As my luck would have it, I am watching TV three weeks ago when all of the sudden, it turns off as if I had pressed the power button. Odd, because I didn’t. Maybe Jacinta did on accident? I tried turning it back on. The unit clicked on like normal, the green LED light lit up like normal… but there was no picture. After about 10 seconds, the TV turns itself back off. Yay, now I have a new black mirror in my living room!

The TV is only 8 months old and was manufactured in the same month I purchased it. I had the TV connected to my APC Battery Backup so there is little chance it was an electrical issue with the power it was being fed.

On the bright side, the TV is only 8 months old which means it is still under the 1 year manufacturer’s warranty!

The Warranty Process

I called Sanyo tech support the same day it broke and was told that I wouldn’t have to pay for anything and it would be fixed under warranty. He told me that a technician would call me the next day. He did, but he needed the serial number which I didn’t have access to at the time. Two days later, I called back with the serial number and again was told that a technician would return my call (I was calling “after hours” apparently and was getting a foreign phone rep).

The technician called the next day, I explained that I had called previously but didn’t have the S/N at the time. He tried to look up my information but couldn’t find it. So, I gave him all of my info. again along with the S/N and explained that if possible, it would be great if someone could do an in-home repair as it would be difficult for me to take the TV somewhere myself. He said he would check around and call me back the very next day. Of course, he never did.

A few days later, I call back and speak to the same guy. They had no record of me in their system, nice. After repeating my story for the third time, he said he would print out the info. and put it on his boss’ desk and that there shouldn’t be any problems getting this taken care of. He assured me someone would call me the next day. Guess what - they didn’t.

I was busy the next few days and never got around to making the return call. Last Friday, however, I finally called them back and talked to the same guy once again. He said he couldn’t find my info. at first, put me on hold then magically returned with it. He gave me the number to a local shop and told me to call them in an hour to schedule the in-home repair. Now we are making progress!

I did as I was told an hour later but Sanyo still had not contacted them. The lady at the repair shop said she would call me when they got the info. from Sanyo, which she did about 30 minutes later.

I explained what had happened and she said they couldn’t fix it in-home but would come and pick the TV up and take it back to their shop. That’s fine, I suppose and everything was scheduled for today. I was told they would call before they came to verify someone was at home.

Today rolls around and still no call around 3pm, so I call the local shop. She said they tried to call me earlier - nope! Turns out, Sanyo gave them the wrong number for me and now, they can’t make it back out until Thursday.

Gah, what a headache! Three weeks in and the TV is still sitting here staring at me. If only all companies were as good as Apple about replacing broken equipment. Their 3 day turnaround was mind blowing!

Fortunately, I have still been able to watch television and play Xbox using a 24″ computer monitor with HDMI that I reviewed earlier this month. Strangely enough, I really haven’t missed not having the big TV all that much.

Have any of you had nightmare stories trying to get work done under warranty?

My replacement iPhone arrived today. I am glad to have the entire situation resolved and without costing me $400 for a new phone. Apple’s customer service was fantastic; I couldn’t have asked for any better service. Apple really isn’t as bad as many people make them out to be

Wow… never have I received such quick service on a damaged / broken electronic product!

Thursday, I called Apple to report my dead iPhone. Friday, I received a loaner unit (also an iPhone) and shipped out my broken phone for repairs in their pre-paid shipping box. Saturday (today), they received the package, diagnosed it and determined that it was indeed dead. I now have the tracking number for my replacement iPhone, which will be here Monday. It doesn’t get much better or faster than that!

Less than 24 hours after calling Apple, a brand new iPhone “loaner” unit arrived at my place.

I must say, I am impressed by how quick this arrived. They even included a paper clip to help remove the SIM card tray. I called FedEx to come pick up the return package, which was already labeled for Priority with Saturday Delivery - nice!

Hopefully I should get my iPhone back (I am assuming a new unit) late next week. For now, I am just happy to have a working phone again.

Also, I was unsure if any of my stored data (text messages, saved notes, etc) was saved on the SIM card, but thankfully, it is. I have some important notes I keep in my phone that I wouldn’t want a stranger to intercept.

I plugged my iPhone in to charge yesterday, and when I went to get in bed later that night, I found the phone was SUPER HOTTT, almost too hot to touch without pain!

