The VPW450 has a decent display

The warranty and the customer service is terrible! I am giving this a POOR rating because of the extremly poor way my warranty was handled and the fact that no two Viewsonic customer reps can tell the same story.

Buyer Beware - Ask about the Warranty! The Viewsonic VPW450 is actually not truly a Viewsonic product. It's actually a Sampo. I purchased my Sampo (AKA Viewsonic VPW450) HD Plasma TV in Oct 2004 from Ecost. When I received it, it was in good condition and it had a very good picture. I was a little upset to find a Sampo owner’s manual written completely in Chinese. I found out later that they had accidentally forgotten to remove it and put in a Viewsonic manual. I was pleased with the display but the built in TV tuner is just about worthless. It takes forever to switch between channels and the built in speakers were only installed so that they could say it has them. If you buy this system, you should plan on using a VCR or other TV Tuner, not the one that comes with it. Six months after I purchased the set, which was manufactured in July 2004, it crapped out. No picture or controls whatsoever. When I called Viewsonic, they said they would replace it or repair it. I told them I would like my TV repaired, so they sent some guy to my house with a box of parts and he had to keep calling Viewsonic to get authorization to change each part. After changing two boards, they told him he was not authorized to change any more boards. The repair guy told me that he believed the problem was a logic board, but there was no logic board included in the repair kit. When the repair failed, they told me my only option was to send it back to Viewsonic so they could replace it. At first they told me that the replacement would be from "Service Stock" which is essentially new, but they just open them up to make sure that they work and they told me "Service Stock" does not mean "Refurbished". That turned out to be a complete lie! The only way they would work the deal is that you have to send your TV in first, then, once they receive it, they will send you a replacement. It took 7 weeks for me to get my replacement TV. When I finally did receive it, it turned out to be a "Refurbished" TV that was manufactured in June 2003. I knew it was a refurb when I found a thick coat of dust on the power button. At least this time, they gave me a Viewsonic owner’s manual written in English. I called to complain about my 6-month old set being replaced by a 2-year old refurb set and told them that it was supposed to be like new. They told me that they never said that and they admitted that their warranty replacements ARE refurbs and that they had never told me otherwise. I was furious, but when I complained, they told me there was not anything they could do. This replacement TV didn't even work the same as my original. There were no longer any on-screen displays to tell me what mode I was in. About one week later, my refurb Sampo crapped out with the exact same problem. I called customer service to let them know and they told me that I would have to send this one in to get a replacement. I explained that Plasma displays have a certain lifespan, and since I had only owned my new plasma for six months, I would like one with at least a manufacture date as new as my original. They ended up sending me a replacement that was manufactured in Jan 2004. Six months older than the one I originally sent them and no telling how many hours it had on it. Well, this Sampo has been working for about a month now and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, and the over two months that I lost waiting for my new Sampo to be shipped, one guy at Viewsonic said I would get credit for the extra 2 months if my TV crapped out just past the one-year warranty period. However, later I was told by another customer service representative that I was not told this by anyone at Viewsonic. I was then told they would not honor anything past 12-months, even though at the one-year point, I will have only used my Sampo for about 10 months! If you can keep it working, this is not a bad plasma display. Just hope and pray you don't have a problem with it!

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