I imagine this would apply to other years. I read through an issue of LIFE from '63 and saw an advertisement for a '64 GE roundie inwhich it has a hang-tag stating that the set has a lifetime cicuitboard warranty. The small print stated that GE would replace any defective circuitboard for the life of the set.

Does anybody know if GE would honor this? Could they not be legally forced to do so? Would there be all the manufactoring specs to reproduce one from raw materials?

Thanks

hang-tag stating that the set has a lifetime cicuitboard warranty. The small print stated that GE would replace any defective circuitboard for the life of the set.

Thanks

How is "life" defined anyway? Maybe the "life" of the set is over when something breaks? :-)

I would think GE could just say "we don't make or have in stock that part anymore or it has parts on it that are no longer generally available as well so we will reimburse you for it"... and could probably get away with doing it in 1964 dollars too so get ready for your $3.45 : \

The small print stated that GE would replace any defective circuit board for the life of the set.Could be the small print says something about the warranty applying to the original owner only.

As Tom Waits said, in "Step Right Up", "The large print giveth, & the small print taketh away..."

Hey, line up with Tektronix scope owners and their 'lifetime' transformers.

Actually, Tek is slimey like that, they generally dump their lifetime stuff after a few years. Remember those Tek color printers with 'free black ink for life'? Yep, no longer free. IIRC, they dropped their lifetime warrenty on transformers about 10 seconds after they dropped the 500 series...

(and new tek scopes are flimsy as heck...)

The ad was very simple without any word play. There was a short paragraph of about four sentences and it stated plainly stated that GE would replace the circuit boards for the life of the set. There was not an asteric after that.
I suspect an attorney could get them to reproduce boards but I can't imagine how much that process would cost. Maybe an attorney could make his name with such a case?
I have heard of something similar but I forgot the product or business name.
I will work on getting the ad to post it. I don't have it here with me.

Actually, Tek is slimey like that, they generally dump their lifetime stuff after a few years. Remember those Tek color printers with 'free black ink for life'? Yep, no longer free.

Actually, it's still free. And Tektronix doesn't even own the printer division anymore. It was sold to Xerox. I work for a computer services company, and I repair Tektronix and Xerox Phaser color printers. And on the old 840, 850 and 860 printers, you can still get the black ink for free, directly from the distributor. The color ink sticks also come with two free black ink sticks on those models, in addition to the free three-packs of black ink that are available. HOWEVER - the distributor also sells five packs of black ink for those same models. You do have to know about the free black ink program... Now, on later models like the 8200 and 8400, the black ink is no longer free - but that was after Tektronix sold off their printer division - the 8200 was technically a Xerox product.

Actually, speaking of Tektronix lifetime power transformers... anyone got any extra ones laying around? I need a couple for an upcoming homebrew tube based project, and I really like the tek transformers. I'll trade you some black Phaser ink...

-Ian

I don't think any court would say a TV that uses tubes and is over 40 years old could possibly still have any life left. So the set's basic lifetime is over. I would like to be a fly on the wall while somebody tries to tell a judge that one of their tube sockets fell out and GE won't replace the PC board. Worst case they would have to give the owner the value of the set's usefull life and in the real world that would be zero. All GE would have to do is show the set has a ten year life span. Would be interesting if I'm wrong and they had to replace the set.

Even if they did honor it, they would have to do so in cash value or by giving you a new TV (since the old chassis doesn't meet current UL or environmental standards, they would rightly claim that it is now a legal liability for them to restore it to operation) - So, you get some compensation, and they take the old chassis and crush it.

I'm sure the legal eagles would find a loophole in the fact that the GE division that produced the TV's is no longer in business. Both GE & RCA consumer electronics were gobbled up by Thomson a French Co. in the 80's. Thomson pardnered up with Chinese based TCL electronics last year to produce GE & RCA consumer electronics under the new TTE banner. Good luck sueing all these guys.

-Steve D.

I expect you gentlemen are correct and I appreciate your replies.

I think it is very wrong to state such a warranty that is essentially a lie. I understand different exuses can be made to "justify" not honoring the promise but the fact that these sets work fine with the usual component replacements and are clearly as safe as modern sets means that they could last forever and therefore who ever own's GE should do what they promise. I bet they could open a drawer to get the manufacturing specs and have some department make a mold with the automatic laser machines and have one or more by the end of the day. Considering how little workers are paid (compared to exec salaries, company profits etc.) I expect the actual cost to produce one circuit board would be about $5.00. I expect others would disagree on that cost figure but I base that on the fact that computerized machines can reproduce anything even without the original specs if they have something to copy.

In another thread a person backed out of a bid and many members spoke as though he is not trustworthy and they would not do business with him. However, when it comes to all that wrongs against people that big businesses do evrybody just seem to not mind at all based on the lack of mentioning such wrongs and the fact that we the people continue to accept whatever they do as if there is nothing we can do about it. I suppose nothing can be done to make big businessesdo the right thing. People seem to not want to get together on such matters.

