BRAVIA KD55X75WL - SCREEN CRACKED SPONTANEOUSLY AFTER 5 WEEKS

[Muttley14]

I bought this TV on 23rd December 2023 from Spatial Sound and Vision in Northwich for £649 - this was an expensive purchase for us.  I could have bought a TV for half of this price, but chose Sony as a trusted brand with a superior product and a 5 year warranty.  We were delighted with the TV until yesterday.  We had the TV on for an hour for the early morning news - all was fine.  We came back home at lunch time and turned the TV on.  The screen stayed black with no picture, but we had sound and could change the channels.  Within 5 minutes or so the screen had a series of horizontal and vertical straight lines from the bottom left corner and almost immediately showed cracked lines emerging from the bottom left hand corner.  Although I was shocked at this happening to my brand new TV, I wasn't unduly worried as I thought that I had chosen a well respected local retailer and reputable brand and assumed that it would be either repaired or replaced.  How wrong I was!!!  I contacted Spatial and they asked me to send them photos.  They phoned me shortly afterwards to say that this appeared to be damage from physical impact and proceeded to ask me questions about our household.  I assured them that this was not the case - we are a household of 2 OAPs with no visiting young children or wild parties and literally have not moved or touched the TV other than to dust it.  Whilst Spatial were sympathetic and followed this through very quickly with the Sony authorised Service Centre, they did add that it was impossible, and unheard of, for a screen to break without any physical impact.  On receiving the photos from Spatial, the Service Centre (Martin Dawes in Winsford) advised that the photos clearly showed physical damage and they were not prepared to come out to inspect the TV, suggesting that I contact Sony directly.  I logged a support call (case 26567247) and spoke to a customer support advisor and also to his supervisor.  They also concluded from my photos that it was physical damage, however they wanted to "help me" and suggested that I pay for a report from their Service Centre Engineer and they would re-imburse the cost if they subsequently admitted liability for a fault.  They also suggested that I check the exterior of the TV using my mobile phone torch for any damage.  I have done this using the torch and a magnifying glass and can't find the slightest blemish or scratch to the screen or the black frame.  I contacted the Service Centre (Martin Dawes in Winsford) to discuss a call out to assess and report on the damage.  This would cost me £99 and would involve an engineer looking at the TV externally and writing a report for Sony.  I had assumed that the engineer would take the TV apart to look for any internal faults which may have caused the problem, but this is not the case.  Sony should be taking a more responsible approach to this - I feel as though they are calling me a liar and do not believe that we have not physically damaged the TV set.  I appreciate that phyiscal damage is the cause of a broken screen in most cases, but this is not so in my case and also for other customers who have posted similar problems to various forums.  It seems to me like the big company has the power to fob off the small customer - I'm feeling like poor Mr Bates vs the Post Office here!!  I am going to look for an independent engineer who is prepared to examine the TV internally and then ask Sony if they will accept this report, rather than using a report on the external condition of the TV from their own Service Engineer before proceeding.  If anyone has had similar problems to this I would be very interested to hear from you.  From what I have read on various forums so far, it seems that most disgruntled customers decide to take the easier option of claiming for accidental damage on their home insurance - and Sony get off scott free without even physically looking at the damaged TVs or properly engaging with customers to consider whether there may be a build quality fault.

[royabrown2]

@Muttley14 

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/android-tv/sony-kd55xg9505-screen-cracked-spontaneously/td-p/3884955...

Can you take, and post, such a picture, centreing on the supposed point of ‘impact’?

After which, the unblemished surface of the TV having been clearly demonstrated, be proactive, and challenge anyone who claims it is impact damage to reproduce the issue by any sort of impact they choose which will likewise smash the screen behind the surface, but leaving the surface unblemished.

My guess is that all those TVs that have suffered real impact damage won’t have that unblemished surface.

As to what the issue actually is, any TV screen puts out a certain amount of heat; hold your hand up near one to feel it. So the gubbins inside need room to expand as the temperature rises; if they are clamped or constricted, something has to give. Hence - internal cracking behind an unblemished surface.

[Muttley14]

 Thank your for your advice royabrown2 and apologies for the delay in replying - we have had a family bereavement.  I’ve taken photos as you

 

 

suggested. The cracks show clearly when plugged in and absolutely nothing shows when not plugged in, although its very difficult to get a good picture without any reflection. I am hoping to find an independent engineer next week to look inside TV and write a report