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How to prevent problems when buying consumer electronics
1. Price, qualities and technical parameters of products
- Although prices of consumer electronics products go down, it still holds true that higher quality
usually means higher price and higher price usually guarantees better convenience of operation,
longer life, maintenance service of higher quality and fuller equipment of the product
(remember the well known saying "Look before you leap" and the proverb "We are not so
rich that we can afford cheap things").
- Before you buy, consider carefully what qualities and functions you require from the device.
The fact itself that the product does not meet your requirements after purchase cannot be seen as
justified reason for a complaint!
- No maintenance service can change qualities of the product which are
determined by its design and price.
2. Professional level of sale
- Do not go by the price of the product when you buy. The price usually takes into consideration
the qualifications and seriousness of the seller. This fact can manifest itself later when dealing
with any problems with installing or operating the device or in case of a complaint.
- Never buy when you are pressed for time or under any pressure ("…before you leap").
If you have doubts about the qualifications of the personnel, if you have doubts about their recommendations
or if they don't devote enough time to you, go elsewhere.
- Even if you are entitled to it as a buyer, don't expect that even the best and most willing
seller can acquaint you with all the good and in particular bad qualities of a product. Even if
he were the designer of the device, he could not know all your ideas and requirements. Cooperate,
ask questions - it's in your own interest!
- If at the moment of sale you have certain doubts as to whether the product is really the one which
will meet all your wishes, demands and expectations, then it is good to agree with the seller
in advance on what will happen if it turns out that the product is not exactly what you have imagined.
It is clear that you cannot demand a trial period of a number of weeks or months for your purchase;
however, you can usually agree on a couple of days and a sensible seller will generally accept this.
- On purchase for resale in Cash &Carry warehouses, you cannot expect the
product to be presented to you in detail and all your technical questions to be
answered as it would be the case in specialized retail shops.
- Test the product carefully at home as soon as possible. If you encounter any negative feature and you
suspect that it might be a defect, first check with the seller (or an authorized service station)
if this is a generally known feature of the technology or design of the product. It is very hard
to persuade the seller that you have not been warned in advance of such a feature after several months
of operation, especially if the price of the product was reduced or if it was replaced by a new model.
- For the eventuality of a complaint, replacement or repair of the goods, keep all documents of sale and also,
if possible, the original packaging and accessories of the product.
- If there is no defect, authorized service centres are not obliged to solve problems connected with
the installation and operation of the device cost-free.
3. Defects which are usually not defects
- Noise of the device - various whirring, whistling, rustling, or crackling which can be heard in particular
in a silent room and at night hours.
- Mains humming and noise from the speakers when the volume is turned down – especially
with some cheaper audio products.
- Static discharge crackling in TV sets. It occurs in particular during high voltage changes (switching on/off,
switching channels, quick changes in brightness etc.).
- Colour spots caused by magnetizing the screen of the TV set (in particular if
the receiver is regularly switched off to standby only).
- Deflection in colour alignment (convergence) mainly at the picture edges,
which is, however, in compliance with the technical specifications of the screen
(depending on the diagonal, the alignment error between any two colours may
reach up to 2 mm).
- Changes in picture dimensions ("breathing") during changes in brightness ("MTV-effect")
caused by fluctuations in the high voltage of the CRT TV set. This error manifests itself by changes
in the geometry when contrast scenes are shown or when the menu or teletext is displayed.
- Recursive colour spots on longer OSD, teletext or contrast scenes with high brightness display with
screens with a steel mask (such as Black Line D). The spots are most visible on a black and white picture.
- Problems with the teletext, VPS/PDC, ShowView, EPG or stereo sound, when domestic transmitters, often for
a number of months or even years, supply a signal not corresponding to broadcast standards.
- Errors in operation, tuning, interconnection, setting of standards, selecting the character set
of the teletext, etc.
- Defects caused by poor reception conditions (jamming, interference).
- Problems with signal quality in various cable distribution systems and common
antennas are a special chapter. Very often, their operators falsely declare the
signal quality to be in compliance with standards.
In the case that you lodge a complaint for a similar type of "defect", the seller or the authorized
service station will make a simple comparison with another product of the same or a similar model. If there is
no difference in their behaviour and if the parameters of the device are not beyond the range of valid
or recommended standards, one must cope with the fact that a product in the given category has a common feature
which makes it worse than other models; however, this does not mean that it is defective.
4. What is usually not covered by the guarantee
- Mechanical damage (e.g. breakage of the telescopic aerial), penetration of fluid,
lightning strikes, overvoltage in the mains, heat or output overload.
- Discharge of batteries or accumulators and phenomena connected with the ageing thereof
(spontaneous discharge, capacity decline etc).
- Damage to speakers or earphones and power amplifier stages by overload. Here it cannot be
argued by saying that the defect occurred when the volume control was turned half-way up.
- Defects caused by using the product for other purposes than those for which the device was designed.
Consumer electronics products are intended to be operated in a normal household environment with several
hours a day of usage and not for professional use. Many devices operated in a dusty or smoky environment
may need an overhaul after several months of operation, which, however, cannot be considered to be a defect.
The owner of a camera that is operated 8 hours a day for recording weddings must accept the fact that s/he
will have to visit the service station more often (at his/her costs) than a person who films his/her family
on holiday and at Christmas, using the camera 20 hours a year.
- The guarantee expires after unauthorized intervention in the device or its accessories.
- Normal wear and tear, cleaning and maintenance of the product.
- Colour spots in the picture caused by tearing off the mask after an impact to or a fall of the TV set.
- Blocking with various safety codes, children's locks or hotel modes.
- Problems with low-quality or non-standard recording media and formats (audio and video cassettes, CD, CD-R,
CD-RW, VCD, XVCD, SVCD, DVD+/-R/RW, Mini-DVD, MP3, records protected against copying, DVD regions),
in particular if they are not supported by the technical specifications and design of the device.
The only way to avoid a similar problem is to properly test the product before purchase.
- The customer has the right to lodge a complaint with his/her seller or at the nearest authorized service
station, the address of which the seller is obliged to inform him/her about. The customer has no right to
require a guarantee service on-site. The guarantee does not cover reimbursement of unreasonable costs
of transport of the product to the seller or to the service station.
- If no defect is detected during inspection at the service station or if guarantee conditions are not met,
the buyer will bear the costs connected with the inspection or repair of the product (including any costs
of transport).
5. When it's too late…
- If you already own a product that has not met your expectations in spite of your careful selection, the most
viable solution is an arrangement with the seller to return or replace the goods. The sooner, the better. Don't
expect that a month before the end of the guarantee, you will be offered a full refund for a product that does
not please you due to its features.
- When handling your claim, the opinion of the seller or an authorized service station is decisive. Therefore,
if you are making a claim, address only these parties. The sales representative of an importer or manufacturer
won't exchange the product, cancel the purchase contract or return your money, because you have not bought
the product from him/her but from his/her business partner.
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