Keiwana

calibration problem

I will be buying 55” Mitsubishi in the near future (Christmas present). In an attempt to get the most out of this set, I went to the ISF web site to locate a local calibrator. The nearest calibrator in my area is 65 miles away. I called this company and I was told that they would be able to do a full calibration for $350, but there’s a catch and here lies the problem. I would have to buy my television from their company at retail. We did not get into the price because they do not sell Mitsubishi and I am able to my 55” for about $750 less than retail.

After hearing his proposal, I had two responses. First, I thought this their business and they could run anyway they wanted to, but I also thought that their response sounded a little shady. I looked at a calibration as being an after market service and only servicing products directly sold by their company sounded stupid considering the type of service being provided. I compared this policy to buying a ford, but not being able to get an oil change at a Chevy dealership. (My car analogy stems from the fact that the conversations made me fill as if I was dealing with a shady used car salesman.)

This leads me to my questions.
1. Are ISF certified calibrators bound by certain ethics and guidelines?
2. Was this company’s response normal?
3. What type of problems, if any, have other forum member encountered when trying to have their sets calibrated?

Keiwana

Sorry

Vince Maskeeper

ISF is a training and certification program- as far as I know, no one who attends the training and is qualified is required to do anything specific. The ISF doesnt really offer the service- anyone can calibrate a TV in theory- the ISF just offers a certification program for people (similar, I would say, to computer certifications).

There is a company in my neck of the woods that has a similar situation- their ISF guy is not available for Hire-- instead he only works on calibration and maintaining installed systems for this one company. I don't imagine ISF could require him to work for hire-- he's simply contracted to do service for a specific company.

In my opinion a better car analogy would be a mechanic hired and trained specifically to maintain a fleet of vehicles sold by a specific dealership... The dealership spent the money on his training specifically to offer an added value to their customers. Or, again- computer certification--- just because Bob at Networking Assistance Inc has 4 microsoft certifications,and he's listed on their site as certified-- he's not obligated to work on your computer, and is more than in his rights to only offer his knowledge and training to customers who purchase equipment direct from his company...

I would suggest scheduling a service from one of the half-dozen TOURING calibrators (like the HTF's own Gregg Loewen or MichaelTLV)--- you might read the archived thread on ISF calibration, if you're interested in potential "problems":
(nevermind, guess this thread was deleted from the archive)

Or your own, crossposted thread, here:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=169196

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Michael Reuben

Duplicate threads have been merged. Please do not start more than one thread on the same topic.

M.

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John Sparks

Hometheaterspot.com has some of the best calibrators in the business!!!

...retired at last!!!

Keiwana

I understand your analogy Vince. I said: But when I went to the ISF website and did a search for local calibrators the site did not state that there would be any stipulations on providing the service nor have I never heard of this being done.



Is a Networking Assistance going list Bob on a site a contact person that aids consumer in their quest for after markect computer solutions(service after the sale) when he can only provide services to Networking Assistance customers? I guess my point is... An individaul looking for ISF calibrater probbaly already has a set or decided on a set. So, why would a company or calibrator think that they would be change their decision to have their set calibrated by them.

Oh yeah, thanks for the thread info.:b

Henry Carmona

So what happened? Did you contact anyone from ISF?

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