As I have said before whoever said customer was always right was caring more about their money than actual facts.
We don't mind people believing the Sun is raising because of them as long as it doesn't come in the way of our own business.
The conflict is most often illustrated by Indian people calling our phone and asking what will it cost to replace a bad capacitor on their TV and when we ask them which capacitor they saying it doesn't really matter since it's a less than a dollar capacitor and we sure will know which one.
Call me racial if you want, but for whatever reason it is mostly Indian folks we have such conversation with - not all and not only, but definitely most.
Anyway, I digress...this is about a customer who bought an EEPROM containing the firmware for Vizio E420VO TV as advertised here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/VIZIO-E420VO-MAIN-BOARD-3642-0972-0150-EEPROM-U18-ONLY-NEW-PROGRAMMED-TESTED-/161498236177
According to eBay's own revision history this listing has been up since about 2016 and has made about 14 sales by the time of the development of this story.
So buyer itzaloc760 purchases and gets sent one of those and the following communication develops (nothing was edited):
itzaloc760:
The EEPROM is not the same one that my TV has, your description says it supposed to be for a Vizio E420VO for it to be compatible. The EEPROM on my TV is a MX2510GL6445EM2I the EEPROM I received from you is M2I12G5B212600. I have added pictures of the board my TV has and that's what your description for the Eeprom your selling supposed to work for. And no I didn't try it out I already order another one from a different seller.
(attached are following two pictures)
Coppell TV Repair LLC:
First, neither of your pictures show the EEPROM with the firmware for this TV.
One
picture shows tuner box next to which there is some device, but I don't
think it's an EEPROM and it most certainly isn't the board's firmware
EEPROM.
The other picture shows the TCON processor (TCON is
embedded on the main board on this model) and the TCON does have its own
EEPROM with its own firmware, which, however is specific for the panel
of the TV used and NOT for the model itself and it's not what typically
fails and what we advertise.
Second, there are many different and
compatible EEPROM models out there so it is not abnormal to receive a
device that has different markings than the one on the board.
The
same EEPROM can be and often is manufactured by different vendors and LG
uses different ICs in their board too; and further, often times we as a
service shop use one memory device which has larger capacity and can
serve 10 different models - some with 32K eeproms, other with 64K
EEPROMs and yet others with 128K EEPROMs.
OEMs use different devices because they order in hundreds of thousands and to them it makes a difference.
To
us , price wise it is the same if we get 100 pcs of one or the other
and if we can get away with using the larger IC for all cases then we go
for it.
Lastly, M2I12G5B212600 is not a valid part number.
Give me a good picture of it and I'll tell you what it is.
Until then, go for the label printed on the PCB next to the device and make sure it's U18.
Coppell TV Repair LLC (second message):
Simply put. the message I want to convey is you are not talking to an eBay vendor reselling anything they can lay their hand on.
You are talking to someone who works all day long - Saturday evening included - reverse engineering and fixing boards.
it's kind like designing electronics, only harder....believe it or not.
Challenge me technically with any electronics question you may have and let's see if I can level.
And I dare tell you the EEPROM we advertise and send is the right one.
At least from the pictures it doesn't seem like you are looking at the right place.
On
the board in the below listing (the first that I pulled on eBay, do not
know who it is from) the EEPROM is near the lower right corner of the
white rectangle marked on the PCB around the main processor:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3642-0972-0150-Main-Board-From-Vizio-E420VO-LAUKIFAL-LCD-TV/293215229609?epid=1654959788&hash=item4444fd56a9:g:lHUAAOSwSbhdcUNh
This
is just a guess from looking at the board; it looks like it (8 pins)
and it is close to the processor - that is what an EEPROM should be.
(update after publishing: oddly enough, the item in the above listing has already been sold at the time of publishing this rebuttal, which means within 1 day of the conversation developing; for reference purposes, below is a copy of the picture it contained.)
itzaloc760:
Keep the money as a donation I'm not gonna argue with you, I just lost my mom and I don't have time for any of this that's why I just ordered the right one with the same part numbers, and I'll send you the picture of the U18 Eeprom of my board cause you sound like I don't know what I'm doing. And I don't want anything in return so don't reply back. You know what Eepron you send me so compare both. The pictures I send you first where for reference only so you can see the model number of the board my TV has but yiu where looking for the Eeprom well I send you the picture also.
Coppell TV Repair LLC:
Not arguing here...I was trying to help.
Sorry if I had misunderstood you...I thought you were giving us those two pictures as examples of where you look for the eeprom.
Also sorry for your loss, but again I have no intent to argue.
itzaloc760:
Apology
accepted, so I send you the pictures of my board numbers and the
Eeprom my board has, I don't think I have to send you a picture of the
Eeprom you send me so you can compare the part numbers. And I don't want
anything in return take it as a donation from a well known buyer here
in Ebay.
The next thing happening was itzaloc760 leaving us negative feedback on eBay:
itzaloc760:
Was sent a different model number Eeprom
We still maintain that the proper EEPROM was sent and that the buyer was simply incompetent, upset and - to me it is obvious - confused.
Is it possible that we have sent incorrect EEPROM? Yes, it is.
What is more likely - for us to have made that mistake or for a buyer who can't take off properly an EEPROM number to have taken the wrong one out or to have soldered it incorrectly or to have misdiagnosed the problem?
To us the answer is if not certain, then certainly very far away from the finite statement "was sent a different model number Eeprom".
You take your side.
Sorry if I had misunderstood you...I thought you were giving us those two pictures as examples of where you look for the eeprom.
Also sorry for your loss, but again I have no intent to argue.
