In a fit of avarice I decided a couple of weeks ago to buy a new TV. My old TV was a smallish Polaroid (who knew they made TVs?) HD television. It works perfectly fine, but I wanted something a lot bigger. I used to use a projector (a BenQ PE8700 which I’m selling if anyone is interested), but it could not throw the picture brightly enough.
Anyway, after shopping around, I found this from Samsung. Looks pretty good, right? True, it is a rear-projection, but there have been advances in rear-projection TVs, and I actually saw this TV in the local Best Buy.
I did some more research, saw good reviews, then tried to find a low price. I found it at NewEgg.com for about $400 less than other places, and with free shipping! Of course there was a catch. NewEgg classified this as a “bulk item” which means that once I accepted it from the shipper, I could not return it. Seemed to me that if there was no shipping damage, anything else wrong with the set would be covered by Samsung’s warranty. So I bought it.
About a week later, the TV arrives. Oh Joy! I inspect the package and see no signs of trauma. The shipper was even so kind as to let me open the box up and look at the TV. Again, so signs of damage, so I accept the TV.
Later that night, after I hook it up, I notice something that looks like smudges or fingerprints on the screen. Samsung ships a special cloth to clean the screen, so I set about a-cleanin’. The smudges do not go away. Upon further inspection, the smudges are inside the screen!
Off to the phone to call Samsung. I eventually get to a customer service rep and I proceed to tell him about the smudges. He puts me on hold to talk to his supervisor. 30 seconds later, and he informs me that this is not covered by the Samsung warranty! I couldn’t believe it! I’m so mad I hang up.
After calming down, I read the warranty that came with the TV. It specifically states that they cover manufacturer defects. Since the smudges are on the inside, there is no way the shipping caused it, therefore it had to be that way coming from the factory. So I call Samsung back.
I get a different customer service rep. I re-explain the problem, adding what I read about the warranty. I get put on hold again, this time for about 5 minutes. Then the rep tells me “Of course this is covered! Let me get you a transaction number for warranty repair.”
Whew! What a relief! So the tv is now at the local repair shop where I hope it is being fixed. It has been a few days and I haven’t heard anything, so I’ll be calling today to find out the status.
I come to find out from looking at other reviews that some people also had received broken televisions. What kind of quality assurance is Samsung running? Warranty repair calls are way more expensive that putting in the extra processes to ensure that the product they ship have no problems when they get to the customer. At this point, even though the TV will be a great TV once I get it back, I cannot recommend it to anyone else.
