Samsung Electronics Poor Customer Service

On December 26, 2005 I purchased a 26" Samsung TXP2675 widescreen,

flat screen, high-definition television from the Rex store in Niagara

Falls, NY. I enjoyed this television until March 31st, 2006 when it

stopped working. Many warranties expire 90 days after purchase. I

was lucky on March 31st, 96 days after purchase, that my television

was under a one year warranty. It is unfortunate that this particular

television broke after such a short period of time, but I attempted to

rectify the situation promptly.

I called Samsung's toll-free technical support line and was

instructed to try a variety of solutions (all of which I had already

tried on my own before calling). Eventually, the technical support

personnel gave up and gave me the number of a company that would

service my TV free of charge. The Lifetime Service Center based in

Buffalo, NY was willing to come and service my TV but repeatedly told

me that my TV was no longer under warranty because it broke after 90

days. I checked with Rex and located my receipt and warranty

information for the television and confirmed that it was still under

warranty, despite the Lifetime Service Center's insistence that it was

not.

To their credit, the Lifetime Service Center came to repair the TV on

April 3rd. Despite knowing the model of my television and having a

thorough description of the problem before coming, the repairman did

not have the needed parts to perform the repair. He told me he needed

to order the part, and left for the day.

The repairman returned on April 8th. He replaced the power supply of

my television, but that did not solve the problem. This led him to

conclude that it was my picture tube that was broken and that Samsung

did not replace picture tubes, they simply replaced the television.

He claimed he would file the paperwork immediately. In later

conversations with Samsung's replacement department, they informed me

that the paperwork was not filed Saturday April 8th when the problem

was discovered, but Wednesday April 12th.

Samsung's replacement department told me on April 17th that they did

not have any of my particular model available and instead I needed to

choose a different model. My choices were a 27" television that was

not widescreen, or one of two 30" "SlimFit" televisions. Both of

these TVs appeared to be too large to fit in the TV stand that I

owned, and the customer reviews alerted me to numerous problems with

these models. Offered only these three choices, I had to choose the

TXR3080. It could be considered a slight upgrade over my model

because of the marginally larger screen, but with such negative

customer reviews I was concerned. At this point I had already been

without a working television for 17 days and wanted to get another TV

as soon as possible.

The company in charge of delivering the TV to me, NVC Logistics

Group, wanted to deliver it on Wednesday, April 26. Unfortunately, I

had to work during the hours that they would be available to deliver

the TV. Normally I work 9-5 Monday through Friday and NVC Logistics

does not have any Saturday hours so I had no choice but to take a day

off of work. Fortunately, on that Friday, I thought I would be able

to leave work early and be at my house by 12:30 in the afternoon and

could receive the television. This way I would only need to miss half

a day of work. I received a call from NVC the night before indicating

that they would deliver the TV sometime between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM.

This forced me to take a day off of work so that I could receive the

TV. They did not show up between 11:00-1:00, they arrived at 10:45

AM.

As the movers unpacked the TV, it was quite obvious that the TV had

been damaged. One corner of the TV looked like it had been smashed

with a hammer. It was apparently dropped or somehow mishandled during

shipping. I refused to accept the damaged TV and called Samsung's

replacement department to see how I could get a new TV delivered.

Over the next hours I talked to various people at Samsung's customer

service line, replacement division, and Rex. My only recourse

appeared to be, "waiting for new paperwork to go through the system."

At this point, 28 days after my TV broke; I thought I deserved some

sort of compensation. I had been without a television for nearly a

month, had missed a day of work so that I could receive a broken TV,

and had undergone undue aggravation in the process. Samsung told me

that my warranty would be extended for a month or two and that they

would expedite shipping on the next television.

I was upset that the television arrived damaged, but Samsung refused

to take any responsibility for this, simply telling me that they were

not responsible for damage that occurred during shipping. They choose

to ship their TVs with this company, and I believed that they should

be responsible for who they choose to contract work to. If a company

they have selected is unable to get a TV to me unharmed, they ought to

choose a different company and stand behind the services and companies

they use.

The "expedited shipping" appears to be an outright lie as I write

this on May 11th and am still without a TV. The first TV arrived 11

days after talking to the replacement department. The next TV has not

materialized after 13 days.

This experience has left me with many questions. Why did my TV break

so quickly? Why has it been so hard to get it replaced? Most

importantly, what has become of customer service? In the past,

companies strove to make their customers happy. In this instance,

Samsung has shown no interest in doing anything to please me. I told

them that I was not expecting a check to make restitution for my time

missed from work, but an upgraded television would be a nice gesture.

When I suggested that, one of the representatives at the Replacement

Department laughed at my request as ridiculous. If anyone from

Samsung is reading this, his name was Mike. Also, why does the

replacement process have to be so convoluted? Samsung could easily

have sent a money order to the store where I bought my TV and had them

provide me with a new one. This solution would've gotten me a TV

within days. My television broke 42 days ago. I'm still waiting.