Harvey Norman

[derat]

Actually, most DVD players have a serial port to download data such as usage, firmware information and various other information of a similar nature.

[NGE]

Members are reminded this forum is specifically for the discussion of the listed gripes. Should you have a gripe of your own please post in the appropriate forum.

[shillard]

"When I returned to find out what was wrong with the machine he told me that inside the machine there is a menu that only technicians can access and it was telling him that the machine had 10,000 hours use on it which I was stunned to hear considering my wife and I only watched DVDs and some special movies."


Yeah - the technicians use a special tool to access this menu. That tool is guarded by the store Unicorn......

10,000 hours?

That's turned on, in use, 24/7 for 416 days - non-stop.

There's a word I'm thinking of.....ah! That's it!

RUBBISH!

[kolonel_71]

Quote "there is a menu that only technicians can access and it was telling him that the machine had 10,000 hours use on it which I was stunned to hear considering my wife and I only watched DVDs and some special movies." Unquote

Did he actually show you ? Or did you just believe whatever the technician said ?

Given that the store operates at approx 70 hours a week, and that it was a current model, to rack up those sought of hours seems highly unlikely.

[UnhappyMum]

Definately needs investigating! I bought a new digital camera, from a well known store........ which had pictures of the employees silly antics on it. Needless to say they were very quick to give me a refund when I complained about they camera not being new, as I had paid for.

[wezwaz]

I think this thread highlights an issue worth investigating. Are all the products we buy as new actually new? Years ago I bought a cassette deck (yes, it's going back sometime!) and it showed a problem as soon as I tried to record with it. When it was sent for repair I received a phone call to ask me who had opened it up and modified it! I expressed complete surprise since I thought I had purchased a new product and told them so. Nothing further was said. Eventually it was repaired and returned to me in working order.

So how had it been modified if it was supposed to be new? I don't know the answer. Maybe it had been sold previously, the buyer modified it and when the recording function didn't work properly returned it for a replacement (to pull a "swifty" on the shop). The guys in the shop may have then simply checked the playback operation, felt there was no problem, reboxed it and eventually sold it to me.

At the same time I purchased the cassette deck, I bought a whole system including speakers. I remember they took the demo speakers in the shop and boxed them up. Being young and naive I accepted that, but from that day on I told myself never to accept anything other than a product that is already boxed up and ready to go. The point being, a demo is not a new product and I shouldn't have accepted it as such.

It's amazing to think the sort of stuff I have mentioned could be going on with apparently reputable businesses.

[q9922004]

But its true. They use before they sell. A friend once bosted how they would take movies and games home to burn. Once done they would re-shrinkwrap and put back on the shelves.

Shocking.

PLUS they are a freaking rip off!

[Cas98]

Hey there Thing. Yep, When I had that trouble with them, I had the brochures in front of me from Dept of fair Trading. They just insisted they were exempt.

[Thing]

Cas, studied this a few weeks back in contract law, next time someone says "Those laws (concerning refunds and exchanges) do not apply to us".

Point them to the Trade Practices Act, specifically s68A, it states a corporation cant exclude certain terms such as warranty, repairs, replacing defective goods etc.

It is a commonwealth act so its application is nation wide

Hardly Nomral is a corporation.. of some description

[Cas98]

In my personal dealings with Harvey Norman I have had more lies told to me than I care to remember. The best one being when I tried to get a refund for a friend of mine, when the supposed "manager" said "Those laws (concerning refunds and exchanges) do not apply to us".

Since then, I have bought quite a bit of electrical gear, maybe $20,000 worth, and not one piece from this company.

Nice to see they have not changed their ways.

[Thing]

I purchased a Hitachi projector from Harvey Norman in 2004 also & it also developed a blue tinge after a short period of use.
The bulbs didn't last as long as the Harvey Norman salesman or Hitachi advised and it became quite expensive to watch.
I ended up selling it online to recoup my losses, since then wont buy anything from Hitachi or Harvey Norman.

[NGE]

My wife and I purchased a Hitachi overhead projector for home in 2004. Since that time we have changed the bulb twice.

On the second occasion the machine projected a blue tinge around the whole screen and a big yellow square in the middle of the screen. I took the machine into Harvey Norman an was told to take it to their repairer who charged me $99 to look at it.

When I returned to find out what was wrong with the machine he told me that inside the machine there is a menu that only technicians can access and it was telling him that the machine had 10,000 hours use on it which I was stunned to hear considering my wife and I only watched DVDs and some special movies.

I returned to Harvey Norman and told the person called Sam about what I was told and he then proceeded to ask me if I had bought a demostration machine,

I asked him "Why would I pay $2200 for a demo model? I was then told they were not going to do anything.

I have been in touch with Fair Trading with no success. I worked it out to get 10,000 hours my wife and I would have to be sitting in front of the screen 24 hours a day as there is only 8760 hours in a year.

NGE Member: Indjamarra