Samsung forum: Internal Crack on my TV panel

I know you did not intend your post directly to me..... however, my authorized service technician was extremely helpful and it might have been the conversation with him and the retailer that made the retailer exchange my TV. I know their hands are tied and I think it frustrates a lot of them. Samsung is not fun to deal with and ANY level!

Hi rjohan -

It's not a Best buy ad; I found the article at the Chicago Sun-Times (I'd post the link but cnet won't let me). Just web search Sun-Times cracked Samsung. The article is about the same defective TV's we have here. Unlike Samsung, one of Best Buy's customer relations executives chose to stand by their customer and replace the TV. It was obvious that there was no outer damage to the plasma panel, and Best Buy logically determined the TV WAS DEFECTIVE (again, unlike Samsung)!

rjohan@sbcglobal.net

Thanks for your help. I will keep everyone posted as to the results of the Small Claims Suit.

hey thanks for all the advice. im sorry that its not just me to deal with this crap. my email is jonboys84@comcast.net thaks again

forgot email address. davidcsalyers@gmail.com

I have a 58" Samsung Plasma and the screen just cracked with no one in the room. I just called and they told me it will not be covered and that they will send a rep to fix it. They would not quote it so I started searching the we and found this.

torbrooks: Is that with Samsung? I haven't heard of the department before and I haven't read any threads that included that department either! Sounds like it could be a good thing! Good luck and keep us posted.

I would first like to say that I apologize if I come across as rude or incredibly angry, but at this point I am.I have been given nothing but the run around and excuses since I had my first problem with my Samsung TV up until today.And quite frankly I am fed up and tired of it .
. I purchased the SAMSUNG 50'' TV on 02/11/2011 . The problems began not even a month later. I had just come home from being gone for the weekend and turn on my TV ,when I turned it on it has a fuzzy,almost cracking sound that I had never heard before,but the picture seemed fine,so I just assumed it was the humming noise that most flat screens do. I then sat down and turned the cable to a show, and noticed something weird on the left hand bottom of the TV screen,upon looking closer I saw that it was a crack inside of the TV.

I immedietaly called BEST BUY and was transfered several times and basically told that what I described to them was physical damage. I then asked how could you possibly make that conclusion on something you have not even seen in person? I must have told him that there is no way or possibility that this was physical damage at least 10 times throughout our conversation and was more or less made to feel like I was lieing or that I had no clue what I was talking about . I do know the facts, physical damage means PHYSICAL and when I am gone all weekend andcome home to a cracked screen,

I am competent enough to know that I did not damage it , and that it has to be an internal issue. That scenario or that maybe a ghost broke it , is all I can come up with . Finally this man says to me well basically your only option is to leave it alone, or we can have the geek squad come out ,however they will most likely charge you for the visit , being that he had already made his conclusion it was physical damage without even seeing the TV. I was so infuriated and upset that I just gave up . The crack hadn't affected the picture and It was very clear I was going to get nowhere with BESTBUY.


Now let's fast forward to about 5 months later .....I ran to the store to get groceries and come back home, start setting the TV up to watch a show....and go to turn the TV on and....nothing but a black screen....I heard the startup sound like it tryed to turn on and nothing. I went around to the back of the TV and unplugged everything, plugged it back in and still nothing. I then noticed that when I tryed to turn on TV the red power light blinks for several seconds, so I thought that maybe it was the type of TV that had a reset button. I looked everywhere and could find nothing ,then i tryed holding the power button on and again nothing. This time though I saw something in the reflection of my living room lamp , and upon further inspection see 2 huge cracks about 2 inches up from the original one. I COULDN'T believe it . !!!!!!


So now I have a TV that is not even 7 months old, with a crack that appears after a month, 2 more appear 5 months later and now I am out about 800$ to no fault of my own ,except that I did not research this TV or all the problems people are having with this happening throughly enough. The complete disregard that SAMSUNG and BESTBUY have shown me and this issue or enough to make me never want to buy from you again , and not only that warn every person I encounter to never buy from you again. What myself and others know to be true is that ,not doing right by your loyal customers and resolving these matters costs you much more in the long run than just fixing the problem. You are not only losing that one customer,but the current and potential customers that person reaches through thier horrible experience with the company and all the people they inform and so on.


