# Samsung TV manufacturer warranty & Best Buy [Question/Rant]



## dekciW

So last black friday or roughly a couple days before black friday. Me and my lady went to best buy to get a Samsung TV because it was on sale. The TV is a Samsung PN51D530A3FXZA and the sale was $350 Off. The retail price before the sale and every where else at the time was $999.99+ even says reg price $999.99 on our receipt, we walked out the door with the TV for $713.61 w/tax. About 6 months into owning the TV the screen poops out and the TV will no longer turn on. We call Samsung and they send out their guy which took about 2 weeks for him to come he was gonna come 2 times and fell through both times, finally after repeated calls answered with excuses and no shows he comes.

So he takes it apart and verifies its the screen. He reports back to Samsung and tells us its gonna take a while for him to order the parts. We get no word for about 3 weeks, so she calls him and he says the parts are gonna take a while to arrive which it had already been a while without TV... So she calls Samsung again and they tell her that they were gonna have to exchange it for a new model of the same TV for whatever reason. So that's when they said they could either ship it here and the guy would drop off the new one and take the old one or ship it to best buy and we drop off the old one and pick up the new which to us was the better choice because we already had bad blood with this guy... She said to send it to bestbuy..So it took about a month since they said they would submit an exchange request which was the 16th of last month so about a month. And they said best buy would call us upon its arrival. So over the next month she checks in and it says its been shipped and awaiting arrival at the destination. We are given no tracking number or anything just told that on arrival best buy will call us so we can do the exchange.

So today she called (because we had not yet received any word pertaining to the TV other then the above) to see what was going on and they come back with oh we don't carry that model anymore so you'll have to exchange for something of equal value and if you want to upgrade *you'll have to pay the difference* which makes sense because its an upgrade. Now here's where things take a turn for the worst, They told her they stopped making the models in March/April Which was around the time we contacted them. Now if the model was discontinued why did they say they were gonna fix it and then fall through on that saying they were gonna replace it with the same model and that it had been shipped, Only to finally tell us it was no longer in manufacturing, from the time we had submitted the warranty claim?

So Anyways they say to take the TV to Best Buy to do the warranty replacement with a new TV, So we go to Best Buy and ask what is the equivalent to the TV we had they tell us its this one PN51E530A3FXZA which is $799.99 and exactly the same in every way in terms of specs other then I quote the best buy sales man " It is an E series so it uses a better panel and has a little better picture then yours". Now I said to the guy "when we bought this TV it was a $999.99 TV so which is the current $999.99 TV?" (We didn't pay $999.99 but that was because of a sale not because of a price drop.) he says "its the one I was looking at earlier the PN51E550A3FXZA" So I ask whats the difference is between the 2 models and he tells me the 550 has support for netflix/web bs and 3D support otherwise its the same, but that it would be an upgrade to the one we already have because its a different model number 550 instead of 530. So I say ok well if thats all it has since we use neither of those features we will go with the 530 he then tells us that we will have to pay the $150 dollar difference after tax in order to get the TV because technically its an upgrade to the D series we owned and we only payed $713.61 for our TV. We tell him well the D series is no longer carried so why are we stuck paying the difference on a warranted TV that Samsung can't replace and honor the warranty on? He says well we can only give you a credit amount for the amount you paid when you bought your D series TV...(I was like ***!?) So I told him I was gonna call Samsung this time and get myself involved because there is no way we are paying extra for a TV that Samsung is supposed to warrant, but cant follow through on their warranty on.

In their warranty they state that their obligations are
Quote:


> "During the applicable warranty period, provided the Product is returned in accordance with the terms of this Limited Warranty, *SAMSUNG will repair or replace the Product, at SAMSUNG'S sole option, without charge*. "


So far they have failed to comply with any of their obligations on replacement/repair & Making us Pay the difference to get the TV replaced with a newer one, because they can't replace it with our model sure sounds like a charge to me, especially since its not through our own choice to have it replaced with a newer model it is being forced on us because the older model no longer exists.. I've RMA'd an SyncMaster T190 already with Samsung that was 2 years old that I bought from circuit city when it was going out of business and they had no problem fixing it and sending it back to me quickly so I'm puzzled as to Samsung's actions taken on this TV and it frustrates me because we haven't been able to watch any movies for the last 6 months because of this, and they've been running us around in circles for the last 6 months most likely to run out the warranty...

So I guess I just want to know your guys thoughts/Suggestions on this before I call them tomorrow and chew some ass, but politely. Basically what I'm gonna tell them is either replace the TV with a current TV of equal or lesser value of the ACTUAL retail value of the TV we bought when we bought it, Since you've already told us you can't repair/replace the TV we own. OR refund our money because we are taking our business elsewhere.


