Thank you for posting this here, hopefully others will be able to chime in with their experience.

Update: 29JAN2019

• 1626 I called TCL to schedule the on-site repair. They asked if I will be available in 5-10 business days. I told them I could be, but we would need to arrange a time so I can make sure there’s no conflict. Asking for someone to be home every day for the next two weeks is asking for a lot. They then asked for my general schedule. I told them I’m generally available, but they asked for specifically when I wouldn’t be available so I listed off appointments I have during the next couple or weeks, and they seemed disinterested and said the technician would be contacting me to schedule the repair.
• 1819 It was disenheartening to receive this email: “We would like to know if you’re still encountering the same problem with your TCL Roku TV? Please let us know if you have any questions, please email us at ussupport@tcl.com or call us at 877-300-8837.” I replied and told them I’m still experiencing the same issue that I was experiencing 3 months ago and that I had called just hours ago to schedule an on site repair.

It feels like I’m getting nowhere. This is redefining both what bad support is and how worthless a warranty can be if the manufacturer isn’t willing to live up to the terms.

I wanted to add the Manufactured date on the TCL is June 2018. Also, my 2009 Panasonic Plasma is still going strong!

It was disheartening to to have more people checking to see if your issues was resolved? I mean, it would be nice if everyone there knew what was going on but at least they eventually had multiple people checking on you to make sure you got help. I’ve seen this multiple times myself, especially when you involve social media, that’s super common… But yes, sounds like a bad power supply from the start, which also reared it’s ugly head right outside your store return period. I have no issues at all with our 55" P605 or our 65" R615 from BB, none of the banding, etc. TCL is the only fully integrated TV company in the world, so they literally make every part themselves which makes for an excellent value. They are usually far better quality than than ultra off-brands for at the same price, especially true in like the 55" for $350 entry sets but only the last couple of years have they have even made a higher end product. Let’s just hope their customer support can improve now that they are seeing sales volumes skyrocket over the last couple of years. We had a true 240Hz 1080p TCL about 5-6 years ago and liked it, so I’ve known about them for a long time, but they may as well be Seiki/Emerson junk to most people and they need to be more responsive to a clearly a bad power supply if they want to keep growing.

Jan 30, 2019 06:12 PM By danbfree

110

It was disheartening to to have more people checking to see if your issues was resolved? I mean, it would be nice if everyone there knew what was going on but at least they eventually had multiple people checking on you to make sure you got help. I’ve seen this multiple times myself, especially when you involve social media, that’s super common… But yes, sounds like a bad power supply from the start, which also reared it’s ugly head right outside your store return period. I have no issues at all with our 55" P605 or our 65" R615 from BB, none of the banding, etc. TCL is the only fully integrated TV company in the world, so they literally make every part themselves which makes for an excellent value. They are usually far better quality than than ultra off-brands for at the same price, especially true in like the 55" for $350 entry sets but only the last couple of years have they have even made a higher end product. Let’s just hope their customer support can improve now that they are seeing sales volumes skyrocket over the last couple of years. We had a true 240Hz 1080p TCL about 5-6 years ago and liked it, so I’ve known about them for a long time, but they may as well be Seiki/Emerson junk to most people and they need to be more responsive to a clearly a bad power supply if they want to keep growing.

I was not aware TCL was the only fully integrated TV company in the world. It’s reassuring to hear about your positive experience with them. It’s a really nice television, especially for the price, and combined with the Roku speakers it’s a far better home theater experience than I’m used to. I’m generally happy with the TV, just not the support. It’s been very time consuming and repetitive. The support technicians seem so determined to argue that there is no problem or pass the buck by blaming Roku that it’s impossible to get a timely response. To make matters worse I’m constantly reminded of the problem every time the TV shuts off, and I don’t enjoy explaining it to guests every time either…and especially not for the months that it’s been occuring for.

I’m happy that it seems I made progress, but then receiving a call asking if I’m still having the issue just after having escalated it for an on-site repair doesn’t seem like a good sign. I still haven’t heard from an on-site technician to schedule an appointment. Hopefully I’ll hear something by close of business tomorrow. If not, I will continue spinning my wheels trying to get support from them and going nowhere.

I hope TCL continues to make great TVs and further improve their products. I read about them integrating the qled technology in their press release during CES and that sounds exciting. Most of all though, I hope they improve their support. The people on the phone seemed nice, but they struggled to understand my English (I’m a native US English speaker). They often seemed to be at a loss for words, and suggestions like removing the batteries from the remote controls to resolve an issue like this seem beyond absurd. TCL seems very proud of their recent growth and their TVs, but they need to stand behind them if they want to earn consumers trust. It seems to be their Achilles heel at the moment.

