Must read if you are thinking of buying Samsung!!!!

I bought a Samsung HLT5687S from Amazon on the 18th of May (Storefront was HiDef Lifestyle). I had done my research and found this TV to have all the features that I wanted, the picture was beautiful, and it was a good price. TV was delivered on the 25th of May without incident. Unfortunately the Remote Control wouldn’t work. I called Samsung support. They apologized and were going to send me a new remote. Later that day, a technician from Disk Network installed a new High Def receiver. He couldn’t get his remote to work with the TV either. That is when I wondered if it was the remote. I looked through the codes and found one for my VCR. I entered the code into the remote and sure enough, the VCR powered on and off. This was the 27th of May. I called back on the 28th of May and spoke to support about my findings. They agreed that the problem was with the TV and not the remote. They put in a Service Call and said I would be contacted by the Service Center. Two days later after not getting a phone call, I called back, that was the 30th of May. They tried to get in touch with there service center, a company called Audio/Visual Experts located in Brunswick, GA (I live in St. Marys, GA about 25 minutes away). They couldn’t get in touch with this company, so they were going to assign to someone else, or so they said. The next day, the 1st of June, I get a call from William at Audio/ Visual Experts. He said he could come on Saturday. That sounded great to me and I said I would be home all day. William didn’t show and didn’t even call. I left messages with no response. Starting on the 4th of June, I called Samsung three times, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The Executive Customer Relations support kept on saying that they would email somebody or call somebody and get back to me. Nobody did. On Monday, the 11th of June I called and the support rep said she was going to send me a remote. I said “Are you kidding me, I have already established that it isn’t the remote, it is the TV” (Today, I took the remote to a friends house who has the same model, and guess what, the remote worked). The support rep said she would email the service center and get back to me. After telling me for weeks that there wasn’t another service center close to me(by the way, I live 20 minutes from Jacksonville, FL which has over a million people) I get a call from a company in Kingsland, this was the 15th of June. A man named Terry said that Samsung had faxed him information about the TV repair Job. Then over the next week and a half, Samsung made his life miserable by not giving him access to there website, with paperwork, throwing up roadblock after roadblock. I think the only reason he did the job was because he felt sorry for me. Finally, on the 26th of June he got the part, came over the next day and fixed the TV. He did a great job and I appreciated his help with my problem. I also want to say that HiDef Lifestyle was very helpful as well. They wanted me to get the TV fixed, but assured me that if Samsung didn’t follow through, they would send me a new TV.(I believe they were the ones that put pressure on Samsung to do something, anything!!!!) Now for Samsung, I must say, it was the worst support that I have encountered in a long time. I am the senior IT Tech for a computer company in Brunswick, GA and I have dealt with some bad support. It is sad to because I had a lot of respect for the Samsung brand. I have already instructed my company (Network Monkeys) to stop buying Samsung products. I would hope somebody reads this and thinks twice before buying a Samsung product. Thank You Samsung, for ruining my first HDTV Experience! :x

Sincerely,
Brad Meyer

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to Karama

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Reply to rivalneighbour

I too had several terrible experiences with Samsung’s customer service department. I was denied access to supervisors, promised call backs that never came and placed on hold for almost on hour on more than one occasion. However, I did write down the names and direct line phone numbers of everyone I spoke with and now I would like to share them to ensure that others receive prompt service instead of being given the runaround like I was.

I had first thought that my experience with them was an anomaly but then I reviewed the BBB of NJ website and found that Samsung had an F rating and their poor customer service seemed to be company practice and not an isolated incident.

1-888-522-7341

This is the direct phone number to Executive Customer Service. They are the second tier of customer service and from what I can tell can’t do very much. They will offer to extend your warranty and refer you to case management – but case management has never returned a phone call of mine.

973-601-6104

This is the phone number for Executive Customer Service. I recommend asking to be connected directly to a manager from Executive Customer Service.- it helps if you know that name of one. Marvell was the manager when I called. They may tell you that no one is available but I found it useful at this point to insist that I had been promised a call and that the matter was time sensitive.

888-685-1358

This is the direct phone number to case management. They are the third and final tier of customer service. These people seem to actually have the power to compensate you, arrange an exchange, upgrade your product or expedite an order. They also have perks to give out like Best Buy Gift Certificates. If you call this number ask for the name and direct line of the case management officer you speak with so you can follow up if anything goes wrong.