The case that the phone was in (silicon case) was all greasy as if it were about to melt. I pulled the iPhone from the charger and tried to turn it on, to which I received a white screen. I then turned the iPhone off. I quickly grabbed my IR thermometer to measure just how hot the iPhone was.

It took longer than anticipated for the battery to cool, as I think the battery in the phone was still holding a strong charge.

And now, my iPhone is completely dead. It won’t turn on, recharge or anything. Just my luck.

I talked with Apple earlier today (had to borrow my roommates phone, blah). They are sending me a “service” iPhone to use in the meantime, which should be here tomorrow, as well as a box to ship my broken phone back to Apple. I was told that it isn’t terribly uncommon to have this happen, especially if you are using a case on your iPhone, which I was. I should have some type of fix / replacement in 3-5 business days.

I was doing some website work yesterday when out of nowhere, I thought of a great idea for a new website name. I headed over to my domain registration site of choice, Dotster.com and logged into my account. When I logged in, I notice something highlighted in red: the expiration date for my tech site, OCIA.net!

The domain name was set to expire in just five days and I was not sent any kind of warning about it; that is pretty scary! Now, whether or not they would have sent me an email in the coming days is unknown, but I certainly didn’t feel too great about the lack of notice and promptly extended my registration for another year. I am terrible when it comes to remembering things like this, so if you are anything like me, be sure to keep a close eye on your domains and know when they are scheduled to expire. I can only imagine the nightmare I would have had to face if someone snatched the domain from me!

As the saying goes, “when it rains, it pours”. That saying certainly holds true for me and my string of bad luck.

Over two weeks ago, the dryer in my apartment stopped working. We contacted the maintenance staff and over the course of the past two weeks, they came out repeatedly, even replacing a “broken” part, only for the issue to remain.

Last Friday, I found the maintenance guy around the complex and had him come look at it again. He checked on things and said he had to go talk to his supervisor. He leaves and I head to my room… then notice the kitchen floor is covered in soap suds from the dishwasher. Lovely… so one of my roommates and I get to cleaning that up. I go check under my bathroom sink to grab some towels… oh wait, everything under the sink is soaked! I turned the faucet on and water was just streaming from the pipe underneath.

All of this in the span of about seven minutes! Needless to say, Friday was not a very good day.

It is now Tuesday. The sink was fixed yesterday and the dishwasher, well not real sure what happened there but it is working fine now. The dryer, not so much. They came and looked at it Monday morning… it broke again, so I went and complained to the manager at the leasing office. They returned again today, and it seems now that you can run it on the delicate cycle… which is great, but it takes two full runs to dry a regular load of clothes.

Blah, I need a vacation…

I have been using Blockbuster’s Total Access program for a few months now. I had always wondered how the DVDs arrived without being damaged, as they are shipped in a simple paper envelope. Well today, I found that one movie I ordered was cracked!

This brings up an interesting question of just how many movies are damaged during shipment on a daily basis. I am sure Blockbuster wouldn’t release this data but I, for one, would be really curious to know the answer. Perhaps a stiffer cardboard shipping container would work better?

Either way, I’m just glad that I won’t be responsible for the damaged movie. Has this ever happened to any of you that use Total Access or Netflix?

Have you ever done something really stupid? I do, all the time…

Apparently I didn’t learn my lesson a few weeks ago when a Coke got too cold in my fridge and exploded. Yesterday after getting back from the football game (horrible loss btw), I put a canned Coke in the freezer to chill it quickly.

Then, I forgot about it… until this morning. Yes, you know the rest.

For this, I deserve a…

So I’m watching a movie yesterday afternoon and all of the sudden I hear a small “explosion”. I wasn’t sure what it was or where it even came from (plus I was pretty into the movie), so I shrugged it off and stuck with the movie.

Afterwards I decided to grab a Coke from the fridge and, well, yeah, I found what caused the explosion…

Just how I wanted to spend my Monday evening… cleaning up a sticky mess!

Turns out, the mini fridge gets really cold on the center shelf, because that is where the vent is that pumps cold air in. The can froze and expanded with pressure until it was just too much for the aluminum top.

Just another chapter for my future book, “Point & Laugh”…