Lawrence Heagle
4896 Hobbs Road
Fall Creek, Wisconsin 54742 -9349
May 6, 2008
Hitachi America, Ltd.
Home Electronics Division
Customer Relations Department
P.O. Box 3900
Peoria, Illinois 61612
Dear “Customer Relations Department”:
I find it ironic that when I asked the man I spoke to just now by phone for a specific name of someone in charge that I could write to about my ongoing problems with Hitachi, he couldn’t (or wouldn’t?) give me a name but instead told me to address my mail to “Customer Relations”.
So whoever is reading this, let me give you some background. Seven years ago we purchased a Hitachi rear projection set and it served us very well. We never had any trouble with it, whatsoever.
A little over a year ago my wife and I decided to make the move up to a flat screen set. Because the Hitachi we owned had performed so flawlessly, we went back to the FS Electronics Supply Store in Eau Claire and purchased a 37 inch set at a cost of $1788.00.
We also purchased a two year protection plan at $275.00. We didn’t have the set very long (you can check the records of the history of the set) when we began having trouble with the set, primarily with the inputs for the DVD player.
In addition, there were times when I would turn the set on only to find no picture but only sound.
I am not going into the entire history (you have it), but over the span of a year’s time, we had to have repairs done to the set FIVE times.
After the fourth repair call, Pam assured me that they would be sending two all new sections that would solve the problems. She gave me her word that if the repairs did not work on this fifth trip she would personally see that we got a brand new replacement set.
When the repair man put the two new sections in the set, we encountered two separate problems.
We were unable to set up the DTV section because the “new” parts were obviously not new but refurbished. This became evident when the set would not allow the repair man to enter new code numbers -- someone else had put numbers in that section previously.
Also, the section that allows the set to be “swiveled” through use of the remote control did not respond.
The repair man (from Technical Difficulties) then had me help him load the set up in his van and I have not seen it since!
That was over two weeks ago now. I just wrote a check for $62.45 to Directv (my monthly fee) and I don’t even have a television set to watch!!
Every time I call your company I am told that they are “working on it”. Yet nothing is getting done!
To add insult to injury, last week I was at my father-in-law’s death bed in Minneapolis when I got a call from Hitachi informing me that because you no longer make a 37 inch set, I will have to pay “somethng in addition” for the 42 inch set when we do receive it.
When I returned to Eau Claire I went out to FS and priced the 42 inch set. Those sets are selling for $1388.
I have some questions for whoever is reading this -- not as a representative for Hitachi -- but as an ordinary consumer.
If you were being treated as I am in this situation, would you find it to your liking?
Would you ever consider purchasing another set from Hitachi?
Do you think that if you were me, you would feel as though you are being treated fairly and as a good customer?
Would you be upset with the fact that you are paying over $60 a month to stare at an empty television stand?
Would you, as a customer who has already paid $1788 for a set that doesn’t work, pay ANYTHING more for a replacement set?
Never was the expression “Walk a mile in my shoes” been more appropriate.
Can we please move forward with this? It doesn’t help me at all to call and get the run around.
Every time I call I am assured that “this is not just sitting on a shelf gathering dust”, yet no one really has much to say or add.
frustrated and disillusioned,
Lawrence Heagle
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