In general I have found that the phone numbers work in the following way: all begin with 973-601-61xx and the last two digits are usually direct phone numbers for individual offices. For instance, my case management person had the phone number 973-601-6113. I suspect that all numbers from 6104 –through – 6120 will put you in touch with the upper levels of the customer service department.

It might also be useful to contact Daniel Lantowski dlantowski@mww.com. He does PR for Samsung and so may be willing to assist if you are thinking about logging your experience with Samsung and taking it to the consumer affairs editor of your local TV station or newspaper.

Good luck out there!

Reply to regan theron

Thanks Regan Theron,

That's really helpful. I am in the midst of bad customer support for a Samsung HDTV that I purchased a couple of weeks ago.
I've made it up to ECR (Executive Customer Relations) so far and a technician should be contacting me for a second attempt at repairing the faulty screen on UN55D8000YFXZA.

The Samsung customer support rep promises a lot of things on the phone (will call back, will setup expedited service, etc..) but they haven't actually followed through with any of those promises.

I've learned that you have to get the name of the support representative, their phone extension, and the transaction number every time you call. Otherwise, they will tell you anything you want to hear to just get you off the phone. They say that the phone conversations are recorded, but there is no way for you to request Samsung to review your call or allow you to file any sort of complaint other than being escalated to ECR.

After the first call where the Samsung rep promised expedited repair over the weekend, which was a blatant lie, I've been documenting every phone call afterwards. I am starting to get frustrated enough that I am considering getting a phone conversation recording device so that I can record all the phone conversations.

Leaving out the details of the negative phone customer support experiences, the problem I am having with the Samsung HDTV is:
There was one stuck green pixel in the middle of the screen. It was just one pixel so I considered just keeping the TV as is.. but I decided to just give a call to Samsung to see what they recommend. I was surprised and glad to find that they were willing to send someone out to replace the screen.

As promised, Samsung technician came out and replaced the screen and there weren't any stuck pixels any more. But later I realized that the image quality was slightly fuzzy, like all the movies/tv programs were filmed in a fog. It seems like the contrast is a lot worse now, and since I didn't change the default display settings, I don't think it's due to some display setting changes. We are comparing default settings to default settings. Also the viewing angles is a lot worse now.
When I pause a scene where it's completely black, the dull white fog is visible.. and I had better black before the screen replacement.

I am wondering if they replaced the screen of the 8000 series model with a lower model's screen. The 8000 series models has dynamic contrast ratio of 25,000,000:1, and other lower Samsung models with the same screen size have ratios of 5,000,000:1

I'll keep you posted, and I'll do further research and get this resolved.

Reply to tenacious_d

Both Samungs build quality and their customer service have really gone down the tubes lately. I see way more complaints about them than any other brand. People reading this thread should be wary for a next purchase.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to sokangcraft

sokangcraft wrote :

Both Samungs build quality and their customer service have really gone down the tubes lately. I see way more complaints about them than any other brand. People reading this thread should be wary for a next purchase.

I would say so. It totally depends on what product were talking about. With smart Phones and Tablet PC's, and even some laptops, Samsung has moved in the right direction. As far as TVs, I have no idea what has been going on. The sudden drop in TV quality and A/S have been in-question on many forums/discussion boards/tech sites/blogs. It could be a lack of focus due to the sudden increase in demand for smart phones. Maybe we will see a new Samsung emerge amidst all this heap, however as of lately, I have been very skeptical.

I've read an article on engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/09 [...] and-samsu/ and there is a segment regarding Samsung's new top of the line 75-inch LED TV, the ES8000 set for release at $7,999. This kind of bold release at 8k tells me that Samsung, in its mind, is the best TV maker and regardless of what price they put out people will buy it, and sadly it will be the case until now. When LG releases their LG OLED TV at probably 6-7k USD, which will have far more appeal and better picture than the Samsung LED TV, Sammy will be in trouble. They can only hope to sell their own version of OLED TV at a lower price than LG's which DEFINITELY wont happen or lower than the price of the Samsung LED 75inch which will seem very unlikely.

People need to realize these things.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to vgoladlo

vgoladlo wrote :

People need to realize these things.

I don't think people realize how many Samsung TVs break every forum AVS,TOMS,BEST buy any where I can think of are just littered with broken Samsung posts.

People get another brand. (and if you have money just wait 4 months and get an LG Oled)

Reply to sokangcraft

Just an update. Samsung has agreed to replace the TV earlier this week. They've opened a "Service exchange request", and it'll take another week or so to get the replacement. Apparently there will be a truck stopping by our house with the replacement and take the defective one away.