Since I am fairly certain by reading what hundreds of other people went through with this same issue and same two companies,and it being ignored I am going to put my foot down and do everything in my power because this is not right. I am not rich, I am not a frivilous person who spends money like water,if I could just go out and spend money like that believe me I would just go buy another TV than to have to go through all this trouble and hassle. I will not be quiet and I will keep shouting until someone hears me and this is fixed. I have contacted a number of agencies regarding this matter including the Better Business Bureau ,Fair trade comission, Ripoff report and a few others that work within the newspaper and journalism students etc.

Any input or things that worked aside from the things I mentioned that I have done , would be GREATLY appreciated....I will sift through the rest of these posts to ensure I did not miss anything.

p.s , like clockwork the BESTBUY tech came this morning and instantly said it was physical damage =/
and as expected said "he has never seen this problem before "

Yep... just to follow up... received a call from Schneider TV this morning. Just as I feared, they said Samsung denied the warranty claim, and they want to charge me about $1210 to do the repair outside the warranty!

I looked at the panel closely last night, with a flashlight, and noticed the crack is in sort of a spiral or star-shaped pattern in the lower left-hand corner (just as others have described here). It just doesn't make any sense that this is happening to so many of these TVs where it's clear the outside of the set (including the outer glass panel) has no sign of damage! Even *if* Samsung wants to claim that some sort of impact caused these problems, the fact that such a light impact would do this type of damage is a clear indicator to me that they have a design flaw with their internal panels and how they're mounted in the sets! (It simply shouldn't be possible to crack the internal panel with a light bump or jarring of the TV that wouldn't even result in so much as a scuff or scrape mark on the outer plastic casing, much less any damage to the big piece of glass on the front of it!)

Maybe I'm just extremely lucky, or maybe enough people are starting to complain that Samsung is starting to do something .... but after Schneider sent Samsung their photos and told me the warranty claim was denied, I called Schneider TV back, asking if I could get a copy of any report they made, since I "wanted to appeal the decision with Samsung".

Schneider told me they didn't really have any report to give me, and "all we did was upload the photographs to Samsung to attach to your existing case with them". (So that tells me they really don't "go to bat" for me, the consumer, in these situations at all. They just try to remain a neutral party. Disappointing, but I can't really blame them either - as it's clearly in their best interest to hold onto their status as the authorized Samsung TV service center in town.)

What they did do, just before hanging up on me, is provide me with a toll-free number for Samsung they suggested I call. They didn't tell me it was anything special, but when I called it, I found out it was the line for their executive offices. (Pretty sure that number was mentioned earlier in this message thread.) The lady who answered asked me for my case number and then put me on hold for several minutes. When she came back, she obviously read everything over, but gave me the same explanation that my "warranty claim was denied due to user damage". I stopped here there,saying "Well, that's my problem with all of this." and proceeded to explain how the TV was working one time, and refused to power on the next time, only 20 minutes later. I mentioned researching it online after we discovered the crack in the plasma screen and finding "over 200" instances of the same thing from people like me who insisted their set didn't suffer any impact first, and suggested "thermal expansion" as a possible cause, since "my set DOES get really hot when it's in use for a while". She listened to me patiently, but didn't say much to any of it except "I understand." and asked if I minded being placed on hold again "for 3 to 4 minutes". I said "No problem." and I think I wound up getting put on hold for about twice that length of time, with her breaking in for a second just to apologize for the delay and ask if I minded waiting a few more minutes.

After all that, she came back saying Samsung was prepared to offer me a "one time free panel replacement as a customer courtesy". (Note they refused to accept any fault!) They weren't willing to pay for the labor to install it (and in fact, said they couldn't tell me what that would cost since that would be up to the repair shop). Perhaps I could have pressed further to try to get them to pay that fee too, but I figured a $1,000 or so panel for free was pretty good -- given all the hassle others on here have reported. So I accepted, and was told to call Schneider back to schedule an appointment date. (Labor is about $240, BTW, according to them.)

