Welcome to Panasonic Plasma Fail

Greetings, and welcome to Panasonic Plasma Fail. This blog is intended as a site for consolidating consumer complaints about Panasonic Plasma television sets purchased between 2007 and 2009. If you are having problems with your Panasonic plasma television set not turning on, please add the details in the comments thread.

You might have reached this site by typing in one of the following search phrases:

• my panasonic plasma will not turn on
• red light blinks seven times
• what is wrong with my panasonic plasma
• blinking red light of death
• faulty power supply on panasonic plasma

If this describes your situation, you have come to the right place. In recent months, a flood of consumers have reported that their Panasonic plasma television sets died unexpectedly. According to some forum experts, these failures are the result of faulty power boards that were shipped with the units.

The bad news is that Panasonic has not done much to publicly acknowledge this problem, and it is very difficult to reach their customer support on the telephone. Most people who have encountered this problem after the warranty has lapsed have either (a) paid hundreds of dollars for costly repairs or (b) given up and purchased a replacement set.

Within the electronics industry, a 3% failure rate is widely accepted as standard. However, a cursory search of Google reveals that an unusally high number 2007/2008 Panasonic plasma sets have displayed the dreaded "blinking red lights of death." In order to maintain its reputation for quality customer service, Panasonic should really do something to remedy this situation. They should either fix the television sets free of charge, or replace the television sets with working units.

There are dozens upon dozens of complaints about these Panasonic television sets posted to various forums. If we can consolidate these complaints in one place, we may be able to put enough pressure on Panasonic to take action.

Follow-up from creator of Panasonic Plasma Fail

{This message was posted on 9/7/09}

I created this blog approximately two months ago after my Panasonic Plasma TV crashed and started displaying the blinking lights of death. Just wanted to post a follow-up message for people who are encountering this problem.

After several calls to Panasonic, I reached a technical support worker who recognized the "seven blinking lights" problem. Even though my television was no longer on warranty, they agreed to send out a repair person to look at the problem. According to the Panasonic representative, the problem might have been caused by a defective part. In this case, the repair person would fix the television set free of charge. However, if the blinking lights problem were caused by any other sort of failure, the repair person would give me an estimate on the cost of repairs.

When the repair person arrived, they confirmed that the problem was caused by a failed circuit board that was known to be defective. They swapped in a new board, and fixed the television set free of charge.

For everyone else who is encountering this problem, I have a few suggestions:

(1) Please be sure to post your experiences on this blog. Even though my television set was fixed, it is clear that many other people are suffering from this problem. Eventually, if there is a class action suit, this blog can be a useful tool for reaching out to Panasonic consumers who have encountered the seven blinking lights of death.

(2) Even if your television set's warranty has expired, you should call Panasonic and calmly insist that they fix the problem free of charge. Be persistent, and be sure to mention the many Internet postings from other disgruntled customers.

Although my initial encounters with Panasonic technical support were frustrating, I have to admit that they did fix the problem. It took almost two months, and we had to buy a new replacement set in the meantime, but Panasonic ultimately took responsibility for fixing the problem.

For those of you who are still struggling with a broken television set, best of luck in your efforts to seek a solution from Panasonic. If you manage to get Panasonic to fix your set -- or if they fail to step up and solve the problem -- please post the results of your efforts here.

Good luck everyone!