Customer Service at it's worst

12/26/05 I bought a 50" LCD projection TV for $2000. It was really nice to have that big picture and great sound. It was a Hitachi. Hitachi has always been a leader in quality. However, this wasn't true with my TV. Approximately 9 months after buying the TV the lamp went out. It turns out that lamps are not covered by the warranty. I figured no big deal. I'll get a new lamp. I didn't know that lamps cost $250 each! I bought it, put it in myself, and thought everything was good. Then a year and a week after buying the TV the remote quit working. I went back to Circuit City (where I bought the TV) and told them about the remote. I thought they would honor the warranty since it was only a week out of warranty. No such luck. They tried to sell me a universal remote. No thanks.
This story is not over yet. Far from it. At the 2 year old mark of the TV, it started intermittently turning off and then back on. I emailed Hitachi to see what it could be and if they would do something to reverse my now bad opinion of their products. They told me the TV was out of warranty and only could give me a number of a repairman close to me. When I did a search for the repairman on the internet I found out the company had an unsatisfactory report by the Better Business Bureau!
Moral of the story:
Don't buy Hitachi. Not only are their products apparently no longer made with quality, but their customer service leaves something to be desired.
I may as well have taken $2000 and threw it in the river. Which is probably what I'm going to do with this TV.