I know I will get flamed for this but...
I say screw the company right back the way they screwed you. Go to an
electronics store that offers cash refunds, and buy that "current
equivalent cable." Open the package, remove and keep the new cable, and
return the old one in the same package for a full refund. Problem solved.
This also works for DVD players that quit working in 91 days with a 90
day warranty, assuming the same model is still available.


wrote:
A few years ago I needed a 6-foot S-Video cable. I had to choose
between two RCA cables--a $10 cheap cable with no features or an
"Ultimate" cable with 24-karat gold plated connectors, copper spiral
shielding, precision dielectic insulation, oxygen-free conductors, etc.
for $28. The $28 cable has a lifetime warranty that promised a "no
charge replacement with a current equivalent cable". So I bought the
"Ultimate" cable for $28.

Then the "Ultimate" cable dies. So I send it to Thomson Multimedia
Inc. in Socorro, TX. I also send a photocopy of the original packaging
that contained the "current equivalent cable" lifetime warranty and the
features of the cable. That way they would be able to determine the
"current equivalent cable". Turns out they still make a cheap cable
(RCA model VH976--MSRP $7.95) and an "Ultimate" cable (RCA model
PD6SV--MSRP $29.95). The PD6SV has--24-karat gold plated connectors,
copper shielding, oxygen-free conductors, etc. The VH976 does not.
They replaced my "Ultimate" cable with a VH976. That's not the
"current equivalent cable". That's not even close. I was owed a
PD6SV.

A half dozen phone calls later--several were spent on hold for 10
minutes before getting cut off--I'm screwed. One guy told me it was
"warehouse discretion" that determined what cable I was owed. Why
didn't "warehouse discretion" appear on the warranty? Another customer
support person said she was sending me a pre-paid shipping label so I
could send back the VH976 before they would send me a PD6SV but the
shipping label never came. Then yet another call said what was on file
was that I was owed "current market value"--the price of the cheap
cable. I don't see "current market value" on the warranty I see
"current equiavlent cable". This feels like, and probably was, a
systematic run-around. I've spent more in phone calls than I spent on
the original cable! I'm screwed. Lesson learned. $20 plus the phone
bills. At least it wasn't several hundred dollars wasted on an RCA TV
with a bogus warranty.

So I now know to avoid all RCA products. What else does Thompson/RCA
make? GE? Who buys parts from Thompson/RCA? I want to know where to
put my dollars to avoid this pain and suffering in the future. Sony
prices seem so much cheaper now...

Walt