers to change the picture mode from vivid to standard or decrease the brightness to reduce power consumption for lesser heat.

The manufacturers’ have also improved on the power switch buttons while also offering extended warranty on their products, ranging from three months to one year.

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Experts and Distributors comment

According to a TV technician, Olaoluwa Fatai, “All TV sets are good, depending on how you use them. Some people leave their TV on when power is cut off, and eventually, when the power comes back the TV is bound to have the problem(s) either it does not power on or the screen goes blank even if the power is switched on. People should take into cognizance the quality of    power supply in the country.”

That is why the receipts issued to customers include an appeal to customers who experience any issue with their TV to call a certain number on the receipt.

Then the customer service team will fully investigate and discuss each customer’s specific experience so that they can identify the best resolution fit each case.”

More helpful guidance came from Philip(not real name), a technician who works on non-functional TVs every day at    Alternate    TV Repair, Ajegunle, Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area, Lagos. He said some Samsung TVs have been deliberately under-engineered.

“The problem which is not unique to Samsung alone comes from the installation of lesser quality capacitors, some television circuits generate around 12 or 13 volts, which overheat the 10-volt capacitors that are pre-installed.”

“However, they have increased the capacitor to 16-volt which has a higher heat tolerance and thus a much longer lifespan.

The TV manufacturers’ have gone beyond those complaints, and have moved on with new innovations. I am    yet to    receive    any complaint with newer television models.”

Electronic Systems Solutions Manager, located at Ojo Alaba, Ojo Local government area, Samson Njoku who claims to be a Samsung TV expert, corroborating Philip admitted that earlier Samsung television sets had problems with their power supply.

“Light Emitting Diode High Definition (LCD HD) Samsung TVs featured an engineering flaw that causes it to go defective I have only seen this problem on older models.”

While attributing the overheating to filter components on the secondary side, he, however, maintained that the problem is an isolated issue and highly recommends Samsung TV products.

Advising, Electronics Engineer, Patrick Ibe said: “Consumers should buy the cheapest TV set they can find, and assume it won’t last more than a year or two. With the constant evolution of products, anything you buy today is going to be obsolete in a few years so there’s no need to spend huge money”

On complaints relating to the    Sony TV, especially the Sony Bravia,    Morris Nnawugo of Blessed Electronics, Festac Village, Lagos, an electronics company, said, “These include missing channels and signal quality, an LED keeps flashing on the TV and turns off or randomly restarts, mechanical sound or no audio.    This was an earlier challenge. I think they have corrected all that in their new products.”

What customers say

Kevin Okoro, a consumer who works with Techled Enterprises, Lagos said Samsung LCD TV had the same capacitor failures as reported by many users. Samsung’s refusal to fix his defective television led him to attempt his own self-repair following a YouTube video. “It turned out to be a very easy repair, only taking  some    hours, and the television has been working perfectly ever since.”

A consumer, Henry Otudor, a civil servant said:    “I have had Samsung Television before. “Samsung HD TVs overheat, fail to turn on, power themselves off or simply fizzle off into oblivion. To make matters worse, in most cases, this happens after the one-year warranty has expired.”

Before purchasing her new LCD television, Patricia Onuoha, a civil servant said she contacted Samsung concerning complaints dealing with inadequate capacitors “but claimed  their capacitors met the specifications to operate the TV reliably.”

As a follow up to the above question, Mr. Joseph    Imafidon said a TV should last at least ten years rather than just two years.

He said: “I paid over N100,000    two years ago, the first problem happened one month after first year’s warranty. I did talk to Panasonic to have it fixed after screaming on the phone for some days.

They had to keep it for two weeks because  I was on the phone constantly;  they said they were trying to figure out how to fix the problem. Now one year later,    the TV    will sometimes not come on for days.”

According to Isiaka Akanmu,  a radiographer, “As a result of the picture quality, we purchased the LG 55LE8500 in 2010 but five years after, in 2015,    the picture failed while the warranty had expired.

On      July 22nd  of 2015, we received the repaired LG TV; the failed motherboard was replaced,    but on November 7th  of 2016,    less than a year later, the picture went out again.”

“Today it has been repaired but it cost me some reasonable amount. It has a three-month warranty on the repairs. The same problem re-occurred last week.

I called LG and they re-booked me for a repairman. It will be free of charge. Although I am still disappointed with the product, I am pleased with the service I    received, it was great.”

“The sharp TV in our newsroom is currently bad. It has gone blank. Earlier the picture quality was bad, not clear, it was showing black, no matter the tuned contrast. It was repaired. We are yet to know the current problem because it has gone blank,” said Moses Olarotimi who works in a media house in Lagos.

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What manufactures’ say

Speaking on motherboard issues on LG TV, LGAF Trainer, Olugbenga Ogunbayo said: “We have gone beyond the era of having motherboard issues because at this time we have in-built power surge that protects your motherboard against thunder strike, electricity surge, and others.

So I can assure you that henceforth you can never have such fault anymore, and most times when you come to our store we tell you not to get an additional power surge.    We have TVs with a power surge that works with low voltage and electricity spike.”

However, efforts made to speak with other manufacturers proved abortive as they did not respond to C&M    telephone calls.

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