I got this TV on 31st October ’09 in an old school way from a local electronic shop (Yes, no fancy ezone, croma ...) for 36 grands. I am quite satisfied with the picture quality of this TV but the sound quality(SQ) is below expectation and it will not please the audiophile in you. But since this is a TV, I dint really expect the SQ to be a klipsch, polk or a yamaha but it just gave in for one thing that it was asked to do ; show the damn picture. After just 15 months of the purchase the display conked off one day , I could hear the sound though. Now the most interesting part - Service Center interaction.
I call up the Samsung customer care to register a complaint (Complaint Nbr - 8434729126). They register the complaint and tell me that I will be getting a call from the nearest service center to take toll of the situation.I get a prompt call from the service center (Abhinav enterprises) and I explained them the problem that I was facing(no picture just the sound). He told me ’Dekhna Padega’ and the charges for the onsite visit will be Rs 330. I agreed and the tech guy came to my place to check the TV. I told him exactly the same thing that I told him on the phone , this time with just a demo using TV. After thinking for a while he said power box of the TV had gone bad and it needs to be replaced . I think he could have just told me over the phone about the problem and he dint have to travel this far to tell me this personally. Thats just one of the ways for the service centers to make money. Moving on ... he told me that the power box of the tv will cost me 3500 plus 660 for labor.I think its unfair as a customer to be shelling out 5K after just 15months of a 36K buy. I mean is Samsung expecting that we are going to buy a new TV every year or a new power box every month (The power box warranty is 30 days). If Samsung cannot back their own product for 3 years I think they should atleast reduce the labor cost and the spare parts cost. I have asked for a discount on the Power Box from Samsung last week and its still in process. They have a standard answer to my question about the status of the discount "I am forwarding it to the concerned dept. and you will hear from them today". I dont know what ’concerned dept’ they are forwarding the requests and when is it going to reach them so that they can get off their lazy bureaucratic butts and do something about this. I just hope I will not have to spend on this piece of Korean junk untill next year and I will buy something with a 3 year warranty like Panasonic or something.
Note: If any reader who knows emailid/phone number of Samsung Service/region Head please let me know.
If the Samsung ’Concerned dept.’ is reading this , you need to up your game man if you dont want to pack your bags and go back to Korea.