----------



## fapestar

okay firstly, you are no longer dealing with Samsung's Warranty policies, you are dealing with Best Buys.

However, why are you dealing with Best Buy's policy when your returning it under Samsung's policy.

You need to bring them the documentation of Samsung warranty and if they have authorized an exchange than they need to go according to Samsung's warranty.

If Samsung contacted Best Buy and said to return the T.V. under their warranty you need to look at Best Buy's policy not Samsung...which in this case sounds like what happened.

Best Buy's warranty is actually called a service plan.

Now I can't find the Plan information...but the way it was explained to me is, if it can't be fixed they will swap it for a tv of equal specs....but he explained it to me under the assumption that the specs would be slightly outdated and there is no way the TV would cost more.

I did not read the service plan information, but I suggest you read the whole thing and get the corporate numbers you need and prepare to complain quoting from both Best buy's service plan and Samsung's warranty.

I will add tough....you are pushing it...i.e. fooling yourself if you think they are gonna trade it for something that is the MSRP even tough your receipt says you payed less.

If I were you I'd just spend the money. It took me almost 2 months and 15 hours on the phone and 30 bux in gas trying to get Sam's Club to honor their Old Policy, which was current when I was their.

If they give you problems, 150 bux is nothing compared to the 300 bux I would have had to spend to buy and replace my own main board....I also spent and entire day trying to fix the main board myself.


----------



## dekciW

Idk why wer dealing with best buy instead of samsung. The only reason best buy was involved in the warranty claim at all was because they were just the acting middle man for the TV replacement. For some reason they told us to go to best buy because there was no replacement and that best buy would show us the TV's we got to choose from as a replacement, so we went to best buy and we were told the above. We cant afford to pay $150 more and even if we could we shouldnt have to because samsung cant honor their warranty obligation. The TV failed within warranty we made our claim within warranty it is up to samsung to replace the faulty product within their warranty statement, which they have failed to do so far.

The MSRP thing I'm not worried about as long as I get a TV that is equal or better to the one we had, The closest model is the one I mentioned, which I'm more then happy receiving, but I shouldnt have to pay for it just because they dont carry the old model anymore...I'm even happy with just getting the unit replaced with the same older model we have its not a big deal. But since they want to play games with me then im gonna play games back with them, especially since they have wasted my time which is unrefundable or replaceable. If they work with me and I do get the TV upgraded or not I do if not I dont I wont lose anything just as long as the issues is resolved, and the TV gets replaced.

The reason I am frustrated is 1 because samsung ran us around in circles telling us that parts were going to be shipped, and never were. Then they say a replacement was going to be shipped and even told us that our replacement HAD been shipped only to tell us that the TV had not been manufactured since the beggining and nothing was ever shipped. Yet they told us all of this when they actively knew that the model wasnt being made anymore...which means nothing they told us had been done, had actually been done. Then 2 they send us to best buy to get our replacement because they dont carry our model anymore and best buy is telling us that our replacement is an upgrade and that we have to pay to claim out warranty?! So now we are being forced into an upgrade, because samsung cant come through on their warranty?


----------



## fapestar

I understand what you are saying. Get in contact with thier corporate office now since it's friday...so you don't have to wait until monday...which they will probably make you wait until monday for a response anyway.

And go down their and take to the manager face to face and tell them you are not exchanging under best buy's policy, but best buy has been authorized to exchange the tv under samsung's policy.

If it cost more...that' between Best Buy and Samsung. You are owed a straight up exchange. Make sure you bring them Samsung's warranty though and also highlight the relevant issues. And I mean literally with a highlighter. Did you talk to a manager or a Rep?


----------



## dekciW

Talked to a manager for the entire time then she left us with a floor man for going through the models we can choose from for exchange...

**EDIT So I called Samsung and got it all straightened out. They are doing the replacement now, so I'm just waiting on a call from the replacement people to tell me the replacement model. I should of just called them from the beginning, but I wasn't expecting it to turn into such a mess.







Anyways ill update the post with the replacement model when I get the info and then call it case closed.


----------



## TonyTonyChoppa

Just keep nagging for refund and dont buy samsung again.
If been their took me 1 year just because samsung acted ******ed.

Dont worry about not being able to find something better then samsung mostly everything is better then samsung.

acording to warranty they had to fix my tv if failing to do so they have to replace it they refused to do so and will tell whoever is fixing it to play corrupt game off TV is working as intended.

this happend to me ofc if kept nagging in the end store gave me a refund.


----------

