TV Warranties And Scams – 2UE With Steve Liebmann

I’m heading up to the US with internet security software company Symantec where I’ll be looking at the latest way these guys are fighting against cyber crime. Cyber crime is no longer the field of pimply teenage nerds trying to cause you grief – these are hard core crime syndicates mainly out of Asia and Eastern Europe who will do anything to get your money off you. I’ll report back when I get home on what the latest scams.

Had plenty of phone calls this morning. First up, spoke with Jessie who was having email problems. It seems that when she tries to retrieve emails from her laptop from two different account, only the most current communications show up, and nothing historical is in the inbox. It turns out Jessie accesses two emails from both her laptop and desktop and there is a compatibility between both of the accounts. I suggest that she uses one account to do so.

Debbie was disappointed that the screen of her $600 AWA LCD television she bought two-and-a-half years ago had died. According to the repairer, a new screen would cost $1,200. I always advise people to buy name brands if they want a longer lasting experience, or an extended warranty. And always check your warranties – both from the store and manufacturer.

In saying that, I got a call from Brian who had his branded name TV go belly-up after just six weeks. The retailer didn’t want to know about it, and the manufacturer took its time getting back to him. There is a difference between both Debbie and Brian’s experience, in that Brian will eventually get his new television. However, the manufacturer needs to learn about customer relations, because Brian was far from happy with the company’s service.

Dorothy had bought a VHS to DVD recorder so she could put her memories from the old analogue VHS onto the digital format, but she was unsure of the technology. At its most basic you plug in a cable into the output socket of the VHS player and then put the other end of the cable into the input socket of the DVD player and push the start button.

Gay reminded us that there are statutory warranties available on most items, which a lot of consumers don’t know about. These have been brought about by work done by the likes of the ACCC and Choice Magazine, who try and make sure our rights are covered. So if you have a faulty product and you think it is still within warranty, then you have to recourse by checking out statutory warranty provisions.

Finally, Max had a query about YouTube videos not downloading properly. This can be a couple of things – you have a slow internet speed (most likely), or you have a processor with not enough oompf to stream in real time (possible depending on how old your computer is). If you have a slow download speed, I suggest you wait until the whole video has rendered before you watch it (this is possible by following the red line at the bottom of the video, which is scrolling across the screen).

Thank you so much for all your calls, we received too many to answer in the segment – even though our slot is longer than ever! If we didn’t get to you on air, please post them below so we can get an answer for you. Be sure to listen next week on 2UE from 10:30am for our regular technology segment on 2UE.