Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Crappy product with even worse customer service
I bought this player about 6 months ago for our bedroom as a backup player to the Sony in the den.  We have played less than 10 DVD's on it and it is now dead.  When I put a DVD in, it comes back with the \\"No Disc\\" message.  I have tried numerous DVD's and they all give the same message.  It will play CD's.  I did some research on the internet and it seems this is a fairly common problem.  I also read somewhere that you could bump it while loading and it would play.  I tried that and got it to work once so I am guessing something is just out of line. <br /> <br />Anyway, I called Philips over the weekend and after going through their standard troubleshooting script, they informed me it was out of warranty but could be exchanged for a fee.  As I discovered, the warranty is only 90 days free replacement.  From 91 days to a year, there is an exchange program for a fee.  I guess I should have known the warranty was only 90 days but I never even looked at the warranty.  In my experience, if electronics work out of the box, they don't fail in 90 days.  I now realize that is true for quality electronics but not Philips electronics.  I asked how much the fee was and the lady said the fee was not listed on her sheet.  She gave me a claim number and told me to call back on Monday.  I called on Monday and went thru a similar experience.  This time the lady put me on hold to call the RMA department to get the fee.  After three attempts (the line was busy), I asked to be transferred to a supervisor.  The supervisor came on the line and I explained the situation to him and asked for consideration on the warranty.  He said there was no flexibility or exceptions with the warranty.  I expressed my dissatisfaction with the product and lack of consideration.   I then asked to speak to someone higher up in management.  He flatly refused to provide me with any other contact information.  He said it was his department's job to \\"give the bad news to the customer\\" and not to pass them on up the chain.   He then asked if I was interested in paying the fee or not.  I asked him how much it was.  He said they had still not gotten in touch with the RMA department because the line was still busy.  He seemed oblivious to the significance of a long wait for someone in RMA.  He told me he would try to get in touch with them by at least tomorrow.  Obviously they are having more product problems than they can effectively handle.   <br /> <br />From the other reviews on here, apparently this is a pretty good player when it works.  I wouldn't know since I only played a few DVD's with it.  My advice is to avoid any products from Philips, especially this one.  With their short warranty and lousy customer service, it's obviously a gamble doing business with them.  Electronics should last years, not days.   <br /> <br />PS..Almost forgot.  When I was talking to the Philips customer care representative, he asked me where I bought it.  I told him Amazon.  He then went on to tell me that when you buy Philips products online from places like Amazon and Overstock that you are buying refurbished units.  I told him it was advertised as new and that I knew Amazon would not misrepresent the product.  Amazon had also shipped it to me within 2 months of the manufactured date so I didn't believe him.  He just repeated his statement.  I called Amazon after getting off the phone with Philips.  The Amazon customer care rep was very friendly, professional and assured me the product they shipped was new and she did not know why Philips would be saying that.  I also must add what a contrast in customer care experiences between Amazon and Philips in the span of 10 minutes.   <br />