Samsung forum: 50" Plasma Horizontal Line, Cheaper to buy new than fix.

I'm sure you know that out of warranty laptop and other gear is often more than a new device. Even I opted for a 5 year warranty on our last set.

Laptops have dropped so low in cost that I didn't extend the warranty.
Bob

There's another system that I wish they could try such as refurb exchanges. But if you've been in the repair biz (I owned PC repair shops long ago) some folk are picky about what they get on the exchange. I might call the machine exchange a good deal if the replacement is very similar to the original. I know about such where the owner got a better set but it had one less HDMI port and they were in flames about that even though it was a much better set.

Maybe that turned the maker off the exchange system.

This issue looks like it's not going to get better as you read
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/cracking-open/five-things-you-should-know-before-trying-to-fix-a-smartphone-or-tablet/617

After running shops for years I went back to product design and we were always wrestling with exchanging repair-ability versus product cost. To make something repairable may add connectors, cables, screws and more FRUs. In a few recent designs, due to cost reduction demands we had to throw out repair and move to a single board with just the bare connections and no user or field replaceable parts. If it's dead you swap the one lone board and move on. Since labor to do that is more than the case, you just replace the box and board.

You can imagine one client didn't like that so we replace the board, save the box and charge them more for the repair. Youch!
Bob

Most of the products you see in displays are not serviceable. Sure there's a big board or two but if the panel goes, that item out of warranty means the end of that device.

Do you remember the early days of Color TV? When the makers had issues with few year CRTs? This is history repeating itself. I was hoping for a gov watchdog to notice that current 5 year designs that are on the shelf but as it stands it appears that this government is not for the people.
Bob (on soap box)