Goodmans W280NS

I hear you. My W280NS went snap, crackle and pop yesterday morning (more like snap, snap, snap, snap, pop!). Thanks to your write-ups I'm not even going to bother getting it repaired, or buy another Goodmans. Good excuse to get a nice new one. I've done some research too and I'm convinced the failure is due to the transformer arcing over. I've got power but no picture or sound, just the stand-by light and some small fireworks when I try to take it off stand-by. To be fair it was a great little widescreen TV (until yesterday). Nearly four years old, but only used for a couple of hours most evenings. Great for SKY digital and consoles due to its two SCARTs. A real shame/pain.

We ventured into the Widescreen TV market in the autumn of 2001 and invested in one of these Goodmans W280NS mainly on being a good price at the time. However after just a few months it broke down and an engineer was called for, and he promptly fixed it in our home and we had several more months of happy viewing, just a month after the one year manufacturers guarantee expired (we didnt have extended warranty) it started acting up with continually switching itself off, sometimes after a minute sometimes twenty minutes or so later, we went back to the shop and complained, they apologised and stated that because it was out of guarantee they could do nothing, but they did get intouch with domgen on behalf of us who offered us an extended years guarantee for £40 so we took the guarantee, but the fault suddenly stopped without any aid from an engineer we have had another years use free of problems with our TV until Thursday (08/04/04) when it suddenly started puthering smoke so we unplugged it and searched for our warranty WHICH IRONICALLY EXPIRED JUST THREE DAYS EARLIER (05/04/04). So we are now £40 out of pocket and a TV which is useless. I will contact domgen to enquire if they can help after the easter holidays but wont expect much. I think its time to retire this tv set and invest in a better quality (and hopefully more reliable one).

This is the first step I made in buying a widescreen tv. And a buy which I am very proud with. The Goodmans W280NS looks good and for £330 (which I payed 2 years ago) it is well worth buying. I recently upgraded to a Panasonic TX36PB50. But still, I wont get rid of me Goodmans.

We purchased our Goodmans W28BNS 28" tv on 15/12/99 and the first repair was 23/12/99 to degauze the screen. Since then the repair men have been baffled by the catalogue of complaints-everything from the sound going up and down to sizzling noises to breakdown in the picture. We feel we have badly let down and dubious about watching it too much because the last engineer said that in some models there has been a problem with a short circuited wire. Never again will we purchase anything with the Goodmans name

After looking for a 28 inch widescreen Goodmans and comet stores found the ws28 ns model asked if it was (i like the fact that Goodmans were in uk) made by Goodmans and was told yes, i bought it and found faults with the scan geometry and then asked Goodmans {part of ALBA}, i found out, where i can get spares and circuits and was told, oh no the Comet group have a licence to rebadge there own makes as Goodmans and if i wanted one a real "Goodmans" go to Argos. Isn't it against trade desciptions to falsely imply comets models are Goodmans? I think i will demand a refund as it has scan faults as Comet will not refund for any other reason.?

I bought this Goodmasns W280NS widescreen TV as a first step into Widescreen. It was cheap (£379), looked good, and had a brilliant picture quality - better than many 'big name' sets at twice the price. The SVHS socket and support for RGB on one of it's two SCART sockets were an added bonus, as was the satin black finish - so much less flashy than the common silver look. Good Nicam stereo with a choice of 'effects' (stereo-concert hall-stereo wide) and full tone controls.

The remote was simple and easy to use, teletext fast and flicker free.

All was sweetness and light, until the evening when I pressed the AV button on the remote to turn it on and there was a vivid blue flash and a loud bang, followed by a couple of pathetic sizzles.

Investigation by an independent repair specalist revealed the tube had failed and a transformer had arced over. Repair costs estimated in excess of the cost of a replacement.

The original retailer's response (Comet) was: "If you had a choice of building TVs using expensive components that lasted or cheap ones that don't, which would you do?"

Draw your own conclusions. Suffice it to say I won't be buying from Comet, or Goodmans again, and wherever I buy I shall take out an extended warranty - it appears the days when a cheap TV could be counted on lasting 8-10 years (like my last two) have passed.

Conclusion: A nice looking, easy to use, high performance widescreen TV with good Nicam stereo, fast flicker free text, and brilliant screen - completely spoiled by poor longevity.