Purchased a replacement lamp kit for my home theater projector from OzLamps in Sydney.
6 Month warranty was stated, but not that easily spotted.
As the existing lamp was still operating, I did not need to Install the new lamp for about 6 weeks after receiving it.
So, within one month expiry of the 6 month warranty (4 months in operation), the lamp just stopped working… no fade out or warning like other lamps do before stopping… just would not fire up.
I contacted OZLamp, who told me tough luck. I suggested that the unit failing within one month of the warranty is not reasonable and perhaps not in line with Australian consumer law - tough.
I’ve lodged a complaint with the ACCC but yet to receive a response other than the auto-reply.
That will likely be the only response you get from the ACCC, they do not generally handle single cases, unless it has some larger benefit to them.
You are also advised to lodge a complaint with your Office of Fair Trading as they are legislated to deal with breaches of the ACL. A letter of Demand to the business would be the first step however and keep a complete record of phone calls, emails and letters as the Fair Trading Office will require that you carry out the demand and will need proof of your endeavours before they will act.
Hi @The_Riddick, I’m not too familiar with projector lamps, but that that doesn’t reasonable to me either. I’d suggest your local fair trading or consumer affairs body is better positioned to help with this type of complaint rather than the ACCC. Members can also use our CHOICE Help service.
You are correct. Received a response from ACCC, which basically said deal with it yourself.
Contacted Fair Trading NSW, which called me today. They agree that this dodgy warranty in not in the spirit of fair play and are contacting OzLamps. We’ll see what happens. I strongly suggest punters stay well clear of OzLamps - dodgy as.
Just received a verbal response from NSW Fair Trading - They approached OzLamps which also told them the naff off. According to NSW Fair Trading, they’ve tried mediating but nothing else they can do. An email they are sending me will provide info to take it further, legally, but the cost would be prohibitive.
I see on the Oz Lamp website they say…“Our stock is available to order from our Sydney warehouse and delivery is free to anywhere in mainland Australia! All of our TV and projector lamps come with a free 180 day warranty. The bulbs (projector and TV) come with a 90 day warranty.”
Was the lamp a genuine OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) or an aftermarket/compatible brand. If it was a OEM, check with the manufacturer to see what warranty they provide as it may be different to what Oz Lamps indicates. This may be an avenue to follow since OZ Lamps is being very unreasonable in relation to the failed lamp. Even if it an aftermarket brand (other than OZ Lamps own in-house brands if they exist), the manufacturer of the aftermarket lamp may also be worth following up as well.
Sorry to hear that @The_Riddick, it’s a shame to hear your experience has been so poor with Oz Lamps and when companies flaunt the law the courts/tribunals are the redress, but I agree it can be difficult to justify the cost and time for some consumer goods. As a final idea, did you purchase the lamp with a credit card? If so, you could try to enact a refund through your back by performing a chargeback and using the advice from Fair Trading as evidence.
I’ll be sure to pass on your experience to our investigations team to see if there is anything else we can do to highlight the behaviour.
@BrendanMays, consider this example of bad business behaviour as a catalyst for new Shonky awards based on practices vis a vis legal obligations rather than products. If they don’t step up to do the right thing, naming and shaming is warranted.
I accept that the lamps come with a 6 month warranty, but it’s reasonable to expect a $171.00 lamp to not fail in the seventh month, and after only four months usage.
Just doing a little research, it appears that most project lamps should last about 2000 hours of use (but noting that actual life falls on a bell curve and may be more or less than that). Oz Lamp indicates that with good care, a lamp should last 2000-4000 hours.
If one assumes that 2000 hours is an expected life, then if the lamp only lasted 4 months, one would have to use the projector about 16-17 hours each day to achieve the expected life span. I can’t imagine a projector with high daily use as such being used in a residential environment (maybe in a commercial environment it would be more likely - e.g. shopping centre displays).
Even if the 7 months is taken as the life (say it is difficult to prove that the projector lamp was not installed on the day or near day of purchase), this would correspond to a 9-10 hour average daily use. This also seems high in a residential application, but not unrealistic for a commercial environment (e.g. offices etc).
Have you tried using the above information to demonstrate that a lamp should have lasted longer, assuming your own use isn’t anywhere near that outlined above?
Also, is it possible for you to confirm that you took the necessary measures outlined on the Oz Lamp website to ensure that lamp life was maximised. If you can then this would negate one of their potential arguments that the lamp could have overheaded or subject to operating conditions which could have lead to its failure.
Also check the website of the manufacturer (and others with similar spec projectors) to see what warranty they offer on the lamps when the projector is new and has lamp installed. This will provide you with an idea of what manufacturers think is reasonable in relation to warranted life. Looking at Epson, some of their new projectors come with a 12 month/750 hour lamp warranty. 750 hours may be achievable in a residential environment for high user over 4 months (average 6-7 hours per day) or moderate user over 7 months (average 3-4 hours per day use).
At the end of the day, it appears that projector lamps have a reasonably short life compared to other devices (e.g. LED TVs) and one needs to determine what would be seen as reasonable in relation to a lamp’s life. Now knowing the expected life of projector lamps, I am unsure whether I would purchase one myself as it would have a high operational cost (for lamp replacement) if the lamp needs to be replaced around 2000 hours.
For the average person that possibly watches TV for 18.25 hours per week (or up to another 13.5 hours per week if the internet/streaming is also projected as well), the lamp would need replacing every two years (or every 15 months if internet/streaming also occurs). Become quite expensive if the lamp is $171+ each time.
A well researched reply @phb. Hopefully it is useful to other consumers putting together an idea of what is a ‘reasonable’ lifespan for this type of product.
Some projectors are using LED lamps with expected lifetimes of around 50,000 hours. Why not consider replacing your current system with an LED one? On the basis of your current lamp replacement timeframe you could quickly recover the initial purchase cost of the new system in savings from not having to continually purchase lamps.