TOTALLY understand your frustration, that is SUPER annoying when it’s clear to anyone that knows TV’s at all you simply had a bad power supply! They REALLY need to get their support straightened out as that’s obviously the one thing they are lacking on. I think just about all TV makers are down to a 3% or less failure rate, they need to be able to know when to just get someone taken care of instead of you having to resort to all you had to do with social media and everything. Then they panic and get too many people involved for their own good and appear even more disorganized! LOL… So yeah, I’m sure you’ll be happy once they replace the power supply, but sorry you had to go through all this! Thanks for sharing your story, maybe it will help motivate TCL to get their crap together and fix things sooner rather than later!

Jan 30, 2019 07:12 PM By OP plasmaWasBetter

8

Jan 30, 2019 06:12 PM By danbfree

110

It was disheartening to to have more people checking to see if your issues was resolved? I mean, it would be nice if everyone there knew what was going on but at least they eventually had multiple people checking on you to make sure you got help. I’ve seen this multiple times myself, especially when you involve social media, that’s super common… But yes, sounds like a bad power supply from the start, which also reared it’s ugly head right outside your store return period. I have no issues at all with our 55" P605 or our 65" R615 from BB, none of the banding, etc. TCL is the only fully integrated TV company in the world, so they literally make every part themselves which makes for an excellent value. They are usually far better quality than than ultra off-brands for at the same price, especially true in like the 55" for $350 entry sets but only the last couple of years have they have even made a higher end product. Let’s just hope their customer support can improve now that they are seeing sales volumes skyrocket over the last couple of years. We had a true 240Hz 1080p TCL about 5-6 years ago and liked it, so I’ve known about them for a long time, but they may as well be Seiki/Emerson junk to most people and they need to be more responsive to a clearly a bad power supply if they want to keep growing.

I was not aware TCL was the only fully integrated TV company in the world. It’s reassuring to hear about your positive experience with them. It’s a really nice television, especially for the price, and combined with the Roku speakers it’s a far better home theater experience than I’m used to. I’m generally happy with the TV, just not the support. It’s been very time consuming and repetitive. The support technicians seem so determined to argue that there is no problem or pass the buck by blaming Roku that it’s impossible to get a timely response. To make matters worse I’m constantly reminded of the problem every time the TV shuts off, and I don’t enjoy explaining it to guests every time either…and especially not for the months that it’s been occuring for.

I’m happy that it seems I made progress, but then receiving a call asking if I’m still having the issue just after having escalated it for an on-site repair doesn’t seem like a good sign. I still haven’t heard from an on-site technician to schedule an appointment. Hopefully I’ll hear something by close of business tomorrow. If not, I will continue spinning my wheels trying to get support from them and going nowhere.

I hope TCL continues to make great TVs and further improve their products. I read about them integrating the qled technology in their press release during CES and that sounds exciting. Most of all though, I hope they improve their support. The people on the phone seemed nice, but they struggled to understand my English (I’m a native US English speaker). They often seemed to be at a loss for words, and suggestions like removing the batteries from the remote controls to resolve an issue like this seem beyond absurd. TCL seems very proud of their recent growth and their TVs, but they need to stand behind them if they want to earn consumers trust. It seems to be their Achilles heel at the moment.

Oh, and I think the remote thing was to LEAVE the batteries out for a while just to make sure it wasn’t shooting a stray power off signal, they clearly need to explain better… I’m surprised they don’t have support located in like India or the Philippines where English is at least a near universal 2nd language or was that not the case? Were they native Chinese speakers that you could tell? I’ve dealt with a lot of Chinese business people and they are always REALLY nice but indeed heavy accents and whatnot, things get lost in translation.

I wanted to provide an update because this issue was finally resolved though it cost some additional time and frustration

02FEB2019 I receive a text from a random number: Tech:

Hello tv service technician calling to schedule day to work on your tv..I am in Baltimore this morning if available

Me:

I wish I would have known, I would have been there. Today would have been great. I’m only there part time so I need more notice.

Tech:

We have called your number and left several messages for the past four days

Me:

Can you please identify who you are? I have confirmed I have no missed calls or voicemails from this number before this morning. You must have me confused with someone else or you have the wrong number.

Tech:

Tv service technician service repair for 55 TCL television for me [plasmaWasBetter]

Me:

I am [plasmaWasBetter], but before today I’ve received no calls or texts regarding this repair from this number or any other for that matter.

Over the next few days, I had very disorganized and unprofessional interactions getting the appointment scheduled for 06FEB2019.

06FEB2019 I communicated with the technician over text message. He was actually pretty easy to work once everything had been scheduled. He showed up, made room on the floor, setup a blanket, helped me take the TV down, and quickly swapped out all four boards inside the TV.

