This is the second HDTV that has quit on me in a little over two years. The first was a 37-inch Polaroid, which suddenly faded to black one afternoon while my wife was watching her favorite soap opera, and never worked again. When Polaroid refused to fix the practically new TV because the warranty had expired, my wife and I decided to buy a new set. After researching TV's on the Internet, we agreed on Samsung. According to what we read on the computer, Samsung was producing a good, durable TV with superior picture quality. I've learned the hard way you can't believe everything you read about a product online.
Neither TV was cheap. The Polaroid set us back $900 dollars while the Samsung was over $1,200. In case you're wondering, no I didn't purchase the extended warranty. When you fork over that much money for something, it should last longer than a year. Besides most of the electronic appliances in our home cost less than the TV's and their still working fine. I would have never dreamed I'd have a problem with the sets.
Because my wife and I can't afford to buy a new TV every year, my only option is to fix the Samsung TV. I called an electronics shop the other day and they estimated the repair to be around $400. The repairman went on to say he was fixing a lot of these type of sets and suggested that he didn't think the technology was where it should be. Meanwhile, my TV worked for only a little over 420 days and I'm going to be out $400. That's about the same price of one of the warranty's they offered me when I bought the set, so fortunately I didn't lose any money by not purchasing the extended service contract.
Evidently, Samsung doesn't believe it will hurt their bottom line to have a few dissatisfied customers, or they would have agreed to repair my TV. Who knows, maybe they think it's more important to spend bundles of money promoting NASCAR races than customer service. However, in the long run, it's the customers that can make or break a company. For instance, a few days after I brought my TV home I was so impressed with the picture quality I called my Dad and convinced him to buy a Samsung TV. That will never happened again. I'm through with them now. Also, I have a lot of aunts, uncles and cousins who are about to purchase new HDTV's, and I will not recommend their product to anybody.
Companies should not underestimate the power of their customers. I don't expect them to try to take care of unreasonable complaints, but they should be willing to do all in their power to resolve a legitimate concern. One dissatisfied customer can make them lose a lot more money than it would have cost them to just fix the problem.
Post a Comment
