This is not going to be a medical post in the least.  Instead, it will be a post wherein I complain about our flat screen TV.

We bought it from Dell in the middle of 2006.  42″ flat screen, model # W4201C. I thought it was a little odd that my husband wanted a TV from a computer company, but whatever.  It has worked flawlessly… until about a week or so ago.

At that point, it started shutting off randomly by itself.  A few days later, it would do the “click” when we turned it on, and the power light would come on, but there was no picture for at least 5-15 minutes.

On Saturday, it simply refused to come on at all.

I called customer service and they had me do some dancing and unplugging and replugging, etc etc etc.  Then when that failed to work (shocking), I had to call the out-of-warranty phone #.  I did that… only to find out that while it would only cost $260 to diagnose/troubleshoot the problem, it would cost us $1,200 to ship it to Ohio.

Um.

Why am I writing about this on my blog exactly?  Well, because after a cursory search on Google, I cannot find a decent way to contact someone at Dell to complain.  I have a burning need to complain about this SOMEWHERE to SOMEONE because this TV is not even 3 years old yet.

So because I looooooove watching The Amazing Race (and last time I checked it was not possible to watch it online), my dear husband hooked up the TV his parents bought him before he went to college.  We are now watching an 18 year old 13 inch TV.

We plugged it in and it came on instantly.

So the moral of this story is to think twice about buying anything from Dell.  I am aware that our big 42″ flat screen TV is out of warranty, and I’m semi-happy to have it fixed, but if the only place I can send it to is 1400 miles away, then Dell – I am awarding you an official Customer Service FAIL.

Anyone need a 240 pound paperweight?