Philips along with some other manufactuerers are acting against the best interests of consumers by using a highly restrictive practice concerning the supply of spare parts for thier products.
I am a qualified electronics Service Engineer and I have a Phiklips HDRW 720/05 Hard Disk & DVD recorder which has a computer style DVD drive unit built ino it. This unit has develpoped a fault, and needs to be replced. It is out of warranty so I wished to purchase the part. On contacting Philps Customer Services I was informed that in sucsessive exchanges :
1. The part is not availiable
2. For health and safety reasons they cannot sell it
3. It must be replaced by an authorised service agent becuase it has a laser.
and finaly something closer to the truth that they do not want to sell to end users.
A similar situation was outlawed in the automotibve industry, so how can this be allowed to continue.
Philips insist on refering end users to one company Servicecare. This company will not sell spare parts either, but they will charge the earth for the use of the quoted 0870 number, and thier minimum charges make repairs of this sort very expensive.
It is my view that this is anti competitive. any other views from contributers?
Philips Consumer Products 
