Nick's TV Repair provides an invaluable service at a modest price. In a matter of a second, our LG TV had changed from a fully functional entertainment device to a dust collector with a black screen and no sound. The only thing that still worked on the TV was the power light.
After some frustrating experiences with a local repair man who claimed the power board was to blame for our TV's problem, someone advised me that it was no doubt the main board. I quickly found that because of what must be a policy of planned obsolescence to push the newer ultra HD models, LG does not sell a new main circuit board for our model LG 55LW5600 anymore, even though we bought it new only six years ago. When I went on the Internet to try to buy a used board, I found that when I could find the board, sellers consistently had policies of no returns and no warranties. Of course it made little sense for me to buy a board without warranty whose age might have predisposed it to the same type of failure that ours suffered and which might be damaged in transport and yet could not be returned.
Instead, it seemed the most sensible choice would be to send the module through ebay to Nick's TV Repair in Tucson, AZ because, besides a high customer satisfaction report of completed repairs and a very reasonable price, they offered a year's warranty on work done. They also offered to test the board to make sure it needed repair in the first place, and if it did not, they would return it for only postage and a reasonable "restocking fee."
After sending the board to Nick's, I found them to be diligent in keeping me updated by email on the progress of the repair and exactly what state our board was in at the time. I received the repaired board back in a reasonable amount of time and after reinstalling it, to our great satisfaction, our TV was again fully functional. Nick's truly saved us from the great expense and frustration we would have experienced had we decided to buy a new TV. Our model has 3D capabilities, which we truly enjoy, and which all of the manufacturers have stopped offering on their new TVs.
The only criticisms I have of Nick's are trivial. Their stated policy is that the "turn around" time for a board sent to them is three to five days. The policy is stated somewhat vaguely and it is not clear exactly when the countdown would begin. If the countdown begins on the first day it is tested to attain its functional status, the repair took seven days, including packing for return shipment. Also, I found Nick's explanation of exactly what was done during the repair process to be a bit ambiguous. Nick informed me that they had replaced the FCBGA chip. I had to question him further to find out that this was not a new but a refurbished chip. When I asked him where he got the chip, whether it was our original chip or from another board, I never received an answer. However, in comparison to these minor negative experiences, the positive benefits we received by sending our main board to Nick's were of a much greater magnitude. read more