Thomson 5 in 1 Plus the headache
This horror story happened in may 2001 when Thomson launched their 5-in-1 into the market. Our family decided to replace our existing Black/white Tv with a colour model and also get an Audio cassette player.
We went to a local shop called ’Jainsons’ in chennai, and we bought a good philips colour TV. The day before we were shopping I saw the thomson advertisement in The Hindu, informing about the launch of their new 5-in-1 player with 100 watts sound, which can play ACD, MP3, VCD, Tape recorder, FM Stereo. I was impressed by the advertisement and wanted to give Thomson a try.
The dealer informed us that this product is selling like hotcakes, they had a ’Mirinda’ coloured model and a blue one. We liked the blue colour and wanted to buy it, the dealer informed us that the prices of the audio system was 6990/- since it was costlier, i managed to pacify my brother that it was a good buy and also gave him a reason that my mom could enjoy her devotional audio cassette collection, and I can watch Vcd’s and can also play my collection of mp3 songs. Once my brother sayed ok, I thought I had just hit the bumper prize.
After buying it we connected this bread box to our PHILIPS 25’’ colour Tv and out we were enjoying our own collection of VCD’s. Some of our relatives who visited us were wondering what was this bread box, we had to inform them that was a vcd cum cassette player. Some of them smiled mysteriously.
The problems started after 10 days, this thomson breadbox frequently gave us read error and restarted itself playng cd’s right from the beginning. We called the cust support and the technician guys and they told us that it might be due to the Stabilizer. But we already had a good branded Automatic SYSCOM stabilizer specifically for it.
Neverthless The player played only original cd’s and rarely played other cd’s, and one fine day in december the player went dead.
Later I took it to the customer support center at mount road , chennai, they charged me 1500( LENS=1200, SERVICE TAX=49, SERVICE=250) rupees for the lens and repair charges. I told them I bought just 6 months before, but I was informed the warranty ended last month. I couldnt do anything but bring back the box home after it was repaired, the technician also informed that I have to get a manual stabilizer, and specificaly they named a product. They also gave 3 months warranty for the lens, I was irritated and told them I had a automatic stabilizer, but they kept repeating I need to buy a manual one.
It was functioning well for another 6 months and failed yet again, one by one the cdplayer stopped playing cd’s, The FM stopped playing, only the taperecorder was the saving grace, but unfortunately it also went wrong some months later. I decided then not to buy anymore Thomson products. Later I bought a Samsung hometheatre which is functioning well even now without any issues.
Now the box is revamped from its original box like structure, and also priced less than its debut price.
Well if you are planning to buy a 5-in-1 dont even think of thomson for a second, better you go for a philips boombox, or buy something else.
If youre still planning to buy it, God save yaaa.
Pros: Hmm, lemme guess, hmm, cant think of any!
Cons: Service, Faulty product, everything else.
Has anybody faced the same horror story??? Anybody??
Guys do rate this review and post your valuable comments.
Regards
Robert