Good Repairer for a Samsung LCD TV???

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KaroriPete

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Topic # 73774 21-Dec-2010 22:00
Hi, Can anyone recommend the best place around Wellington to get a Samsung LCD TV repaired? The display has started switching off after a few seconds of operation - audio keeps running though. It had been doing it infrequently and I was putting it down to the T-Box being flakey, but tonight I disconnected everything except my Blu ray player and it was doing it after about 5 seconds. It will come back after a power cycle, but only for another 5 seconds or so. It's an M8 series which cost about $3.5K only three years ago and was pretty much top of the line at the time so I was expecting a bit more from it. Don't you love things that crap out for Christmas :( Anyway, any suggestions appreciated. Cheers, Pete.

timmmay

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Reply # 420188 21-Dec-2010 22:34
Call Samsung, they have their own repair team. 0800 SAMSUNG IIRC. Asus eee pad transformer iPod 2G Windows 7 PC Lots and lots of Nikon camera gear

Dreamy

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Reply # 420214 21-Dec-2010 23:58
My brother-in-law had this happen with a samsung tv as well. My nephew took the back off and IIRC it had bulging capacitors. He replaced them and it works great now, but not sure if you want to try the repair yourself. ~~Dream.Catcher~~ iPhone 4s 16 GB, Ipad2 32gb windows 7 computer

Beavis

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Reply # 420224 22-Dec-2010 06:05
Definitely speak to Samsung first. They can be very good about out of warranty problems, if you are nice! Next Electronics (and their agents) are the warranty service providers for Samsung. Peter

Ragnor

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Reply # 420336 22-Dec-2010 11:24
Consumer say the expected life of a LCD TV is ~10 years, you should be able return it to the either the retailer or manufacturer for repair/replacement/refund under the CGA. If they refuse, you can take them to the disputes tribunal and historically you will almost certainly win if they are not honouring their obligations under the CGA. However, it comes down to whether you can be bothered spending the time to do that stuff (arguing with retailers/samsung, lodging complaint etc). Try and find out the repair cost, if the repair cost is small enough many people will just pay it and get the thing repaired asap.. Comes down to how much you value your personal time.

KaroriPete

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Reply # 420383 22-Dec-2010 12:18
Thanks everyone, I've spoken to Samsung Customer Care. They referred me to Next, and advised me to ask them to request an OTA - One Time Authorisation for the repair to be covered by Samsung. The guy obviously couldn't make any promises, but he did say it would get consideration due to it being their top of the range model at the time. He also said they don't see a lot of faults in that particular series, so fingers crossed. Just got to find that damned proof of purchase now.... Cheers, Pete.

Dunnersfella

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Reply # 420702 22-Dec-2010 22:31
Ragnor: Consumer say the expected life of a LCD TV is ~10 years, you should be able return it to the either the retailer or manufacturer for repair/replacement/refund under the CGA. If they refuse, you can take them to the disputes tribunal and historically you will almost certainly win if they are not honouring their obligations under the CGA. However, it comes down to whether you can be bothered spending the time to do that stuff (arguing with retailers/samsung, lodging complaint etc). Try and find out the repair cost, if the repair cost is small enough many people will just pay it and get the thing repaired asap.. Comes down to how much you value your personal time. As an aside, the CGA's historical rulings are not binding in any way, shape or form. And saying that LCD TV's should last 10 years is pretty much playing fast and loose with the genre. Heck, a DSE or Warehouse special won't be considered of an equal level to a top end Sony / Samsung etc. I think the OP should stand a good chance of being looked after if anything goes pear shaped and requires a visit to a tribunal... as the TV was a top of the line model. After all, the price paid does matter under the CGA.

mattwnz

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Reply # 420717 22-Dec-2010 22:47
Dunnersfella: As an aside, the CGA's historical rulings are not binding in any way, shape or form. And saying that LCD TV's should last 10 years is pretty much playing fast and loose with the genre. Heck, a DSE or Warehouse special won't be considered of an equal level to a top end Sony / Samsung etc. I think the OP should stand a good chance of being looked after if anything goes pear shaped and requires a visit to a tribunal... as the TV was a top of the line model. After all, the price paid does matter under the CGA. Just because something is on special and you pay a lot less than the RRP, doesn't mean that you have less chance of it being covered by the CGA. The RRP is a better guide than the actual end price paid. Otherwise, why should you be disadvantaged for shopping around and getting a good deal. Samsung are supposed to be one of the top brands, and a good brand of TV should last longer than 3 years. Boxing day specials are in a few days.

Dunnersfella

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Reply # 421093 23-Dec-2010 19:47
I didn't say it wouldn't? I said that price paid does matter... As the CGA mentions: g) the price (where relevant): They do not mention RRP or the price you paid for the TV. The CGA is full of vague wording. Wording that is, just quietly, AWESOME! And yeah, the vague wording of the act can work in our favour, or it can work against us - dependent on the person ruling on the case. I believe the OP will be treated well in this case, but for a magazine like Consumer to make blanket statements like 'an LCD should last 10 years' is foolish at best. To me, that's just printing things that their subscribers want to read. Consumer is um... an interesting read at times, they certainly do their best to provide a good basic grounding to issues, but, they aren't the be-all-end-all. Just my $0.10.

Ragnor

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Reply # 421128 23-Dec-2010 21:40
Well I agree much of consumers content is meh but the stuff on consumer rights and the article on expected lifetime of appliances is pretty good imo.. It's based on economic life stats from manufacturers and their own annual reliability survey data. The article can and has been used as evidence in disputes tribunal cases. How else are you going to come up with reasonable lifetime figures... just guess or make it up?