Lawsuit Investigation Looks into Vizio TV Update Problems

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org want to hear from anyone who experienced problems with their Vizio TV after performing a firmware update.

Customers are complaining that firmware updates have caused their TVs to become unresponsive, display a black screen, show horizontal lines, or otherwise stop working – commonly called “bricking” – and the attorneys are now looking into whether a class action lawsuit can be filed to help customers get some money back.

Customers Complain Online About “Bricking” TVs

Customers are complaining online that a firmware update led to all kinds of problems with their Vizio TV, including that it won’t turn on, keeps turning on and off, displays no picture, has a frozen or black screen, or displays lines or static.

Some customers said their television was stuck in an update loop or started flashing or glitching, and others said they had problems with the sound or Vizio SmartCast. Customers also reported problems connecting to the internet and external devices.

Many users have said they were unable to fix the problems, even after contacting Vizio.

Below is a sampling of complaints posted online [sic throughout]:

Never will I own another Vizio product my TV 18 months old and the worst tv I have ever owned and it wasn’t their cheapest it was an M Series. Vizio pushed an update that froze the TV and it would not recover even after restart.”
— Eriktheadikt, Reddit.com

The new firmware update has messed up my Vizio E43-F1 TV. The remote is unresponsive, the operating software lags and crashes upon turning on, and it’s hard to even get the thing to turn on in the first place(have to unplug/plug-back in). The TV was completely fine before the new firmware update! I turned the TV off, after getting ‘the firmware has been updated’ pop-up, and then the problems began when trying to turn the TV back on the next time.”
— gookhaaa, Reddit.com

Yes, the firmware update has been nothing but a nightmare for our m50q7-h1. Once the tv is turned off you’re lucky if you can ever get it turned back on except by unplugging it and plugging it back in. Ours is on Quick Start mode and not Eco mode. And our sound randomly goes out too for no reason. It’s terribly frustrating especially since I’m disabled and it’s difficult for me to get up to ‘fix’ this repeatedly. And we’ve also noticed that our color seems washed out now.”
— bobbyjohnswiley, Reddit.com

After the update my tv now has weird black transparent overlays at the top of the screen that come in and out at random times totally ruining the video.”
— Jmarsh5, Reddit.com

This update has one major bug for me. Every time I turn the TV on to my cablebox there is no sound at all. I have to unplug the HDMI cable from the TV and plug back in and then there is sound. I’ve switched out the cablebox and the HDMI cord and always the same issue. This never happened before this firmware update.”
— jwgraves62, Reddit.com

I bought it, plugged it in, let it do its updates, then it said it was going to turn off then on again, and once it came back on its just been a black screen. Its been like this for about 30 minutes now. None of the buttons on the remote do anything except for me being able to turn it off.”
— ItDolph, Reddit.com

My Vizio m55q7-h1 got a firmware update yesterday, and now when I turn the tv on all I see are red vertical lines. When I use the remote the location of the red stripes moves. I tried a soft reset and a hard reset but those didn't fix anything.”
— Onewolf42, Reddit.com

How a Lawsuit Could Help

A class action lawsuit, if filed and successful, could help customers get back some of the money they spent on their Vizio TV and potentially force Vizio to come up with a free fix.

Before commenting, please review our comment policy.