The technician also wasn’t a big fan of TCL commenting that most of his jobs were replacing parts in brand new TVs by TCL. He mentioned he had four other jobs that day to replace the same boards in the same model TV, which seems indicative of some production defect.

26MAR2019 It’s now 26MAR2019 and I haven’t had a single problem with the TV since the repair was made. Overall, I’m happy with the TV and purchase aside from the terribly drawn out process to get it repaired. I submitted the ticket about 1.5 months after purchasing the TV, and it required about 1.5 months of back and forth time-wasting exchanges with TCL to finally get the problem fixed. I’m happy with the results, I only wish the process wasn’t so difficult.

Mar 26, 2019 03:08 AM By OP plasmaWasBetter

8

I wanted to provide an update because this issue was finally resolved though it cost some additional time and frustration 02FEB2019 I receive a text from a random number: Tech: Me: Tech: Me: Tech: Me: Over the next few days, I had very disorganized and unprofessional interactions getting the appointment scheduled for 06FEB2019. 06FEB2019 I communicated with the technician over text message. He was actually pretty easy to work once everything had been scheduled. He showed up, made room on the floor, setup a blanket, helped me take the TV down, and quickly swapped out all four boards inside the TV.
The technician also wasn’t a big fan of TCL commenting that most of his jobs were replacing parts in brand new TVs by TCL. He mentioned he had four other jobs that day to replace the same boards in the same model TV, which seems indicative of some production defect. 26MAR2019 It’s now 26MAR2019 and I haven’t had a single problem with the TV since the repair was made. Overall, I’m happy with the TV and purchase aside from the terribly drawn out process to get it repaired. I submitted the ticket about 1.5 months after purchasing the TV, and it required about 1.5 months of back and forth time-wasting exchanges with TCL to finally get the problem fixed. I’m happy with the results, I only wish the process wasn’t so difficult.

Again, thank you for sharing your experience with us and our other readers. We’re sorry to hear it took so long to get your issue fixed, hopefully TCL is aware of this and working to improve their customer service.

I’m sorry, didn’t read your whole question as it’s really long. I did read the main part about your TCL turning off and on by itself. I had this same problem on my Vizio M65-E0. It turned out to be a bad main circuit board. I called Vizio on a Thursday and it was fixed Monday, four days later, under warranty. Since your TV was purchased in Nov. 2018, you should still be on TCL’s warranty coverage. If this is still an issue I would call TCL. I doubt TCL’s customers service is as good as Vizio’s, just going by it would be very hard to beat having your TV fixed in four days after making a phone call. I honestly don’t think I would get that same luck if I were to call Vizio again, but I also no longer own a Vizio, and would be pissed if I had to call a second time as well. This sounds like a main circuit board issue and it should be covered under TCL’s warranty.

My backlight somehow shut off and they’re doing the same crap to me( ignoring what I write and then not responding for long periods of time.)

Try calling TCL, 1-877-300-8837, I wouldn’t write or email them in your situation. I don’t have any experience with TCL support, my only experience is with Vizio support. If TCL is anything like Vizio, I called on a Thursday and my TV was fixed the following Monday, under Warranty. My issue was with a circuit board, which was replaced in 10 minutes. It actually took longer to pull the TV out of my entertainment center than to replace the board. Your issue with the back light shutting down actually may warrant a whole new TV.

I just ended up taking it back to the store for a replacement.

The TCL folks were taking at least 24 hours to respond to each email, and then kept giving me different time estimates and vague instructions on what I needed to tell them.

Sometimes was 7-10 days top for a replacement. Sometimes it was 1-3 days to get parts and then 5-10 days to come out and do a repair. And I was already wasting time without a TV waiting for a mere response.

TV looks great, but their customer service is a bad joke.

Also, we had to do so many emails simply because they kept ignoring what I’d write.

Jun 27, 2019 03:45 PM By Se7en

28

I just ended up taking it back to the store for a replacement. The TCL folks were taking at least 24 hours to respond to each email, and then kept giving me different time estimates and vague instructions on what I needed to tell them. Sometimes was 7-10 days top for a replacement. Sometimes it was 1-3 days to get parts and then 5-10 days to come out and do a repair. And I was already wasting time without a TV waiting for a mere response. TV looks great, but their customer service is a bad joke. Also, we had to do so many emails simply because they kept ignoring what I’d write.

That bugs the heck out of me. It’s amazing how many different customer service centers completely ignore previously answered questions or comments and ask questions that already have been answered. I’m thinking these issues are why there’s a bunch of returbs. I’m still tempted to buy.

