Kutztown, PA finds 4 of 4, Emerson in the box

[Richard D]

Any readable date codes on the tubes?

[Whirled One]

Wow, that's neat! You don't see something like that every day! Plus, that's actually a pretty nice looking set for an Emerson.

By the way, as for the horizontal nonlinearity, perhaps you can contact the current incarnation of Emerson Radio and get them to honor the warranty.

After all, it's brand new! It's only been out of the box a couple days!

Demand that Emerson stand behind their products!

[Dave A]

Richard, great question. I forgot to look. All the tubes are Emerson badged. Only the small pins have codes I can decipher. All are in a range from 58-36 to 58-49. Late 1958 vintage. Large tube codes are more confusing than useful.

The more I look at it, it is a clever design with the two chassis. RF/IF/video/audio/sync on one universal chassis and a separate (sized to need) power supply for whatever set it goes in.

And for fun, I sent a note to the current Emerson Radio website asking about the warranty. I believe it is a Daewoo subsidiary now.

Stay tuned,

Dave A

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by Dave A

And for fun, I sent a note to the current Emerson Radio website asking about the warranty. I believe it is a Daewoo subsidiary now.

I'm sure their response would be to just either laugh or say "Yeah, whatever... Go away", but y'know, if there were still manufacturers of TV sets in the USA, I bet there's a chance someone who approached one of their service centers with a story like that would actually get the warranty honored, just from the sheer *novelty* if nothing else.

Besides, it make for a goofy potential advertising stunt for just the cost of sending a service tech to go out and replace some capacitors.

Such as this ad copy I just drafted up... for some parallel universe where the real Emerson Radio and Television was still around and kicking out television sets in 2006... and with a fanciful-but-cute re-telling of the story.

woooOOOOooooOOOOoooooOOOOooooooOOOOOOoooooOOOOOooo oo...

Emerson Quality

(Insert: image of a smiling TV repairman wearing an Emerson Service uniform and proudly tipping his cap. He is leaning against Dave's new-old Emerson TV set. The TV is displaying a perfect B&W picture of some generic modern TV-typical scene)

We Stand Behind It.

An Emerson warranty service center received an unusual request the other day.

The customer had just unpacked his new Emerson TV and switched it on for the first time. As it started up, he found that the picture appeared distorted and 'squashed' on one side.

"No problem," we said. "We'll arrange to have it repaired for you."

A defect in a new Emerson TV is unusual, to be sure. But that was not the end of the story.

The service representative asked the customer for the model number of his TV and the name of the Emerson dealer.


"This TV is no longer in production," he said.

"No problem," we said.

"The Emerson dealer is no longer in business," he said.

"No problem," we said.


Indeed, his TV had been discontinued for quite some time. It had originally left our factory forty-seven years ago. This Emerson deluxe 21" black-and-white console TV had been shipped to a dealer, but had somehow remained unsold and was eventually forgotten.

Decades later, after the dealer had retired from his business, it was found in a storage area, still in its original unopened shipping container.

It was then discovered by someone who restores old TV sets. The customer who contacted us purchased this new-old TV, and proudly brought this set to the light of day for the first time.

He contacted our service center not expecting a serious response. He just wanted to see how we might react to such a story. He thought we'd laugh and then politely reject his claim. Or not even listen to the story of his 'new' TV.

However, we at Emerson take customer service seriously.

We listened to his story. The TV had indeed just been taken out of the box for the first time. And our warranty agreement on his set was for a full 90 days from the day of original installation.


"No problem," we said.


We sent an Emerson service technician to his home, and promptly repaired his TV at no charge.

Just as the 47-year old warranty card packed with the TV said we would do.




Emerson. Yesterday and today, still America's value leader in television.

Emerson Radio and Television / Jersey City, New Jersey

[daro]

LOL, Technically it is a new TV by definetion as it was still in it's packing box & never installed or powered up until now that is.

[andy]

http://www.sonigem.com/index/screen/home.html

This is what became of Emerson and several other brands.

[wa2ise]

Note that they consider their customers the stores that sell the stuff to the public, not the public itself... The Crazy Eddies and Circuit Cities and so on.

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by andy

http://www.sonigem.com/index/screen/home.html

This is what became of Emerson and several other brands.

Beware, though, because at least two of the brands shown there would really be just third-party licencing agreements, and not an indicator of who actually owns the company/brand.

Sylvania is a bit complicated. The lamp division at least is owned by Osram and they still make light bulbs and stuff, but they've licenced the brand name to some other company(s), (perhaps it's these Sonigem guys) for boom boxes and radios and such that have the Sylvania name. In fact, I've got a box of Sylvania light bulbs right here and they're even made in the USA ("Proudly Made in St. Marys, Pennsylvania"). Also, Philips bought the Sylvania electronics division in 1981, which had previously been owned by GTE.

