Props to Panasonic and their Plasma Concierge!

I gotta give some credit to Panasonic and their excellent customer service (in the plasma department). If you don't have a Panny plasma, you might not have heard of it, but they have something called the Plasma Concierge. Its basically a priority customer service offering (free of charge) for Panasonic Plasma owners.

Last May, I picked up a heavily discounted 2006 model plasma on open box clearance. It had full warranty from Panny and I promptly entered my info into the Plasma Concierge website, thinking, this is probably a waste. I'll never use it.

I was wrong.

Back when I first got the TV, I had read about something called "purple snakes" over at AVSforum. At the time, I couldn't see the 'purple' problem with my TV, so I forgot about it for many months. Well low and behold, I started to notice the purple problem a few months back and it kept bothering me. The problem only surfaced during certain types of scenes. Otherwise the picture was still great. I revisited the issue at AVS and it seemed that many people were able to get a fix that helped the problem significantly (but not completely) and some had received a refund or replacement set due to the inability of Panasonic to completely fix the problem.

So, I figured with a few months left on my manufacturer's warranty, I better have this set looked at. At the very least, I could get the fix done and have the problem minimized. At best, I could get a new set.

So, I logged my problem into the Plasma Concierge website (took about 3 minutes) and got a case number emailed to me.

Two days later, I got a call from the Concierge (its really a group, not just one person ) and they scheduled a visit from a regional Panny Field Rep. I was kinda surprised that they didn't just hook me up with a local service company.

Yesterday, the Field Rep came to my house and verified the problem. It only took him 5 minutes and 1 movie for him to agree that the problem was there. I thought for sure he would have the replacement parts to at least attempt to fix the problem, but nope, he didn't even want to try a fix. He just said that 'most likely' they would replace the set, but he had to check some things and talk to his manager.

Today I got a call back from the field rep and yes, for sure, they are going to replace my TV with the newer model, which just happens to be full 1080p! (the old one was 768p) Not that I'll really see the difference in a 42" model, that's in the bedroom, but hey, if they are going to give it to me, then I'll take it.

So, bottom line, I'll have a new 2007 model (the '08s are not out yet) to replace my '06 model in about 2 weeks. A Panasonic technician will have the TV delivered to him, he will take it out of the box and verify that its in good working order, then he will call me to set up a convenient time to come out and replace the TV (wall mounting and everything). He will just take away the old TV and it will probably end up at the refurbdepot or someplace like that.

Couldn't be easier really. There was no arguing, no back and forth hassling. Just total respect to me as a consumer who spent a decent amount of money on a TV and expected better picture quality from Panny.

This is a stark contrast to the problems I had with Toshiba 3 years ago when my RPTV was having a bad problem with 'sparklies' in the image. Getting a replacement set from them took 3-4 repairs, 3+ months, and numerous calls/headaches, and ultimately, I was without a TV for a couple weeks due to my repair man making my TV totally inoperable. On top of that, I had to fork out some extra money to get a new replacement TV (instead of taking a refurbed model). What a nightmare.

So, anyway, if your in the market for a plasma, consider Panny's customer service as an additional selling point. In my case, it really payed off.