Will Never Buy Another Samsung Product

AsSiMiLaTeD · August 2012

Well, I can now officially be added to the list of people who will NEVER buy another Samsung product again. This isn't based on a single experience but rather a string of bad experiences with Samsung.

The most recent problem is something I'm in the middle of right now. I won't go into all the details but have posted another thread related to that here, but basically there's a known defect in their plasma panels where some sets have a purple-ish line across the screen that is really bad on very light backgrounds. This is tied to either a voltage problem or the panel itself, the root cause is not clear but there's plenty of information online and more than a few people affected by the issue.

My TV is about 6 months out of warranty and I did not buy the extended waranty (I never do and never will). I called 3 times and basically got the same attitude from their CS, "if it's out of warranty it's not our problem" and told me that I'd need to contact a local service center to have someone come look at it. I already know that the very likely solution is going to be a panel replacement, and Samsung quote me more than the price of what I paid for the TV for a new panel.

I know its out of warranty and that they're not 'technically' responsible, but their handling of the issue was very poor. I know its out of warranty, but this is a clear manufactoring defect and they should own up to it. Polk has replaced an amp on a speaker that was several years out of warranty for free, Apple has replaced the screen on a 4S that I DROPPED and broke for free, and PSB has replaced a speaker grill that was broken by my fault. None of those companies had to help out, but they all did and now I'm a customer for life.

So Samsung can suck it, they'll never get another dime of my money and I'm going to go out of my way to tell others about my experience with them.

AsSiMiLaTeD · August 2012

A couple other experiences that I referred to are quickly noted below:

I had a bad experience with their first galaxy phone (my first android device) with the GPS not working. This was a widespread, known issue and they never owned up to fixing it. They released a software patch that they knew didn't work, but it was a hardware issue and they refused to replace phones. In contrast, when Apple had the iPhone 4 antenna fiasco, they offerred a full refund on all those devices, even those beyond their return window form the carriers.

My parents had a terrible experience with a couple of their refrigerators dying. Luckily my parents bought the warranty through Best Buy on those and didn't have to go through samsung to get them fixed, they're now switching brands.

MADGSF · August 2012

One of the reasons I ended up with my Panasonc plasma was the reports of Samsung plasma power supplies emitting a loud buzzing noise. Sorry to see they are still having quality issues.