Also I've talked to a friend who has a Sony Bravia, and he said that he's heard some complaints from his sister who has a Samsung that movies have that "daytime soap opera" feel to the picture quality. He's seen it himself on a Samsung TV, and he doesn't see this issue with his Sony. I don't know if this is due to some TV setting or the quality of the movie that they were viewing on the HDTV, or it's supposed to be that way for sharper images, and we just have to get used to it.

I'll have to do some additional research on this.. Will keep you posted on the Samsung HDTV exchange.

Message edited by tenacious_d on 02-24-2012 at 11:31:02 PM

Reply to tenacious_d

Karama wrote :

I bought a Samsung HLT5687S from Amazon on the 18th of May (Storefront was HiDef Lifestyle). I had done my research and found this TV to have all the features that I wanted, the picture was beautiful, and it was a good price. TV was delivered on the 25th of May without incident. Unfortunately the Remote Control wouldn’t work. I called Samsung support. They apologized and were going to send me a new remote. Later that day, a technician from Disk Network installed a new High Def receiver. He couldn’t get his remote to work with the TV either. That is when I wondered if it was the remote. I looked through the codes and found one for my VCR. I entered the code into the remote and sure enough, the VCR powered on and off. This was the 27th of May. I called back on the 28th of May and spoke to support about my findings. They agreed that the problem was with the TV and not the remote. They put in a Service Call and said I would be contacted by the Service Center. Two days later after not getting a phone call, I called back, that was the 30th of May. They tried to get in touch with there service center, a company called Audio/Visual Experts located in Brunswick, GA (I live in St. Marys, GA about 25 minutes away). They couldn’t get in touch with this company, so they were going to assign to someone else, or so they said. The next day, the 1st of June, I get a call from William at Audio/ Visual Experts. He said he could come on Saturday. That sounded great to me and I said I would be home all day. William didn’t show and didn’t even call. I left messages with no response. Starting on the 4th of June, I called Samsung three times, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The Executive Customer Relations support kept on saying that they would email somebody or call somebody and get back to me. Nobody did. On Monday, the 11th of June I called and the support rep said she was going to send me a remote. I said “Are you kidding me, I have already established that it isn’t the remote, it is the TV” (Today, I took the remote to a friends house who has the same model, and guess what, the remote worked). The support rep said she would email the service center and get back to me. After telling me for weeks that there wasn’t another service center close to me(by the way, I live 20 minutes from Jacksonville, FL which has over a million people) I get a call from a company in Kingsland, this was the 15th of June. A man named Terry said that Samsung had faxed him information about the TV repair Job. Then over the next week and a half, Samsung made his life miserable by not giving him access to there website, with paperwork, throwing up roadblock after roadblock. I think the only reason he did the job was because he felt sorry for me. Finally, on the 26th of June he got the part, came over the next day and fixed the TV. He did a great job and I appreciated his help with my problem. I also want to say that HiDef Lifestyle was very helpful as well. They wanted me to get the TV fixed, but assured me that if Samsung didn’t follow through, they would send me a new TV.(I believe they were the ones that put pressure on Samsung to do something, anything!!!!) Now for Samsung, I must say, it was the worst support that I have encountered in a long time. I am the senior IT Tech for a computer company in Brunswick, GA and I have dealt with some bad support. It is sad to because I had a lot of respect for the Samsung brand. I have already instructed my company (Network Monkeys) to stop buying Samsung products. I would hope somebody reads this and thinks twice before buying a Samsung product. Thank You Samsung, for ruining my first HDTV Experience! :x

Sincerely,
Brad Meyer

Pretty much all products made in Japan / China / etc.. are poorly supported. This is nothing new. Especially bad is Samsung, and Panasonic. Yamaha is pretty good and Sony is a bit better.
Samsung support is about as good as Charter Communications support.---hahahaha.
The best thing is to buy from a local dealer that has a service center in house. Avoid buying stuff on the internet, you may think you are getting a deal, but no service at all for the most part.
Buy from Costco (SONY) and they let you exchange it, with no problem. But they still won't repair it.
I certainly would not buy Samsung or Panasonic. Even if you do get it replaced, repaired, it's going to break again for another reason.
I used to work in a Panasonic / Samsung service shop. That's what convinced me to never buy their products.

------------------------------ My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.

Reply to soundguruman

Forum Home Theater : HDTV Must read if you are thinking of buying Samsung!!!!

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