I really enjoy my TCL when it’s working, but the problem is that it often turns off on its own while we’re watching it. I reached out to TCL support shortly after purchasing it, but it’s been nearly 3 months and they haven’t taken any action. Here’s a timeline of events:

01NOV2018

• Purchased from Best Buy

unsure of exact date

• ~we experienced the TV shutting off a few times in the weeks that followed, but we don’t use it often and considered that one of us must have accidentally shut it off. after it happened enough times, we concluded beyond any doubt that it was happening on its own, and also noticed the shut down and start up were different from when they’re done using a remote control~

15DEC2018

• Submitted ticket to TCL to report the issue

16DEC2018

• TCL sent the standard “shut down, remove power cable, press power button” response along with several canned questions, most of which had been answered in my initial ticket

holiday break

• ~I was traveling for the holidays and fell behind on this~

02JAN2019 1356

• TCL followed up to see if the issue was still occurring

02JAN2019

• 1410 I replied, answered the questions, and added that the issue was still occurring despite following their steps
• 1701 TCL: “Thank you for the response and we forwarded your case to our engineers. We will respond to your message as soon as a feedback becomes available.”

03JAN2019 1635

• Replied after experiencing more frequent abrupt shut downs and provided more information and details, like the difference in how abrupt it was, and how much longer that start up takes

03JAN2019 1714

• TCL: “Thank you for the update and we are truly sorry for the inconvenience as the issue happened again. We forwarded this to our software engineers and we will respond to this message as soon as a feedback is available.” and I never heard back from them

16JAN2019 1618

• I followed up with TCL to comment that it’s been about a month since I opened the ticket and they haven’t provided any solutions
• I also sent tweets to TCL in hopes of getting more attention to my case

17JAN2019

• 1133 TCL: “Thank you for the response and we really apologize for the inconvenience. We would like to inform you that Roku recently released an update that affected the 6-series which resulted to a power issue. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the software engineers to provide us a fix and we will inform you immediately when we received a feedback.”
• 1144 I sent a tweet to Roku quoting TCL and asking if they broke my tv.
• 1213 Roku replied with instructions to PM them some information including Device ID and my email address so they could look into it
• no timestamp I PM'ed Roku the requested information

18JAN2019

• I PM'ed Roku on Twitter again to ask if they had any update (I hadn’t received a ticket number or anything, so it seemed no case had been opened) but didn’t hear anything back

24JAN2019 2118

• I replied to Roku’s tweet reply from the 17JAN2019, but didn’t hear anything back

25JAN2019

• 1809 Posted a tweet @Roku calling them out for acting responsive but then not delivering any results
• no timestamp Roku: “Hi Frankie! We’ve sent out the word to our friends at TCL. We’ll have a few folks check out the logs based on your serial number and TCL should be able to assist you further.”
• no timestamp I replied and explained that TCL was giving me the run-around blaming Roku, and included the quote from TCL blaming Roku
• no timestamp Roku: “Thank you, Frankie, we’ve escalated over to them.”
• no timestamp at this point I noticed the Google suggestions for “TCL keeps” were crashing, turning off, restarting so it seemed more TCL owners were experiencing similar issues. Many of the search results were from November 2018 on Reddit, and that was when I bought mine. I also read similar stories of getting the run-around from support up until customers’ warranties expired and then refusing to support their TVs
• 2056 I replied to my TCL case thread with “That seems unlikely considering I’ve been experiencing the issue since November 2018, opened this ticket December 2018, and my TV updated to 8.2.2 Build 4129 on January 8th. So, this has happened across multiple versions of the software at this point.”
• 2057 shared my support experience to tv@rtings.com

27JAN2019 0923

• TCL: “Thank you for your reply and we understand how you must feel. We just received a feedback from our engineers and as confirmed, your TV 55R615 will require an onsite repair. With this, we would like to verify the following information for us to complete your case:”
• I honestly missed this message. I had given up on email support by this point and planned to try calling

28JAN2019

• 1218 Adam Babcock from RTINGS replied
• 1437 I provided additional information to Adam
• 1528 I called TCL and spent 29 minutes on the phone with support. They had my prior case, but they wanted to open a new one. They walked me through unplugging the TV and even taking the batteries out of the remote this time. It seemed the technician was trying to wrap up the call and I said I was going to need to it be escalated because I’ve been experiencing issues with the TV for nearly 3 months now. She put me on hold to talk to a supervisor. Then she returned and said she would escalate to the evaluation team and put me on extended hold.

29JAN2019

• 1006 Received an email to schedule an on-site repair. It’s not very specific with timeframes though so I will call to schedule an appointment “The on-site service event at your location is expected to occur in approximately 5 to 10 business days. Before scheduling a precise date and time, we would like to first confirm your availability within this general timeframe. If you are not going to be available within the next 5 to 10 business days, please let us know when we can set a follow-up call to get availability, and we will do our best to accommodate your preference.”
• 1417 Adam from RTINGS suggested that I share my experience here

Nearly three months later, and many emails, tweets, and plugging and unplugging of power cords later, I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere. Generally, I’m happy with my TV, but the abrupt shut down problem is frustrating. It must have happened 3 times within 30 minutes this past Sunday. The issue does seem somewhat user behavior driven. On Saturday we played Spotify on it for several hours without disruption, but on Sunday I was streaming Buffy on Vudu and it kept crashing. Other crashes occurred when using Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.

As much as I like the TV and the Roku OS, and I really do like them, I don’t know if I would buy another TCL TV again. I even went so far as to add the recently released Roku Wireless Speakers to my setup, and I think they’re great, and so is the TV when it’s working. Their product seems like a great value, but this support experience doesn’t seem worth the risk. I know there were a few cases where I could have replied sooner, mainly during that holiday break, but I can’t look past their having their engineers look into it for two weeks with no reply or what looks to be an unfounded accusation that a Roku update is responsible either. How many people are willing to go weeks or months without their television?