27 August 2024, New Delhi: One of the most common complaints that LocalCircles has received on its platform on a regular basis over the past few years has been about smart TVs breaking down and the high cost of out-of-warranty repairs. With the growth of OTT platforms and households replacing their LCD TVs with smart TVs, the demand for them has increased significantly over the last 5 years. The Indian smart TV market alone was estimated to be worth USD 11.53 billion in 2023 and smart TV revenue in India is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.57% from 2024 to 2030, reaching nearly USD 33.72 billion by 2030.
However, as many middle and upper middle class households have switched to smart TVs in the last five years, complaints have also increased. LocalCircles conducted a survey to find out how households bought a new TV in the last five years, whether they faced any issues with the new TV so far and if so, how they got it repaired. The survey received over 36,000 responses from consumers across 329 districts of India. 64% of the respondents were males while 36% of the respondents were females. 44% of the respondents were from Tier 1, 32% from Tier 2 and 24% of the respondents were from Tier 3, 4 and rural districts.
35% of households that purchased a television in the last 5 years purchased it through e-commerce platforms.
There are countless ways to buy TVs including installment payments in stores offline and online. The survey first asked, “If you had to buy a new TV in the last 5 years, how did you buy it?” In response, the majority or 57% of consumers said they “visited an electronics store and bought it,” 6% “called an electronics store and had it delivered to their home,” and 35% “placed an order through an e-commerce platform and had it delivered to their home,” 2% did not give a clear answer. 12,676 people responded to this question in the survey. In summary, 35% of households that purchased a TV in the last 5 years purchased it through e-commerce platforms.
32% of consumers say their last TV started having problems less than 5 years ago
New TVs usually come with a manufacturer’s warranty of one year, in rare cases up to three years from the date of purchase. This warranty is intended to protect against manufacturing defects. The next question in the survey to households was, “How long did your last TV work without needing repairs?” Of the 12,425 consumers who answered this question, the majority (61%) said it lasted “5+ years,” 19% said “3-5 years,” 9% said “2-3 years,” and 3% said “1-2 years.” Breaking down the survey, 1% said it lasted “Less than a year,” 5% said “The last TV was OK, but we upgraded it to get more features,” and 2% could not answer. It is worth noting that 13% of respondents said their TV worked perfectly for less than a year to about three years. This does not speak well of the quality of many TVs sold in the market or through e-platforms. In summary, 32% of consumers say their last TV broke less than 5 years ago.
66% of those who have decided to have their television repaired in the last 5 years chose an “on-site repair” rather than a repair by the manufacturer.
Next, the survey asked, “What did you do when you had a TV in the last 5 years that needed repair?” Of the total 11,005 responses to this question, 16% said they “just bought a new TV because it was too expensive to repair,” while 15% “just bought a new TV because I wanted newer features or a larger size or both,” and 3% did not give a clear answer. The remaining 66% chose to have their TV repaired. The survey data shows that the largest portion of respondents (31%) chose to have the set “repaired locally and paid reasonable fees”; 29% had it “repaired by the company and paid excessive fees”; 3% said they “had it repaired by the company and paid reasonable fees”; 3% “had it repaired by the company for free because it was still under warranty.” In summary, of those whose TV needed repair in the last five years, only 35% had it repaired by the manufacturer/company, while the others opted for on-site repair and TV upgrade.
The results clearly show that TVs are breaking down much faster than in previous decades when TVs would function normally for 5-7 years and sometimes even 10 years without needing repair. The survey also found that only 3% of households reported that their TV broke down during the warranty period. This means that TVs most often break down in the 1-5 year time frame, usually outside of the warranty period. When consumers contact the brand, the repair costs often quoted are high, leading consumers to either opt for on-site repair or scrap/sell the TV and upgrade to a newer set.
In summary, 35% of those who bought a TV in the last 5 years bought it through e-commerce platforms. The survey also revealed that 32% of consumers experienced issues with their last TV less than 5 years after purchase, most of them outside the one-year warranty period. It also revealed that most of those who needed repairs opted for local repairs as repairs by the TV company/brand were unaffordable and 31% of them simply upgraded to a newer TV. Due to lack of standardization in services, companies charge extra for their services/repairs while local vendors repair at low cost. Sometimes they may cause damage and thereby make things worse. There is an urgent need to create standards and make programs like Right to Repair operational. Such consumer-oriented programs currently exist only on paper. They need to be implemented consistently to reduce the cost of quality repairs. LocalCircles will communicate these findings to key stakeholders in government for intervention and action.