Koss is still alive and kicking in Milwaukee, WI, and they still make headphones. Er, sorry-- "Stereophones". Their higher-end (well, as "high-end" as Koss goes these days) models are still made here in the USA-- and even have a lifetime warranty these days. So don't knock Koss down for the count just yet. Now, those cheezy boomboxes and DVD players and such you see with the Koss name are a different story; those are licenced products and handled by another company entirely. The FAQ page on the Koss web site (www.koss.com) confirms this. ( Plug: If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive pair of lightweight 'phones, the Koss PortaPro is tough to beat for the cost, but beware that they make a few other models that have similar names but are not as nice (the SportaPro and the KTX-Pro, for example). Anyway, just my opinion. )

By the way, there are other examples of these sorts of "licensing" deals, such as Polaroid (the company that makes the instant film and such is still an American company, but they've licenced the name out to another company for various cheap A/V products.)

The whole thing is kinda sad, really...

[Dave A]

Copied from their email;

No warranty.
Emerson has not manufactured that model in over 20 years.

Sincerely,
Emerson Radio Corp.
Consumer Affairs Dept.

If they bought the name, I doubt they bought the remaining obligations. I guess I get to fix it myself.

Would you really want Osram/Sylvania/Daewoo/Heier/Thomson/LG/Polaroid/Timex/RCA/Westinghouse/etc. to fix anything you own?

I saw a Westinghouse plasma set in Best Buys last week. The worst thing they had on display. So much for a great name. I'll stick with my cheap Emerson B&W.

Dave A

[andy]

I like this part "They license the Koss name from Koss Corporation and Koss approves all of their product designs and performance specifications."

I'll never understand why a company trashes it's own brand by allowing someone to sell cheap crap with their brand on it. I certainly wouldn't trust a product from a compnay that "approves" all that junk.

[andy]

Originally Posted by Dave A

If they bought the name, I doubt they bought the remaining obligations. I guess I get to fix it myself.

I saw a Westinghouse plasma set in Best Buys last week. The worst thing they had on display. So much for a great name. I'll stick with my cheap Emerson B&W.

Dave A

If they were nice, they would have offered to replace it with a new set.

People are actually taking those Westinghouse (and other off brand sets) sets seriously. Brand loyalty is a thing of the past.

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by andy

I like this part "They license the Koss name from Koss Corporation and Koss approves all of their product designs and performance specifications."

I suspect it's done with about the same regard for quality as Krusty the Klown has with his "Krusty Brand Seal of Approval"...

Originally Posted by andy

I'll never understand why a company trashes it's own brand by allowing someone to sell cheap crap with their brand on it. I certainly wouldn't trust a product from a compnay that "approves" all that junk.

Yeah, I don't understand that either. I think it not only reflects poorly on the brand, but dillutes the brand's identity.

Have you ever seen a brand-licenced product line of this sort that was actually good? Seems like it's always junk.

[luvvinvinyl]

Thread title changed.

[Richard D]

I have a Seiko Kinetic watch that I received as a gift when they first invented the mini dynamo and capacitor power system, at least 10 years ago. I only wore the watch a few times and put it away and forgot about it until a few months ago. It would run for only 5 minutes if I stopped moving it. I emailed Seiko not expecting much. The next day an overnight shipping box was delivered to my home with instructions to pack the watch in the box and call or drop it off at a FedEx office. 3 days later I received the watch back overnight from the service company for Seiko USA. The invoice read, install new capacitor, NC, clean and time movement, NC. overnight shipping NC, you get the idea. This was done without a receipt or any proof of purchase on a 10 year old model. Now THAT'S customer service.
Richard.

[bgadow]

My understanding, from browsing the Emerson site a few years ago, was that it was still an American owned & operated company, but that it was nothing more than a sales company. From what I have gathered, in about 1970 Emerson/DuMont (National Union Electronics Corp.) shut down it's factory and had others make the sets for them. Now, I have the infamous NOS DuMont color set from 1969 and it is a genuine Emerson. Going by the pics in photofacts, somewhat later models look very similiar on the outside (same style control panel) but the chassis looks like an Admiral. Another little fact: after closing the factory doors they sued "Japan, Inc." for dumping electronics in America (selling stuff for less than it cost to produce) in order to dominate the market. This especially hurt a bottom feeder like Emerson. I don't know how the lawsuit came out; I do know that nearly all the tubes in the '69 DuMont (save the Sylvania sourced picture tube) are,ironically, made in Japan.