Powr Electronics (LG Warranty)

[Onyx]

Powr Electronics in Castle Hill, contract warranty repairer for amongst other things LG LCD TV sets and monitors.

I am merely documenting my personal experience and not (yet) passing judgement on whether the service is good or bad.

I had a 2+ yr old 17" LG LCD monitor fail around xmas time. It was disappointing at first as I thought it may have been out of warranty, and I had only used the monitor for ~6mths when first purchased... and it sat unusued from then on. So it turns out, I keep such meticulous paper records I even surprise myself, the receipt for the mon was found, LG website search lead to Powr Electronics being my nearest service centre.

With the xmas/new years holidays over, the afternoon of the 8th of Jan I went to Powr. Greeted politely by the guy behind the counter, being a weekday there wasn't many people, so the wait was short. With the paperwork sorted out, I am told to wait 4 working days and give them a call, it should be ready. 4 day turnaround?! You're kidding me! I would be extremely thrilled if I receive my monitor back working in even twice the timeframe they quoted! I will become an LG brandwhore for life!!


Edit: mai gud speling

[Killakoala]

That's great. Much better than Sony repair.

[broadbean]

4 day turnaround?! You're kidding me!

Normally these days, the monitor would be replaced rather than repaired, so the turnaround is for diagnosing and approval for a replacement.

[Onyx]

Update: 30 Jan. Wow I can't believe it was the 9th that I first posted.

So it turns out from various personal experiences, the contract manufacturing industry in this country are generally pretty slack when it comes to timely repairs. Nokia's 48hr promised turnaround for early failures tend to stretch out to 2-4 wks in general - courtesy of Solectron Global Services. NCSS Maintainence Pty Ltd handles HP/Compaq laptop's 7-day warranty service in 4-6 weeks. Nikon AU's camera repair/service with unspecified time period tends to be in the vicinity of 4-8 weeks. LG's warranty with a 4 day stated turnaround turns out to be 15 working days (roughly 3 calendar wks) co- Powr Electronics.

Upon submitting this warranty case, I was told to follow up with a phone call 4 working days after submitting the item. I did so on day 6. A freudian slip suggested it wouldn't be looked at until the following week, but I was instructed to ring back in 3 further days for an update. I left them alone, as I didn't need it returned urgently - and I get a call on day 15 (yes, I excluded Australia Day in working day calculations) saying it's fixed and ready for collection.

The fault was 2 power supply capacitors were busted. I believe this issue is also why there has been a shift in recent years with computer parts manufacturers' increasing use of better quality solid state or polymer capacitors in their design, especially on higher end products, rather than the 'standard' electrolytic capacitors. These days the length of warranty for a particular item is almost synonymous with the expected lifetime of the product.

In my case, the fault became apparent due to my infrequent use - chatting with the tech gained me this insight: capacitors are like batteries in that they hold a charge after powering off. If it's cycled through frequent use, it's operating within spec and everything's fine. When it is not used frequently, the long periods of time spent powered off with the capacitor in a discharged state means the next occasion it's turned on, there's a surge of current which is more likely to fatigue the capacitor to expand, burst, leak or in the worst case explode. So if you're reading this far you must be really bored or have a keen interest. I will reward you with this snippet of advice to prolong the longevity of enjoyment of the electronic products you buy: Use them. Use them frequently. The catchphrase "Use it or lose it" certainly applies. It is also why it's beneficial to keep a computer running all the time... the capacitors in your computer power supply and motherboard will be less fatigued and less likely to fail.