Did anyone else buy an Olevia HDTV from Target?

[anet99999]

So, was anyone else here was foolhardy enough to have purchased an Olevia HDTV? I bought an Olevia 237T 37" 720p LCD HDTV in March of 2008 from Target, with the 3-year extended warranty. It was a really lovely TV while it worked, which admittedly wasn't all that long. I swapped my failing TV once under warranty, and the refurbished unit I received in its place failed as well. Unfortunately, I was not able to get satisfaction for this unit before Olevia's parent co, Syntax Brillian, filed for Chapter 11 last week. So I'm left with a malfunctioning HDTV, and will have to put the screws to Target, or whomever underwrites their extended warranties, to get some satisfaction. Hopefully they will either replace it with another comparable brand TV and will honor the 1.5-year balance of my warranty, or just give me a refund. Maybe a big fat Target gift card?

I've already replaced it with a Samsung LN40B530 40" 1080p LCD HDTV, which is a great TV. I bought this unit from Sears, with the extended warranty as well, so no worries about this one.

I'm curious if anyone had a similar experience with an Olevia HDTV, or if they've had to press Target to honor an extended warranty for a product when the manufacturer goes out of business.

[anet99999]

Update: Target is honoring the extended warranty, even if the manufacturer has gone bankrupt. I'm shipping my Olevia HDTV to Target's contracted repair center. Either they will repair and return it, or if they're unable to repair it due to unavailability of parts (increasingly likely as they're no longer being manufactured), I will get a refund in the form of a Target gift card for the purchase price.

+1 to Target for standing behind their store-bought extended warranties.

[langn08]

Congrats, and nice choice with the LN40B530

[mj79]

Originally Posted by anet99999

So, was anyone else here was foolhardy enough to have purchased an Olevia HDTV? I bought an Olevia 237T 37" 720p LCD HDTV in March of 2008 from Target, with the 3-year extended warranty. It was a really lovely TV while it worked, which admittedly wasn't all that long. I swapped my failing TV once under warranty, and the refurbished unit I received in its place failed as well. Unfortunately, I was not able to get satisfaction for this unit before Olevia's parent co, Syntax Brillian, filed for Chapter 11 last week. So I'm left with a malfunctioning HDTV, and will have to put the screws to Target, or whomever underwrites their extended warranties, to get some satisfaction. Hopefully they will either replace it with another comparable brand TV and will honor the 1.5-year balance of my warranty, or just give me a refund. Maybe a big fat Target gift card?

I've already replaced it with a Samsung LN40B530 40" 1080p LCD HDTV, which is a great TV. I bought this unit from Sears, with the extended warranty as well, so no worries about this one.

I'm curious if anyone had a similar experience with an Olevia HDTV, or if they've had to press Target to honor an extended warranty for a product when the manufacturer goes out of business.

very wise choice.. olivia is terrible.. now get that sammy calibrated for some true HD and PQ

[anet99999]

Originally Posted by mj79

very wise choice.. olivia is terrible.. now get that sammy calibrated for some true HD and PQ

Yeah, got any tips? I don't think I currently have it calibrated correctly.

[mj79]

Originally Posted by anet99999

Yeah, got any tips? I don't think I currently have it calibrated correctly.

try this bro.. this should be a good starting point.. then we can tweak from there... this is a pretty standard calibration i use when in a lit room with ambient light... So try this out and see what you think.. Remember alot of this is based on lighting and placement.. and Is mainly set for getting the color reproduction tight to give the best "cinema " experience




* Picture Modes
o Picture Mode : Movie
o Color Temperature : Warm 1
o Aspect Ratio : 16 x 9 or Just scan.. i like just scan myself

* Picture Settings
o Backlight : 6
o Contrast : 95
o Brightness : 46
o Sharpness : 10
o Color : 45
o Tint : G50/R50

* Advanced Settings
o Black Tone : Off
o Dynamic Contrast : Off ( try to toggle this between off and low, to see if you prefer one or the other AFTER all the other settings )
o Gamma : 0
o Color Space : Auto
o White Balance : Factory Default
o Fleshtone : 0
o Edge Enhancement : Off

* Picture Options
o Color Tone : Warm 1
o Size : 16:9
o Digital NR : Off
o HDMI Black Level : Low
o Film Mode : Auto 1
o Blue Only Mode : Off
o Auto Motion Plus : Off

[anet99999]

Nice, thanks for the tips.

[Blu-Ron]

We have one in the bedroom. No issues at all.

[anet99999]

Originally Posted by anet99999

Update: Target is honoring the extended warranty, even if the manufacturer has gone bankrupt. I'm shipping my Olevia HDTV to Target's contracted repair center. Either they will repair and return it, or if they're unable to repair it due to unavailability of parts (increasingly likely as they're no longer being manufactured), I will get a refund in the form of a Target gift card for the purchase price.

+1 to Target for standing behind their store-bought extended warranties.