Someone please help! My 55R615’s “color space” in the Roku app seems to be way off. “Native” is it’s default setting, but the brighter colors are too vibrant and oversaturated. BUT if I try to change it to “auto”, the reds become oranges. This happens no matter the content I’m watching/playing. I’ve tried adjusting literally every setting and tried all inputs, etc. Is this normal for this tv, or is this a “color space” error or tv problem?

Nov 03, 2019 05:37 AM By Dman20

4

Someone please help! My 55R615’s “color space” in the Roku app seems to be way off. “Native” is it’s default setting, but the brighter colors are too vibrant and oversaturated. BUT if I try to change it to “auto”, the reds become oranges. This happens no matter the content I’m watching/playing. I’ve tried adjusting literally every setting and tried all inputs, etc. Is this normal for this tv, or is this a “color space” error or tv problem?

Try using the Rtings calbration numbers for 11 PT WB right above the color space setting in the app and from there then Native for color space should look good!

Nov 05, 2019 11:21 AM By danbfree

110

Try using the Rtings calbration numbers for 11 PT WB right above the color space setting in the app and from there then Native for color space should look good!

I tried entering just the 11 pt wb numbers and it seems like it did/changed nothing. Now I am on “normal” temperature and “normal” picture mode. Is the rtings 11 pt wb only calibrated for “movie” mode?

Edit: actually I think it does look better after closer inspection, but I’d like some clarification on my question. Thank you, Dan!

Nov 05, 2019 03:13 PM By Dman20

4

I tried entering just the 11 pt wb numbers and it seems like it did/changed nothing. Now I am on “normal” temperature and “normal” picture mode. Is the rtings 11 pt wb only calibrated for “movie” mode? Edit: actually I think it does look better after closer inspection, but I’d like some clarification on my question. Thank you, Dan!

I strongly suggest everyone get used to Warm and Movie as other settings is like LED blue headlight crappy, in the Roku app I also lower gamma from 2.2 to 2.0 for more pop but still accurate picture… So,Warm and Movie are the key, feel free to mess around with other settings from there, like the lower gamma, and I sometime lower contrast from 100 down to 95 or 90 if I get too much white bloom… but don’t forget to do the color space settings themselves after triggering custom too… But come to think of it try the contrast at 90 instead of 100 and maybe 42 instead of 45 for color to address your specific issue.

Any idea what the defective rate is in the newer 617 and 625 models? You’d think it’s not in TCL’s financial interest to be paying for an on-site tech for 10’s of thousands of TV’s. I had my mind set on a 55R625 to replace my Vizio M507 with white backlight showing through the bezel. Your report is not making me feel comfortable. It seems quality control is still an issue in these 3rd party brand low-mid tier TV’s. In comparison, I submitted a ticket to Vizio basically saying I was going to return my M507, and they immediately went ape-crap crazy trying to exchange it for me. I told them I’d rather take advantage of the costco return policy and not wait a week for a replacement. I have to give them credit for their enthusiasm compared to TCL.

I have the same problem with my 55 I bought from best buy. It’s been over 2 years since I bought it and it’s been doing the turn off on it’s own for at least a year but didn’t notice it while it was under warranty. Looks like I’ll have to just buy a new tv :(

I have a TCL 65R617 that blew a power supply after 2 years & 1 week of use. Emailed TCL Support and had no response. Messaged TCL Canada on Facebook and they directed me to TCL Social Support. When I emailed them, got one response asking for copies of proof of purchase, pic of model label. All info was sent as requested and still waiting to hear back from them after 3 days. Try this email if support does not respond tclsocial@tcl.com.

I will never buy a TCL again! TV was nice while it lasted (only 2 years, 10 months). Not sure if the TV was powering off on its own like others experienced but my family put it on 2 nights ago and only got sound, no picture. Went through all the troubleshooting steps, unplug, reset from button on back of TV, used a powerful flashlight to see menu and reset all settings through TV advanced settings. No luck! Called TCL support and after being transferred several times they were useless and asked if I purchased an extended warranty. I found out on Youtube that it is most likely the LED backlighting that will shut TV down if only one LED goes bad. Apparently this is a common issue with TCL. There’s a fix if you’re willing to take TV apart and purchase an LED strip but I’m not sure it’s worth my time and effort for a $650 TV. I’m going to buy a Hisense 55" HG6 from Costco. Unfortunately, I bought the TCL from PC Richard (it was rated the best budget TV at the time). I have a 2013 TC-P60VT60 Panasonic Plasma and 2015 Vizio M70 C-3 still going strong! F TCL! Let’s Go Brandon! Model: 2018 TCL 55R617 (GARBAGE)