Just what
Toshiba needed, right? As if the economy wasn't hammering the company's bottom line badly enough, United States Magistrate Judge Steven M. Gold of the Eastern District of New York has just entered a decision that'll force it to pay up over $1 million in order to settle a class action lawsuit it just lost. Originally filed in 2007, the suit alleged "that the lamps of certain
Toshiba DLP televisions were susceptible to premature failure causing purchasers to repeatedly expend hundreds of dollars for replacement bulbs, which allegedly suffered from the same defect." After a thorough investigation, it was found that Tosh would be responsible for reimbursing those who purchased a
bulb replacement that failed prematurely, and the warranty on replacement bulbs has been pushed from six months to a full year. Naturally, the law firm representing the 265,000 or so affected individuals was quite stoked with the outcome, as should you be if you're in that mix.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Griffon @ Mar 1st 2009 11:52PM
Panasonic had to do this too. Basicaly all RPLCD tv's ahve this issue. Ironical as part of the of settlement Panasonic replaces the TV's with, wait for it, new RPLCD set's. I have already had to replace the bulb once on the new set (though that was better then the every couple months on the original). I wonder when the next round will start :p.
shawnmos @ Mar 2nd 2009 12:26AM
The fact that you have to replace the bulb is why I never even considered a RPTV. You are getting an inferior picture and you don't really save any money at all in the long run.
Loban @ Mar 3rd 2009 3:06PM
The bulb didn't scare me away, but the inferior picture part did. Plasma kicked DLP's arse 3 years ago, and now it's even farther ahead. Too bad LCD is going to squash them both, even though it's also inferior to Plasma. Nothing like misleading marketing, misinformation, and consumer ignorance to enable inferior products to snuff out superior ones. Thank you Samsung.
Marty @ Mar 2nd 2009 2:58AM
once again, Engadget's take is inaccurate as this was an agreed upon settlement not one forced by the judge. The Judge simply appoved the agreement between the parties.
Jyncus @ Mar 2nd 2009 8:00AM
Do you really need to hear it again?
.."Engadget is a blog, not a news site."
If the 'inaccuracies' bother you so much, go find a news site to read.
squiggleslash @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:18AM
Jyncus - Why bother reading anything at all if there aren't even the minimal attempts at fact checking?
Maybe I should start SquiggleHD. I'll start with a story claiming all the movie studios are dropping Blu-ray. Then the next story will be on Apple's forthcoming 42" HD iPhone. Then I'll post a story claiming everyone's going to stop making plasma TVs.
Oh wait.
Anyway, that's OK and people should make comments in the related forums as if what I'd written was true, and never post corrections, because it's a blog right?
3dpenguin @ Mar 2nd 2009 11:50AM
squiggleslash & Jyncus
Well this is Engadget, and if you read it enough you learn to filter out the stories by specific contributors on certain subjects... This is a case in point, Darren Murph rarely if ever has anything nice to say about Toshiba, if a story comes up about Toshiba having troubles and its posted about here on EngadgetHD it'll be posted by Mr. Murph 9 out of 10 times, and the story should be taken on a based around a truth's grain of salt, and if you're actually interested in the story go and look it up on a more reliable source, because 100% of the information won't be given on this site.
Patrick Joseph @ Mar 2nd 2009 5:34AM
That's why I never bought a DLP, they are known to have bulb issues.
Mark @ Mar 2nd 2009 6:15AM
I have the T.V. pictured: 52WM48, Bought in the UK does anybody know if the warranty extension would apply over here? I ask because I have a bulb purchased around 8 months ago that has failed!
Peter F @ Mar 2nd 2009 7:58AM
As awesome as America is, I doubt our court system will reach back to your island. I'm not a lawyer, but I think your court system would have to sue?
earthling @ Mar 2nd 2009 9:40AM
@ shawnmos
All flat panels and all RPTV's (DLP, LCOS, LCD, etc), have bulbs of some sort (except LED backlight systems). All of these systems are susceptible to bulb failure and dimming over time. All of them could suffer from bulb failure, this is not something limited to either RPTV's or Toshiba, its just a Toshiba design flaw. The bulbs themselves in RPTVs are usually not that expensive and when you replace them, you are back to 100% performance WRT brightness, which is just not generally possible with other designs.
Nick @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:09AM
So lemme get this straight...... They are forced to pay up 1 million dollars. OK fine, I get that. But 1 million dollars split between 265,000 people?
So each person gets like 4 dollars then. Seems like a waste of time and energy to me.
squiggleslash @ Mar 2nd 2009 10:19AM
Nah. Everyone gets just under $2, the lawyers get $500,000...
Matt @ Mar 2nd 2009 11:18AM
My guess is the attorney and administration fees will be around 300k. The remaining 700k will be distributed to those who file a claim (maybe a quarter of the eligible claimants). So about 60,000 people will get $11.66.
Seems fair.
Antonius @ Mar 2nd 2009 11:40AM
I sold Toshiba RPTVs back in the day. Their bulbs would go out within 6-8 months. Compared to 2-3 years that the Samsung and Sony sets would get out of their bulbs. I'm glad to see people who bought these sets are getting some sort of retribution.
Nick @ Mar 2nd 2009 11:52AM
RP really doesn't need those tosh idiots anyway, I am happy as a pig in feces with my samsung DLP, and don't plan to hit up plasma or LCD anytime soon, as the picture rivals high-end and doesn't cost half of what a plasma screen the same size would cost me. Sure, I'll have to replace the bulb to the tune of a couple hundred bucks in a year or two, but if I burn in a plasma, or an LCD drops a few pixels, nothing will ever be done about it.
MI @ Mar 2nd 2009 12:45PM
toshiba? Are they still around?
Laurie Boswell @ Mar 2nd 2009 7:38PM
We bought a fabulous tv in Nov. 2005....great picture ...all our friends rave about the clarity and brightness...
Little did we know that the bulbs or something else in this TV was terribly wrong...Toshiba replaced our original bulb, but as of today I have now bought 3 bulbs at $225 each. It's not like you can buy these bulbs at your local hardware/electrical outlet store....We are usually looking at 7-10 days for the shipping....We paid about $2500 for the TV and now have spent $750 for bulb replacement. Next time it goes out, we may just get a new TV....anybody else having this problem ???
Arlentcolvin.copp @ May 23rd 2009 3:41AM
"I have the T.V. pictured: 52WM48, Bought in the UK does anybody know if the warranty extension would apply over here? http://www.dvd-to-psp.com I ask because I have a bulb purchased around 8 months ago that has failed!"