Back in January of 2007 I plonked down around £1200 on a 42″ Sharp Aquos LCD, having succeeded in convincing my local Curry’s to price match with an online store and saving something like £200-£300 into the bargain.  We let them deliver it and for a while all was good, but over the last month or so I’ve become increasingly aware of a faint dark smudge across the top of the screen.  It was very noticable in dark programme scenes and on the greyed out XBox screens, but even more so when showing a large expanse of blue sky – making even the sunniest days look smog-filled.

Thankfully I had opted for a service agreement/insurance plan (call it what you will) called ‘whateverhappens’, which Curry’s were offering for £8.99 a month at the time.  Normally I don’t touch extended warranties with a barge pole, but the PAYG option genuinely seemed a better deal than spending £300 all in one go.  They explained that – as indicated by the name – I would be covered for whatever happened to the TV as long as I was paying the insurance.

So, Monday rolled around and I called the 0870 number on my paperwork.  I got through to a real-life human after patiently wading through around 8 levels of menu options and explained what I thought was wrong.  An engineer was booked for the very next day, and I was told he’d call to confirm an ETA. Sure enough, I stumbled blurry-eyed into the kitchen the next morning to find a message left on my mobile – the engineer had called at 7:30am and said he’d be arriving between 09:00 and 13:00. While not as bad as Argos and their ‘anywhere between 9am and 5pm’ estimates, it was still pretty vague.

He arrived at 10:45, took one look at the picture and promptly diagnosed a faulty panel.  I was quite relieved at this since the internet is full of stories of companies trying to get out of their promises. The engineer then went on to point out other areas of the screen that were discoloured as well which, in all honesty, I hadn’t really noticed, took a few details, filled in some paperwork and made a phone call to have the set collected. The next day, two gents turn up, more paperwork is exchanged and my lovely big TV is manhandled out the door to a waiting lorry.  Since the insurance specifies ‘New or Better’ in the event it cannot be repaired, and since Curry’s no longer sell the 42″ Aquos but do sell the 46″ one, I offered to trip them up on the way out so that the set would definately not be repairable.  They politely declined.

Around Tuesday I called another 0870 number (Grrr..) to ask what sort of timescale I should expect, and was informed that I should have a call, letter or whatever around the end of the week.  When I called on Friday, it was confirmed that my TV was ‘beyond econimcal repair’ and I would be receiving a voucher in the post. I called again on Monday after nothing had arrived over the weekend an I was told it would be 5-7 days from the date of issue – the 29th.

This is the biggest holdup in the process and the only part of the entire service which lets it down. If your TV cannot be repaired economically then they’ll post you a reference number, leaving you at the mercy of the post office, all the time without your TV. This is Space Year 2009! Why can’t they just call my local store with the details and tell me when to go and present my Photo ID?  They could email, SMS or even Tweet this bloody reference number – all options which would get things resolved much more quickly.

By Tuesday the voucher had arrived but the value on it was not enough to buy a set of the same specification. The staff at Curry’s were very helpful in that they called whateverhappens and got them to issue a second, additional voucher to bring the total up to something more useful. The whole process essentially went without a hitch, and the longest aprt – aside from the waiting – was deciding which of the multitute of TVs was the best for me.  In the end I paid some extra and carted away a 50in plasma and a BluRay player.

Some things I’ve learned:
Currys are dropping the Sharp range. No idea why, but the Sharp models are priced at £xxx.97, indicating they are discontinued.
They are currently not giving discounts, presumably because of the current financial climate.
They will only price match a local store that has your item in stock. Gone are the days of matching an Internet price.
If you ask nicely, they will call whateverhappens and try to increase the cost of your voucher. It’s in their interest to sell pricier items.
‘Same spec’ is useless – just because an Vauxhall has four wheels, five seats and a steering wheel, it’s not a BMW.