Sony 26" KDL26S3000U

I finally cracked a few weeks ago and ordered a TV for our bedroom. We've been without a telly in the bedroom for a couple of years now (probably since I installed the home cinema). To be honest I just couldn't get my head round what TV to go for as I've been pretty underwhelmed every time I've seen an LCD or Plasma TV in the flesh when playing from a standard definition source (as this will be purely for freeview only).

After much deliberation I settled on a requirement of 26" screen size as the best compromise between available space and cost. Trawling through avforums for some inspiration and I settled on the Sony KDL26S3000U. The best price with stock available I could find was from play.com at £399.99. The deal was done and fitted in perfectly with Lesley's holiday so someone would be in for delivery. The TV arrived on schedule as promised, so far so good.

That night I unpacked the unit, assembled it to the stand, plugged in the aerial and switched it on. It went straight away into an automatic set-up routine, all as expected. It prompted for a few button presses to set the required information and that's where it all went wrong. I automatically grabbed the remote to enter the info but it wouldn't respond to the remote. There were buttons on the top of the unit which replicated some of the remote functionality so I used them. I thought once the set-up was complete it would respond to the remote. The TV scanned the available channels and picked all the Freeview offerings pretty quickly. But it still wouldn't respond to the remote. I changed the batteries but still no joy, I even pressed the buttons really hard (as you do when angry and frustrated) but it still failed to respond. I then discovered if I held the remote right up to the IR eye the telly would change channels etc. It appeared that the receiver had become dislodged within the case. Bummer.

I'm sure I could have opened the case and fixed the receiver location but I wasn't about to poke inside a brand new (but faulty) telly and run the risk of running into guarantee issues later. So off I went to phone play.com and get it sorted. I was annoyed at the waste of time and the fact that someone would have to stay in to wait for the return pick up and then wait again for a new one to be delivered so I said straight away I wanted to return it for a full refund. Play.com were very apologetic, arranged a pick up for the following day (I warned them it must be in the morning but they couldn't promise anything).

To cut a long story short the unit was picked up the following morning as arranged. Play.com have a policy where opened, faulty returns are checked before a refund can be given and this takes 2 weeks. So after waiting 2 weeks and no sign of a refund on my credit card I phoned them up all prepared to give them a hard time. They confirmed that the unit had arrived and said a refund should have been issued (but hadn't). They promised to sort that immediately, which they did.

So, reasonably well done to play.com for handling the return nearly faultlessly and boos all round to Sony for producing crap.

I still haven't decided what to get for the bedroom (26" with built-in Freeview) but it won't be a Sony.

Category:

• Sony
• LCD
• TV