7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
steer clear of this one!
Date of Review: Jan 14, 2008
The Bottom Line: Based on their customer service and quality, steer clear of not only this product, but all Phillips products!
bradshawcl gave an excellent review as far as the technical aspects of this machine go, so I won't go there. I bought this unit to replace a vcr that was about 10 years old and had gone bad, and a dvd player. I wanted to reduce the amount of units taking up space below the tv. I have only watched a few dvd's in the unit. I also found that they had a tendency to want to stop, and pause occasionally, only to start back up. It seemed like every dvd I watched did this. I originally thought that it was the dvd, but after the third or fourth time, I took the dvd into another machine, and it played the same section fine.
The big problem is with the vcr side. First of all, it probably hadn't been used a dozen times. I put a tape in this afternoon, and hit the play button, and nothing. I thought that maybe it was at the end of the tape. I hit the eject button to check it, and the tape didn't want to come out. The tape itself was stuck. With a little finagling, I was able to get the tape out, but it was so stretched and twisted, that I wasn't even able to save the tape, by cutting out the section and splicing it, and I've been splicing tapes and saving them for 30 years. This was a brand new tape, btw. I then grabbed an older tape that I could afford to lose and tried it. It tried to play for a few seconds, and I even saw a streaked picture for a second or two while the player ground away, and I do mean ground. It was making a horrible noise. That tape stopped after about 5 seconds.
I then got on the phone and called Phillips customer service. I've only had the unit about 4 months. Here is the limited part of their warranty. You have to send the machine to them at your cost. They then will check the machine and replace it. But, they will tell you that it takes 10 to 15 business days. That is 2 to 3 weeks just at their facility. Then, they will also tell you, if you ask, that you are liable to get someone else's problem machine that has been repaired instead of a new one. When I asked about that, the rep told me that the machine will have been repaired and checked before we send it to you. My response was that the new one should have been too, so that wasn't very comforting.
So it looks like I will be missing a machine for the next month, and may not even get a new one as a replacement.
There is now excuse for it taking that long.
After dealing with Phillips customer service, I don't planning on buying another Phillips product.