Addressing the lifetime of a product issue....I had a '74 Dodge van, and I found out there was a recall issued for a weakness in the mounting of the steering gear, which explained a steering problem I was having. I took it to the local Dodge dealer (I think it was in 1984), and they said they would not do the work; the vehicles life was over. It only had about 100k miles on it. They wouldn't even do the work if I paid for it myself (which they said was about $600.00 when they did do the work). I guess the lifetime of a product is whatever the manufacturer decides is best for them.
BTW, I did get a guy to fix it up for me, and I drove it until 1995 and the guy who bought it drove it for 4 more years.
Maybe this is more appropiate for a Mopar forum :D

When I was dealing with GE in Memphis in the 70's they were good about replacing things like boards and covering their warranty issues. Problem now is that GE doesn't actually exist in the television business anymore. So who do you sue for the replacement?
If I had a vehicle, any vehicle, that had a recall that was safety related they (maybe not at that dealership) would do the work, or my attorny would be in touch. Then I would bring the dealers attitude and service level to the manufactures attention, they really do not like like this kind of complaint against their dealers. The dealer is obligated to do the recall work whither they want to or not. The manufacture will reimburse them for the work. Now it may take a while to get the part they would have to order, but since it was a recall you can be sure Dodge had the part available.

Bill R

Does anybody know if GE would honor this? Could they not be legally forced to do so? Would there be all the manufactoring specs to reproduce one from raw materials?

Don't even waste your time! At this late date, the number of these sets surviving would make it unlikely that anyone would ever put in a claim. And even if someone was nutty enough to attempt to file a claim, GE would come up with an excuse not to honor the warranty. It's futile and hopeless. You would have just as much luck ordering a new flyback for an RCA CTC-4 through your friendly RCA distributor than you would getting a claim honored through GE.

At most GE might exchange that antique color set with some POS from China.... :D

I could be wrong, but if I remember correctly, the "Lifetime Warranty" on the circuit board that some manufacturers (I don't think GE was the only one) had back then was:
(a) just for the PC board itself-- not the parts on it
(b) the only thing 'free' was the replacement board itself, not the labor required to unsolder everything from the old board and remount it all on the new board
(c) only valid for service done only by a qualified service shop

Frankly, I think those warranties were hardly more than a sales gimmick at the time-- probably to asuage the concerns people had after the number of reliability problems that the early PC boards from the 1950's had.

Anyway, even if you tried to get GE to honor the warranty today-- and even if GE said "Sure! We'll replace your PC board, no problem!" -- just think of how much $$$ it'd cost to pay an authorized GE/RCA/Thompson service tech (at today's labor rates!) just to get your "free" replacement PC board. :yikes:

Actually, though, I'd suspect if you made a big enough fuss over it, GE might be nice enough to let you 'trade in' your old TV (minus depreciation) on a new GE-Thompson set. :)

BTW, sometimes old "lifetime" warranties do work, though! I also collect old cameras, and back in the late 1980's, I sent GE several bad #5 and #5B flashbulbs just to see if they'd still honor the warranty on 'em. These were the 'defectives' (non-firing bulbs) I had encountered over the past few years. these were all from boxes of old GE flashbulbs I had bought at yard sales and such, and most of these were probably made in the 1950's and 60's. [BTW, ol' flashbulbs still pack a pretty powerful punch compared with most of today's electronic flashes!] I was rather doubtful that GE would actually still honor the lifetime warranty on those things, but I figured, hey, why not. Besides, the original warranty offered 4 replacement bulbs for each bad one mailed in. :yes: Sure enough, some weeks later, what do I get in the mail-- a box of new #5B flashbulbs from GE! :)

On a more TV-related note, you know those old Realistic "Lifetime" tubes from Radio Shack? Does Radio Shack still honor the replacement warranty on those things? That should be pretty entertaining just to try. :D

The last I heard, Radio Schlock would give you a replacement tube; the replacement would not come with a lifetime warranty. Someone said that the tubes they dole out now are relabled, possibly even used tubes. Yeah, I bet you could have a ton of fun down at your local shopping mall!

Before I expanded my knowledge to include a second brain cell I ventured to the Shack with a selenium rectifier. I didn't know a plain old diode would work to replace it...and believe me, the kid behind the counter sure didn't know it, either! I really had him scratching his head.

I imagine this would apply to other years. I read through an issue of LIFE from '63 and saw an advertisement for a '64 GE roundie inwhich it has a hang-tag stating that the set has a lifetime cicuitboard warranty. The small print stated that GE would replace any defective circuitboard for the life of the set.

Does anybody know if GE would honor this? Could they not be legally forced to do so? Would there be all the manufactoring specs to reproduce one from raw materials?

Thanks

The warranty likely applies to the board itself and not the parts on it.

It also covers "defective" as opposed to "damaged". A board that is carbonized from overheated components could be reasonably argued to be damaged as opposed to defective.

Just take it to your local factory-authorized GE TV repair shop, they'll get right on it. :D

I *have* had Rat Shack replace a "lifetime warranty" tube. They gave me a NOS RCA replacement, which came with no warranty but works fine. I think they get them from AES. The guy behind the counter had never seen a tube before, I got a really funny look. He made a phone call and was told to send it in to HQ. Took a couple of weeks. This was a couple of months ago, a 6L6GC.

That gets me to thinking - if somebody took their, say, tabletop-cabinet color roundie to a tv repair shop, what would the guy usually say? "Forget it, it's too old" no matter what was wrong with it, or what? Would ANY of them bother to even look at it unless they were really old coots? I could imagine some young repair guy just being fascinated with one of them... "wow, look at all those glass tubes!"