My plasma stopped working, and I found this posting, and after reading through, I thought, well I'm stuck like Chuck. I attempted to contact Samsung, they were switching their support system and it took hours to connect to someone. At that time I reported the issue to BBB, on Tuesday night, Wednesday AM a case was opened, I got email confirmation from BBB and promptly, I got a call from Samsung main office in NJ. The person I spoke with gave me the case number, the shop assigned the issue. I called the shop, but they were on the phone with Samsung. I called back, and before the day was over, there was a tech at my door. He took the photos, and uploaded them on Thursday AM. By the afternoon, I got a call from the Samsung office, with an offer to replace the panel, and I would pay for the labor. Nothing to ponder, I love the set and the picture is fantastic, contacted the shop and the charge is $265. I agreed, next Saturday I should be back in business with my plasma. Having read some of the horror stories and figured I would take a number and join the line. But, I have to say, this has being the most pleasant experience dealing with any company, ever. I still can't believe this got taken care of in three days. (someone pinch me) Good luck to everyone, else.

I bought a samsung 42" plasma 720p 600hz TV on August 13th, 2010 and on July 17, 2011 an internal crack appeared on the TV with no one in the room or watching TV. I spent the past month on and off the phone with Samsung. They told me it was "point of impact" physical damage and they weren't obligated to fix it. Then I called Samsung's Executive Customer Relations and they helped me greatly! I talked on the phone with the executive member yesterday and he saw how long I had been talking to Samsung trying to get the problem resolved. He then told me he will do a straight swap for my current broken TV for a BRAND NEW Samsung 43" plasma. I am a college student that had to save to buy the first TV and the news of the exchange made my day. I don't know if this will work for other people but try calling the ECR (Executive Customer Relations) at 1-800-522-7341. They might be busy so you will have to wait 5 minutes tops. You are directly connected to a real person and not a computer when you call too. Good Luck everyone else!

My Screen Went like yours 2 hours out of the box. Took it to our local service agent after contacting Samsung and was told that You cracked it so no warranty.

They are calling me a liar. What do You do? argue with them? I have been told by a friend who does their service work in another town that this happens all the time and there has been others with these very same issues.

They are pathetic guttless misserable whimps that hide behind their worthless warranty. They know too well that people are not going to bother taking the matter further as it will cost them more time and money.

Shame Samsung Shame

Note: This post was edited by a forum moderator to edit out offensive language on 08/22/2011 at 11:55 AM PT

I was just contacted by P.C from Samung and they offered to pay for parts to repair my 58 b550 plasma that cracked in January. I called Schneider (the repair company) and asked them how much labor was and exactly what they were doing to fix this unit. I was told they were just replacing the glass panel and the TV should work after that. The labor was $240.00. I told them I was not happy with that and I would call Samsung back and tell them that I was denying their offer. If they just replace the panel the same issue will exist and the television will overheat and crack the panel again.

I called Samsung and said that was not good enough and that I wanted my $$$ back for the television because I would no longer have any of their products in my home. She told me the best they could do was to pay for parts and labor but they would never pay for the retail cost of the television or send me a new one. The Alternative dispute only forces them to repair the damaged item.

I grudgingly took the offer for them to pay for everything. I will be selling this television as soon as it is repaired. They can forget ever getting another dollar out of me. Before all of this I was going to get the
64 D7000. I purchased a new 65VT30 instead. Quite a bit more $$$ but I feel more comfortable about the purchase. Hopefully I can recoup some $$$$ with the selling of this television

I hope your new Panasonic 65VT30 gives you better service. Reports I've read rate it very high. It's reportedly very close to the now discontinued Pioneer KURO in performance. (Panasonic acquired Pioneer's KURO
plasma technology and Pioneer's plasma patents when they decided to got out of the TV business.)

All plasma's run hot. It's the nature of the beast. So don't count on the repaired Samsung being any cooler or quieter than it was before. As plasma's use neon & xenon gases, their power supplies have to put out relatively high voltages to "excite" (light up) those gases.

Good luck and let us know how the new Panny works out.