Hi all! ... three years ago almost to the day I was getting dragged round Aldi's by my wife and just happened to spot a 42" tv that I had seen previously at £299 had dropped £100 to £199 and being Scottish that got my sporran tingling ... and though I was very dubious about the no name brand "Altius" the price was too much for me and I found myself at the checkout handing over £199.
I was under no false illusions of what quality to expect and the probable life expectancy of the electronics and so I decided to question the manager about the details of the three years warranty ... after a good grilling at the end of which funnily enough I asked "so if the tv fails in the last week of warranty all I have to do is bring it back here and you will refund or replace? " to which he replied "yes". I remember well scoffing and almost sniggering at his cheek for what I thought was a load of BS to fob me off at the time .................
...................... Anyway it turned out not to have too bad a screen ... the sound of course was abysmal but being a former sound engineer that was easily sorted with a good quality external speaker system and I was actually very happy with the purchase ................
Fast forward three trouble free years .... and you couldn't make this stuff up ... did it fail in the last week? ... Yes! .... not only in the last week but on the very day the warranty ran out ... not a complete failure but a whole LED strip at the top of the screen.
I couldn't believe it ... but I did remember what the manager had said and decided to see if they would honour the agreement .... I did of course decide to phone Aldi Customer Service rather than cart the tv all the way to the nearest shop. So I phoned them fully expecting a complete refusal but I couldn't have been more wrong ... the Aldi customer rep listened to what I had to say then informed me it was the manufacturer's responsibility now (which I thought was going to be the expected fob off) but again I was completely surprised when he then offered to contact them and sort it out for me ... which he did in about 2mins! ... then passed me immediately over to the Altius distributor who just asked for photo's of the fault and screen from different angles to prove no physical damage and also proof of purchase.
So I sent all that off immediately and got an answer back less than 5 mins later offering a full refund and asking for bank details from me to process it ............. I was utterly gobsmacked!!! all sorted in under 10mins! Completely the opposite of what I had expected ...
Anyway ... I now have an Altius A-400F that I can easily repair and give to my son if I can identify the LED strips ... I've tried my best to find any info on the net about them but pretty much drawn a blank ... I've noticed in a few posts here that some of you guys can possibly help identify suitable LEDS from the T-con board ... so I'll attach a pic ... can anybody help me identify suitable replacements? (If you right click the picture and choose "view image" a hi res version is available) ...
I was under no false illusions of what quality to expect and the probable life expectancy of the electronics and so I decided to question the manager about the details of the three years warranty ... after a good grilling at the end of which funnily enough I asked "so if the tv fails in the last week of warranty all I have to do is bring it back here and you will refund or replace? " to which he replied "yes". I remember well scoffing and almost sniggering at his cheek for what I thought was a load of BS to fob me off at the time .................
...................... Anyway it turned out not to have too bad a screen ... the sound of course was abysmal but being a former sound engineer that was easily sorted with a good quality external speaker system and I was actually very happy with the purchase ................
Fast forward three trouble free years .... and you couldn't make this stuff up ... did it fail in the last week? ... Yes! .... not only in the last week but on the very day the warranty ran out ... not a complete failure but a whole LED strip at the top of the screen.
I couldn't believe it ... but I did remember what the manager had said and decided to see if they would honour the agreement .... I did of course decide to phone Aldi Customer Service rather than cart the tv all the way to the nearest shop. So I phoned them fully expecting a complete refusal but I couldn't have been more wrong ... the Aldi customer rep listened to what I had to say then informed me it was the manufacturer's responsibility now (which I thought was going to be the expected fob off) but again I was completely surprised when he then offered to contact them and sort it out for me ... which he did in about 2mins! ... then passed me immediately over to the Altius distributor who just asked for photo's of the fault and screen from different angles to prove no physical damage and also proof of purchase.
So I sent all that off immediately and got an answer back less than 5 mins later offering a full refund and asking for bank details from me to process it ............. I was utterly gobsmacked!!! all sorted in under 10mins! Completely the opposite of what I had expected ...
Anyway ... I now have an Altius A-400F that I can easily repair and give to my son if I can identify the LED strips ... I've tried my best to find any info on the net about them but pretty much drawn a blank ... I've noticed in a few posts here that some of you guys can possibly help identify suitable LEDS from the T-con board ... so I'll attach a pic ... can anybody help me identify suitable replacements? (If you right click the picture and choose "view image" a hi res version is available) ...
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