My girlfriend and I happily purchased a Samsung 40" LCD television model LN40C530 on Black Friday of last year. It was our first major purchase together and we thought it looked like a great television for our first apartment. I researched all the usual spec's about picture and audio quality and for the price, Samsung looked like the best deal on the market. Unfortunately, I didn't dig deep enough into the longevity of Samsung's LCDs or the company's history of ignoring a persistent pattern their customers have been experiencing (this list of ignored customers now includes myself).
This past week the TV had been unexpectedly turning off for no reason. Then a couple minutes would pass and it would turn back on. While at work last night I received a call from my girlfriend saying the television had turned off and wouldn't turn back on. When I got home to look at it, it still wasn't working (just the red power light flashing 4-5 times in the bottom corner of the TV). I figured it just needed to be unplugged for a while and then it would work. Still no luck. So I decided to "Google" my problem and see if anyone else had been experiencing this type of malfunction, and I was amazed at what I stumbled upon. Literally hundreds of posts from Samsung customers experiencing this same exact problem, right after their warranty expired, and from all different makes a sizes of Samsung LCD televisions.
They all complained about how when they called Samsung they were offered no help besides references to costly repair shop partners of theirs.in every case Samsung pretended as if they had never heard of this problem before, and it was a unique situation their customer was in. So then I called Samsung's Customer Care myself, and lo and behold I was treated exactly the same as all of the other testimonials I had read. The guy on the phone acted like he had no idea what the problem could be, and just gave me phone numbers to "Samsung Approved" repair shops in my area.
After more research I found that Samsung uses extremely low-quality and low-voltage capacitors in their televisions. These things are basically destined to fail sometime after 12 months of moderate use. The fix is rather simple if you have some soldering skills and some basic electronics knowledge, but Samsung hides this.in fact on their website, this problem is barely addressed on their Technical Service page and they just refer you to their "approved" repair shops (the cost of these repairs can cost hundreds upon hundreds of dollars) and I imagine most people just decide to buy a new television instead, and here's the kicker... I wonder how many opt for that extended-warranty the next time around?
This all really upsets me because I was led to believe that Samsung is a quality-driven company. It's hard to find a bad review when it comes to the main selling points for a Samsung LCD TV. They've got a great picture resolution, good audio, and pretty decent pricing. But it's the hardware that's inside these things that is being overlooked.
I really don't want to believe that Samsung is methodically running a warranty scam, but the pattern is far too obvious to ignore. They've been using these same capacitors in their LCD's for years now and in the face of all the complaints they've just turned the other way, offering no compensation for a flaw in their design that they are well aware of, but choose to ignore. I should add, I called one of the "approved repair" shops, and the guy informed me that Samsung still uses the same capacitors that have been causing this problem for years for countless customers.
Seeing that I have no electronics experience, I'm not going to attempt to fix this problem by myself. And there's no way I'm going to pay hundreds of dollars to have it repaired. If their goal was to sell more TVs, well then, they've succeeded. Because that's exactly what I'm going to do, begin saving my money, and then try and find a good deal after Christmas. But will it be a Samsung? As much as I loved the picture quality... Absolutely no way.
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