Hitachi is set to fork out thousands in compensation to customers who purchased their 50-inch Hitachi P50X01 1080i TV, which the company claims delivers the "Ultimate Full HD Experience," despite the model only being 1080i and not 1080p.
SmartHouse can reveal that In recent weeks Hitachi has taken to offering consumers who purchased a 50-inch Hitachi P50X01 1080i TV from Harvey Norman the change to receive a refund of up to $1,500 on the condition that they indemnify both Hitachi Australia and Harvey Norman from any future claims regarding the purchase of the TV. Some have been offered refunds of over $5,000.
In one case a customer from Western Australia was told he would get $1,500 from Hitachi and that he could keep his 50-inch Hitachi 1080i plasma TV. In another case a South Australian consumer was offered over $5,000 as a full refund of the controversial TV.
Several consumers have told SmartHouse that they purchased the TVs believing them to be 1080p Full HD as opposed to 1080i Full HD.
Since we revealed the story that Harvey Norman had taken action against Hitachi over sale of the TVs, we have received five legal letters from Sydney legal firm, Blake Dawson. We cannot reveal the contents of these letters as the legal firm marked them "Not for publication".
However, we can reveal that Hitachi has requested that 4Square Media pulls down the stories we have written as Hitachi claims they are misleading.