My final update (I hope): my Olevia HDTV was shipped to Target's repair contractor, Lifetime Service Center. I don't know what they ultimately diagnosed the problem to be with the TV, but I guess they determined it couldn't be repaired. A Target CSR phoned me to tell me they're mailing me a Target gift card for the full purchase price I paid for the TV. I reiterate my +1 to Target for standing behind their warranty.

So I guess the moral of the story is Buy The Extended Warranty when you buy a new HDTV...

[MountainBlu]

Congrats on getting your money back. I know you must have been sweating that one!

I almost bought one of those Olevia models myself, but decided at the last second to hold off. I seem to recall that Olevia was getting decent reviews at one point and that almost swayed me to buy one.

I've been very pleased with my Toshiba 42" LCD for the last year and a half.

[March6th]

Originally Posted by anet99999

My final update (I hope): my Olevia HDTV was shipped to Target's repair contractor, Lifetime Service Center. I don't know what they ultimately diagnosed the problem to be with the TV, but I guess they determined it couldn't be repaired. A Target CSR phoned me to tell me they're mailing me a Target gift card for the full purchase price I paid for the TV. I reiterate my +1 to Target for standing behind their warranty.

So I guess the moral of the story is Buy The Extended Warranty when you buy a new HDTV...

Hello , 1st time poster here and saw your thread.

I am currently in this process with Lifetime Service Center. I bought the Olevia 237t on Black Friday sale in Nov. 2007 and it has been a great TV. Around Labor Day it started acting up. You would be watching TV and the screen would go black. Sometimes it wouldn't do it for a while but sometimes it would do it multiple times within a couple of hours. Just seemed like a random thing it was doing but was starting to get annoying. You had to turn it off, wait a couple of seconds and turn it back on and it would work fine until it did again whether that was 15 minutes later or later that day. I bought the extended warranty thing for it when I bought it and still had all my paperwork for it in order so I called the number on the extended warranty card. People on the phone were very nice. Thought I was going to get an India help desk or something but actually spoke to some really nice people and explained what was happening. They said they would send me a box to box it up with prepaid label. I took the 2 hours to unhook everything when I got it and boxed it up and shipped it out crossing my fingers as I waved bye bye to it. A couple of days later I Googled Lifetime Service Center and actually found their website and there is a link that you can track your repair status which I have done which is pretty cool. Currently it just says "in progress" as of the date they received it of 9-23-09. I found a repair status email for them that I emailed yesterday to try to get any kind of update and to request a tracking number for when it will be shipped back to me but have not heard from anyone yet. If I don't hear from anyone by email come Monday I am going to call the customer service number on the home page. Anyway, was wondering if anyone knew what the turnaround time on something like this is and if it does happen to turn out that they cannot fix it and they just send me a gift card my other question is this. This was like a 800.00 TV i think but I got it on sale from Target for that Black Friday sale so the gift card I get back is only going to be for the amount + tax that I paid right? I would still be stuck with the difference if I had to go out and get another one from them that I could not find for what I paid for the original? https://forum.blu-ray.com/images/icons/icon8.gif

[March6th]

Well it took a month and a half but I finally got the TV back on Wednesday Nov. 11th. I go to watch it tonight and BAM. It does the exact same thing it did before where the screen will fade to black. Worked great for 2 whole days. I am so mad right now. Target or Lifetime Service Center or whoever it is that makes the final decision BETTER help me out. I will be calling them 1st thing Monday morning to get results. I was so mad I left a message on their after hours vmail. A month and a half and it does the exact same thing. Unbelievable. Even had a note from the technician saying it was fully tested to manufacturers specifications.

Pathetic.

They better do something about this or I will go to Better Business Bureau.

[Megan3142]

Originally Posted by March6th

Well it took a month and a half but I finally got the TV back on Wednesday Nov. 11th. I go to watch it tonight and BAM. It does the exact same thing it did before where the screen will fade to black. Worked great for 2 whole days. I am so mad right now. Target or Lifetime Service Center or whoever it is that makes the final decision BETTER help me out. I will be calling them 1st thing Monday morning to get results. I was so mad I left a message on their after hours vmail. A month and a half and it does the exact same thing. Unbelievable. Even had a note from the technician saying it was fully tested to manufacturers specifications.

Pathetic.

They better do something about this or I will go to Better Business Bureau.

Not that this has anything to do with this message board, but I am having an issue with the Lifetime Service Center as well. They have had my iPod since November 17th. I called to check the status of my claim on December 1st and they said they were waiting on a hard drive to come in. My iPod and extended warranty were a gift from Target, and Target has been great! Just got off the phone with a customer service rep from Target and she contacted Lifetime as well. They told her that they ordered the part on December 7th and were waiting on it with no ETA on arrival. Absolutely ridiculous. I'm not a super electronics whiz but even I knew what was wrong before I sent it off.

So, although this post might not belong on this message board, I googled Lifetime Service Center and it brought me here. I just want to agree Anet99999 - Target has been great. This repair company is horrible! Just by thoughts.