Page 1 of Cyberhome CH DVD 400

Like many others who read the reviews on here I bought one of the Cyberhome CH DVD 400s from W.H.Smith last year and very pleased I was with it too.
That was until the power supply blew up the other day. On checking my receipt I found that I had purchased it a year and four days previously and assumed that was my lot. However, on ringing Cyberhome I found that the machine was coverec by a TWO YEAR warranty and that they would send me a new one and collect the old one.
There seems to be a problem with those manufactured between May and June 2003 so if anyone else suffers from this porblem it`s worth giving Cyberhome a ring.
Excellent service I`m sure you`ll agree.

The 2 year warranty was advertised at point of sale & there was a business card for warranty repairs inside the box.

We have had one replaced today (daughters bedroom) for the failed PSU, but we had to wait for over a month for stocks to come in & I even then I had to ring them up to chase the call up on Monday.

Considering the PSU takes all of 1 minute to remove (had to extract a DVD from player & played swapsies with the PSU PCB as a result of the emergancy eject not releasing) wasnt too overtly impressed by the lenght of time we were without a machine in our room (as daughter took possession of ours to maintain wifes sanity).

This item was edited on Tuesday, 10th August 2004, 22:28

I`ve had TWO of these players go in a fortnight!

Both of them were purchased between May and June last year. On reporting the second faulty unit today (Wednesday 11th) all I got from the "helpline" was I would have to wait an unspecified amount of time for replacements! However I requested to speak to someone in authority and, after threatening them with the local Trading Standards Office, I have been promised replacements tomorrow (Thursday)!

If they knew there problems with certain units, why didn`t they inform purchasers via DVD mags etc? Or did they hope, because of the price, customers wouldn`t bother?

VERY shoddy!

As with anything, sometimes it takes time for problems to become apparent.

The UK`s first jet airliner the Comet, whose roof "rolled back" while in flight after X hours of flying, resulting in lives lost after several crashes. The fault was only revealed in a wind tunnel using a similar aged Comet to those that had crashed.

Once a problem is identified, a course of action can be implimented.

These units sold by the thousands last year & a identical model is sold in the US.

It may just be one batch thats faulty & caused by the use of a alternative supply for one of the blown components or it may be a design fault that wasnt caught & thus needs a mod.

I dont have a problem with this brand in general, have quite a few of their players dotted about. I do have a problem with having to wait over a month for either a simple replacement PSU pcb or unit to arrive.

This item was edited on Thursday, 12th August 2004, 21:42

I`ve just received the two replacement DVD players (refurbished players not NEW as promised under the warranty!)and guess what? One of them is faulty! I think the laser`s gone in it because it won`t read any discs.

In fact both the refurbs I`ve received are in worse condition than the ones I sent back! The faulty one was even set-up for multi-region. I`ve been promised yet another replacement by tomorrow but I`m sorely tempted to contact my local Trading Standards office about being supplied non-new players.

I`ll keep you all updated re the awaited replacement.

This item was edited on Monday, 16th August 2004, 22:15

I dont think they are duty bound to replace failed units with new ones (& quite hard to do if the production run has ceased) certainly not ones over a certain period of use. The condition of the refurbs should be of a reasonable quality though to my mind.

I personally wouldnt expect a new unit after 50% of the warranty term (It would be nice though).

The replacement came unhacked & its new\refurb state unknown as the wife has it & I shant be home until tomorrow.

Its far cheaper to send a van & a man out with a new\refurb box for swapout, than it is to send a repair engineer out (to fix or replace the pcb) & usually causes far more good will than saying, "box it up & post it to......".

Pulse (the service agents) have in the past received fairly good feedback here for turnaround on repairs\spares.

The heart of the matter is that the engineer or more likely unskilled factory worker probably replaced the PSU, but didnt test the player for a second fault, they are probably on a set number per hour to do.

Most people wouldnt worry about not having to hack the new player (they would most likely be here posting requests for the hack again in any forum but the correct one). As for the condition of the refurbs, that is down to the luck of the draw of the guy with the pick list for the delivery run.

As with most brown goods "Cyberhome" is merely the branding on the case & the startup splash screen, applied to a OEM manufacturers product, the same guts may turn up inside a similar or even completely disimilar case. Thats been proved elsewhere without flogging that particular horse to death.

Completely glad I got out of the electronic engineering\customer service game & now have a smaller bunch of people to hold hands for in a corporate IT sector.

This item was edited on Thursday, 12th August 2004, 21:41

I agree in principal with what you say but the wording on the warranty is "replace faulty units with a new one" and after the shoddy treatment by the Customer Service Helpline at Pulse, that`s what I want (as per my local Trading Standards office`s advice)!

I`ve contacted Patrick Fischer at CyberHome Europe in Germany and he has agreed to get the faulty units exchanged for new ones. In fact he`s surprised this is not what`s happening!

Therefore I would advise anyone awaiting replacements to Herr Fischer at secivres[at]ed.eporue-emohrebyc and explain their situation. The only bone of contention with him at the moment he wishes me to send the faulty units to him in Germany but I replied to his email requesting he makes the arrangements re uplift and replacement.

I still like CyberHome products -it`s the idiots at Pulse I don`t!

**Update**

Ours would appear to be refurb unit & dont know what version firmware (Different Splashscreen).

Hi Rassilon63,

I would advice you to contact your local Trading Standards office for their opinion. I think you`ll find their advice will be to demand a NEW replacement.

I think we`ve all being treated pretty shabily by Pulse, who are not living up to their warranty agreement.

Just had a proper look at the unit, its in as good as condition as the one sent back, about the same age, its been flashed to the latest firmware (MR hacked last night).

For varying factors, mainly just the extra hassle I dont need ATM, I am happy to let it lie. As stated before I didnt expect a new for old replacement automatically, I did expect & receive a refurb of similar condition to the defective unit.

Pulse may have had their own problems in the receiving of replacement units\PCB`s, suppose we will never know the full background as to whose fault it really was (CH or Pulse).