I recently had some of the backlights of my TCL 43″ TV fail. That gave me the opportunity to upgrade to a new TCL 50″ TV. But that still left me with what to do with the 43″ TV. Ideally I would like to get it repaired so that I could resell it and make sure that it didn’t end up in a landfill site. But I have had issues with TCL’s support in the past. In my review of the 50″ TV, I said this:
Now, before I wrap things up, I’d like to point out one thing about TCL. Their support in my experience has tended to not be that good based on my previous interactions with them. Though that was about 18 months ago and maybe they have improved things since then. I guess I am about to find out as I have a request into them to get my old TV repaired. But the reason why I am pointing this out is that a company who makes a product adds value to it by having good support so that if you need it, they can help you. Conversely, if a company doesn’t provide good support, it detracts from the value of the product. And because of that, I feel I feel it is important to let you know how a company is going to treat you before you put down your hard earned money.
Let me describe how my service experience went. First I filled out a form on their contact us page asking TCL where I could take the TV for repair. That was on Friday night. On Sunday afternoon I got a reply saying that TCL has no repair centres, and then the customer service rep. tried to walk me through resetting the TV as they felt that this was a software issue. I told them that I had done the troubleshooting that they were suggesting and reiterated that any suggestions that I could for a place to take it to repair would be welcome. But they didn’t offer anything on that front.
Undeterred, I called them the next day. The first time I called them I was told by an automated system that there would be a 13 minute wait. But I did have the option of requesting a call back. So I chose that option and hung up.
Three hours later, no call back. #Fail.
This is where I will point out to TCL that if you have a service that allows your customers to schedule a call back, you need to actually call them back or you look like you don’t care about your customers.
So I called back and got through in three minutes. I asked the customer service rep where I could take the TV for repair. The rep put me on hold as he didn’t know the answer. Then came back and told me that they didn’t have authorized repair centres. So I should take it to anyone who is “qualified” to repair TVs. I thanked him and hung up.
Some free advice for TCL. Not having authorized repair centres really makes your products look second hand when compared to compared to competitors who do. Not only that, TV sets should not be considered to be “disposable items” in an age where diverting e-waste from landfills is a thing. Thus you need to give those who purchase your products options in terms of repair so that the life of your products is extended. By doing that, it enhances the value of your products and how you as a company is perceived.
Since TCL said I was on my own, I did some research and came across an article which listed the alleged best TV repair operations here in Toronto. I contacted all of them via their contact forms, but the only one who responded via email was Action TV Repairs. A person named Harjinder responded in under an hour and gave me an address to bring the TV to. Which turned out to be his home in Mississauga ON. I handed the TV to his wife and within two hours I got an email from them telling me that I needed to replace all the backlights as they would all eventually fail and just replacing two would result in the picture having uneven brightness levels. Total cost: $250 all in. I told him to go ahead. Two hours after that he emailed me to say it was ready which blew me away in terms of how fast he was able to repair the TV. I picked the TV up the next day, but not before he demonstrated that everything was working. I paid him cash and I was on my way.
I was impressed by Harjinder and the level of service that he provided. If you need a TV repaired, I would recommend Action TV Repairs without hesitation. I’ve since factory reset the TV and I will putting ads on Craigslist and similar services so that I can find a new home for this TV.
So, it’s clear that TCL has some improvements to do on the customer service front. And if they wanted a model to copy, Harjinder form Action TV Repairs would be my choice for them to copy. He went above and beyond to get my TV repaired and I can’t thank him enough and I would recommend him without hesitation. So in this case, I guess that assuming that I can sell the TV, all’s well that ends well I guess.
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A Follow Up To My Experience With TCL’s Service Team
I recently had some of the backlights of my TCL 43″ TV fail. That gave me the opportunity to upgrade to a new TCL 50″ TV. But that still left me with what to do with the 43″ TV. Ideally I would like to get it repaired so that I could resell it and make sure that it didn’t end up in a landfill site. But I have had issues with TCL’s support in the past. In my review of the 50″ TV, I said this:
Now, before I wrap things up, I’d like to point out one thing about TCL. Their support in my experience has tended to not be that good based on my previous interactions with them. Though that was about 18 months ago and maybe they have improved things since then. I guess I am about to find out as I have a request into them to get my old TV repaired. But the reason why I am pointing this out is that a company who makes a product adds value to it by having good support so that if you need it, they can help you. Conversely, if a company doesn’t provide good support, it detracts from the value of the product. And because of that, I feel I feel it is important to let you know how a company is going to treat you before you put down your hard earned money.
Let me describe how my service experience went. First I filled out a form on their contact us page asking TCL where I could take the TV for repair. That was on Friday night. On Sunday afternoon I got a reply saying that TCL has no repair centres, and then the customer service rep. tried to walk me through resetting the TV as they felt that this was a software issue. I told them that I had done the troubleshooting that they were suggesting and reiterated that any suggestions that I could for a place to take it to repair would be welcome. But they didn’t offer anything on that front.
Undeterred, I called them the next day. The first time I called them I was told by an automated system that there would be a 13 minute wait. But I did have the option of requesting a call back. So I chose that option and hung up.
Three hours later, no call back. #Fail.
This is where I will point out to TCL that if you have a service that allows your customers to schedule a call back, you need to actually call them back or you look like you don’t care about your customers.
So I called back and got through in three minutes. I asked the customer service rep where I could take the TV for repair. The rep put me on hold as he didn’t know the answer. Then came back and told me that they didn’t have authorized repair centres. So I should take it to anyone who is “qualified” to repair TVs. I thanked him and hung up.
Some free advice for TCL. Not having authorized repair centres really makes your products look second hand when compared to compared to competitors who do. Not only that, TV sets should not be considered to be “disposable items” in an age where diverting e-waste from landfills is a thing. Thus you need to give those who purchase your products options in terms of repair so that the life of your products is extended. By doing that, it enhances the value of your products and how you as a company is perceived.
Since TCL said I was on my own, I did some research and came across an article which listed the alleged best TV repair operations here in Toronto. I contacted all of them via their contact forms, but the only one who responded via email was Action TV Repairs. A person named Harjinder responded in under an hour and gave me an address to bring the TV to. Which turned out to be his home in Mississauga ON. I handed the TV to his wife and within two hours I got an email from them telling me that I needed to replace all the backlights as they would all eventually fail and just replacing two would result in the picture having uneven brightness levels. Total cost: $250 all in. I told him to go ahead. Two hours after that he emailed me to say it was ready which blew me away in terms of how fast he was able to repair the TV. I picked the TV up the next day, but not before he demonstrated that everything was working. I paid him cash and I was on my way.
I was impressed by Harjinder and the level of service that he provided. If you need a TV repaired, I would recommend Action TV Repairs without hesitation. I’ve since factory reset the TV and I will putting ads on Craigslist and similar services so that I can find a new home for this TV.
So, it’s clear that TCL has some improvements to do on the customer service front. And if they wanted a model to copy, Harjinder form Action TV Repairs would be my choice for them to copy. He went above and beyond to get my TV repaired and I can’t thank him enough and I would recommend him without hesitation. So in this case, I guess that assuming that I can sell the TV, all’s well that ends well I guess.
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This entry was posted on September 2, 2022 at 8:49 am and is filed under Commentary with tags TCL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.