I purchased a Haier DVD Player (Model HD 103). I had looked up at various reviews posted on MS and found that there wasn’t a clear winner amongst the players - or so I felt. I had a previous GOOD
Experience with Haeir - when I purchased a TV of that Brand from Viveks’ Outlet at Vadapalani. In the past many years I have purchased many items from Viveks and found these to be of slightly below-average in terms of quality, cost & support.
However, due to the lack of other outlets around here (in the past years) and due to a distrust on other multibrand showrooms (like Vasanth & Co) I have stuck with Viveks. My good experience with Haeir was because their Customer/Tech support folks kept in touch with me after my purchase and dropped in to my home for a demo - proactively. That was something I had not experienced at any earlier time (except during my purchase of a BlueStart A/C - however, I had contacts with the Regional Manager of that Company & hence I’d rather treat it only as an Exception). Based on the good image Haeir had on me, I purchased this player.
However, it did not play. I had to take it back to Viveks on the same day of purchase and the Tech person there tried it out and it played well. He told that it could be due to a voltage problem at my home. I bought that explanation and returned home to try plugging it to a different socket. Once again it failed. Then, I tried playing MP3 CDs and it worked fine. So, I deduced that the problem was only with DVDs. I once again visited Viveks in person (this time without the DVD Player) and the Tech person/Sales person gave me the contact for Haeir Service Station near Nelson Manickam Road.
I called up those folks and after following up a couple of times a Service engineer turned up. The GOOD thing was I did not have to spend eternity following up with them - they took the request, gave me a Request number and asked me to quote the same if following up - which I had to just once (I believe). The service person had to try out various permutation & combination with the various internal components that he had with him. He tried replacing the heat-sink that is used to cool the IC; then tried replacing the motor that rotate the DVD, then tried replacing the power connection. Finally it worked when he changed the motor - however, it was making a small noise AND I wasn’t sure if he was installing a new & previously un-used component. Additionally, I also had trouble with the remote control.
He checked the remote and told that there was a carbon filter element in one of the switches that wasn’t working. Even if one were to repair the remote there was good chance that the filter would again fail & suggested that I get myself a replacement remote from the Haeir Office near Nelson Manickam Road. I went to this place & the manager there seemed pretty courteous - not too much but not too bad either. I had to photocopy the bill and provide the copy to him and sign in a receipt and within 40 minutes I was with a new remote control. Now, the DVD Player works - although I still need to test it out on a 5.1 speaker set up to verify if it works REAL WELL.
In all my suggestion - if you are ready to invest some time with the system to explore whats incorrect AND do not expect a demo and/or support at the drop of a hat - YOU CAN GO IN FOR A HAIER. However, if you’re not a real tech-amigo, you’d rather stay out of Haier DVD Player - at least.